google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Pawel Fludzinski

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Showing posts with label Pawel Fludzinski. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pawel Fludzinski. Show all posts

Sep 8, 2022

Thursday, September 8, 2022, Pawel Fludzinski

 



Good morning Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee, here, with today's puzzle recap.  Our puzzle setter today is Pawel Fludzinski. There is information about Pawel to be gleaned if you perform a web search.  If you include the words Crossword Corner in the search terms, the returns should include past Crossword Corner writeups containing quite a bit of information thanks to the efforts of Husker Gary.


Today's puzzle features a word ladder that leads us from HATE to LOVE.  A word ladder puzzle is one in which a given word is converted into another by way of a series of words each formed by changing just one letter of its predecessor.


Let's start with the unifier:


73 Across:  Mushy message, and the end of a sequence that progresses through the answers to the starred clues: LOVE NOTE.  LOVE is the final rung on the ladder.

Here, marked with stars for our convenience, are the starting rung and the three intermediate rungs of the ladder:

1 Across:  *Mean message: HATE MAIL.  The initial rung is HATE.  We certainly do not want to end here.

27 Across:  *Occasion for hiring a babysitter: DATE NIGHT.  Change the H to D and we have DATE.

41 Across:  *"So Much to Say" Grammy winners: DAVE MATTHEWS BAND.   Change to T to V and we have DAVE.  For fans of the band:




53 Across:  *Fits together neatly: DOVETAILS.  At the risk of stating the obvious, changing the A to O gives us DOVE.  

Then at 73 Across change the D to L.


Here is a look at the completed grid:



. . . and the rest of the clues and answers: 

Across:

9. Administer an oath to: SWEAR IN.


16. 2018 SAG Life Achievement Award honoree: ALAN ALDA.  Eight letters four of which are A's.  A constructor's friend.  Perped.

17. Above it all, in a way: TALLEST.  A bit of an odd use of  "Above it all" unless you're talking about a mountain or a building.  Thanks for the "in a way" tipping us off to the clue taking a bit of liberty.

18. Featured dishes: SPECIALS.

19. Grassy expanse: PRAIRIE.  One night Johnny Carson got to talking about his Nebraska roots and he told this allegedly true story during a sketch scene. Johnny mentioned that the most fearsome Indian tribe were not the Sioux, nor the Apache or even the Comanche Indians. No they were the Fahkarwee tribe!

Johnny went on to explain,: Almost every wagon train that crossed the prairie on their trek to California were known to have their wagon masters and scouts constantly scanning the horizon ahead the entire trip asking, "Where the Fahkarwee?"

20. Impassive: DRY EYED.

22. Skewed view: BIAS.  I think that it is best to cut vegetables diagonally but I am BIASed

23. Walk leisurely: AMBLE.

29. Beers served with lime: CORONAS.



32. Grubhub link: MENU.  Grubhub says that it "is part of a leading global online food delivery marketplace."

33. Persia, today: IRAN.  Everything You Want To Know About The Change of Name

34. "Hidden Figures" org.: NASA.  "Hidden figures" is a movie about the early days of NASA and the contributions of a team of African-American women.

36. Jazz great who was the first African-American man to win a Grammy: BASIE.   The best motion picture cameo ever?

Blazing Saddles - 1974

45. Nocturnal sound: SNORE.

46. 50+ group: AARP.  Formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons.   It was formed in 1958 as a sister organization to the National Retired Teachers Association.  At its core,  an insurance marketing device.

47. Microsoft search engine: BING.  Used for about 2.5% of web searches worldwide.

48. Spring: LEAP.  Combine this answer with 3 Down and you get (see 3 Down).

51. Pungent cleanser: AMMONIA.  Why do chemistry students learn about AMMONIA first?  It's pretty basic stuff.

58. Put into words: UTTER.

59. Disney's "__ and the Detectives": EMIL.  First, it was (and still is) a book but I guess the movie is more widely known.



60. Hailed: GREETED.  Not the frozen precipitation.

History Of The World - Part I - 1981

63. Philadelphia school whose teams are the Explorers: LA SALLE.  The addition of the team name to the clue was helpful.

65. Lucrative venture: GOLD MINE.  What do you get when you drop a piano down a gold mine?  A flat minor.  No, not a person not yet of legal age.  See 71 down.

70. Harness racer: TROTTER.



71. Minor issue?: AGE LIMIT.  Clever cluing.  A minor is a person under the age of 18 or 21 depending on the issue at hand.

72. Stops: ARRESTS.  In criminal matters, ARRESTS sometimes follow stops,  in mountain climbing the terms are synonymous.




Down:

1. Consumes: HAS.  Eat?  Wrong tense.  Ate?  Wrong tense.  Aha, HAS.

2. Swiss mountain: ALP.

3. __ kwon do: TAE.

Tae Kwon Leap

4. Env. insert: ENC.  ENClosure in an Envelope

5. __ name: MAIDEN.  Usually, we get the answer NEE.

6. Banned fruit spray: ALAR.  Widely used as a growth regulator sprayed on apple trees.  It cut waste and labor by preventing the fruit from falling before it was ripe.  It also had toxic effects on humans.

7. Without much thought: IDLY.

8. Performed light surgery on?: LASED.  Light as in ray of light not as in minor.  Minor as in the opposite of  major not as in 71 Across.  Major not as in army rank.

9. Fla. recreation spot: ST PETE.  Recreation spot was a bit more misleading than simply referring to a city in Florida.

10. Norton in "The Shawshank Redemption," for one: WARDEN.  A great movie with Bob Gunton cast as Warden Norton William Sadler.



11. Portuguese feminine pronoun: ELA.  Why, in puzzles, does the use of Portuguese seem less fair than Spanish or French?

12. Excuse: ALIBI.

13. Outfit again: RERIG.  Usually referring to a seagoing vessel.

14. Whitlock Jr. of "The Wire" and "Veep": ISIAH.  As with ISIAH Thomas, there is some question as to whether the bestower of the name knew how to spell.

15. Arms treaty subj.: N TEST.  Nuclear TEST.  Unless, of course, you're George Bush.



21. Big name in pianos: YAMAHA.  Big name in motorcycles, too.

23. Corrosive compounds: ACIDS.

24. Colonel called "the second most dangerous man in London" by Sherlock Holmes: MORAN.  Second to Professor Moriarty, Colonel Sebastian "Basher" MORAN first appeared in the 1903 short story The Adventure of the Empty House.

25. "Way to go!": BRAVO.  If the clue was not in quotes, indicating something that someone might say, the answer might have been a synonym of ROUTE.

26. Introvert: LONER.

28. Worn-down pencils: NUBS.

30. Santa __ winds: ANA.  A bit of local SoCal meteorology that often blows through the puzzles

31. Posed (for): SAT.

35. Swingline insert: STAPLE.  Swingline is a brand of STAPLErs.



37. Cloister leader: ABBOT.  ABBESS was just a bit too long.

38. Canonized one: SAINT.

39. Concave navel: INNIE.

40. Painter Degas: EDGAR.   His first name is almost an anagram of his second.  He seems to have had a real affinity for ballet . . . or, at least, for ballerinas.



42. Cheesy sandwich: MELT.

Tuna Melt Sandwich


43. Pitching stat: ERA.  A baseball reference.  Earned Run Average.

44. Typing stat: WPM.  Words Per Minute

49. Young bird of prey: EAGLET.



50. Broadcasters: AIRERS.  Meh.

52. Confuse: MUDDLE.  I prefer to MUDDLE jalapenos.

53. Atlanta-based airline: DELTA.   Always highly ranked even in these trying flying times.

54. Astrologer Sydney: OMARR.   1926 - 2003  His column appeared in more than 200 newspapers.

55. Cap brim: VISOR.

56. Thrill to pieces: ELATE.

57. "The Goldbergs" actor George: SEGAL.



61. Like deli orders: TO GO.

62. Hgt.: ELEV.  Height  ELEVation.  The first of four abbreviations in a row.

64. Capt.'s underlings: LTS.  Second.  Captains and LieuTenantS.

66. Max. opposite: MIN.  Third.  Maximum  MINimum

67. "I think," in texts: IMO.  Fourth.  IMOpinion

68. Minor quibble: NIT.  At this point you may have had one to pick.

69. Bastille Day time: ETE.  French for summer.  Bastille day is celebrated on le 14 juillet.

A bientot,
le lamentin

P.S.   Pawelyou are invited to post anything you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever, in the Comments section below.  We'd love to hear from you.

P.P.S.  As the theme of today's outing ended up being LOVE, I could not pass on the opportunity to insert the following.   It was written by Chet Powers (who used the stage name Dino Valenti) but it was popularized by Jesse Colin Young's band, The Youngbloods.  Hmmm, maybe I should have gone with something by Arthur Lee's band, Love.  In any event, have a terrific Thursday and a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Get Together


___________________________________________




Jun 19, 2021

Saturday, June 19, 2021, Pawel Fludzinski

Saturday Themeless by Pawel Fludzinski  

I had a run of Pawel's wonderful themeless Saturday entries in 2019 and now I am so pleased to see him back again. His last Saturday puzzle that I blogged was on May 14, 2019 but in some correspondence we have had since then he said he had received notice on 1/1/21 that he had had a themeless accepted and figured with the usual six month lag time it would be a summer puzzle. Well, here it is, two days before the first day of summer.

Pawel did his doctorate and post doctorate work in organic chemistry and retired to Santa Fe, NM after 31 years of working for Eli Lilly in Pharmaceutical R and D. Eight of those years included stints in England and Japan. Since then Pawel has moved to Denver to be closer to his new work in Boulder. 

Here are his gracious and informative comments on this puzzle:

Hi Gary,

Thanks for reaching out - always enjoy your commentaries on Saturday puzzles!  Appreciate the time and effort you put into them.

Regarding the puzzle - I seem to have gravitated towards creating themeless puzzles - about 1/2 my overall effort, and probably 80% of recent efforts.  I went through a period of trying to create puzzles with rotational symmetry - the puzzle today was the 9th such effort, but the first one accepted anywhere.  Not surprising - the pandemic has led to a whole new group of excellent constructors, so the likelihood of acceptance, especially for a themeless, is pretty low.  I am pleased/humbled that this puzzle made the grade.

In constructing themeless puzzles, I build around seed entries.  Given the symmetry of this puzzle, I had a seed for each quadrant - INDEXCASE, AREWECOOL, SILENCERS and WORMHOLES - and then I completed the construction around them.  My only regret is that my favorite clue for these four seed entries is the only one that the editor did not keep - I suggested "Librarians, at times" for SILENCERS.   Perhaps my clue was too easy - I am happy to defer to the judgement of the editor.

On Thursday, Pawel added a very insightful addition about this puzzle and I have posted it at the bottom of this write-up! You will find it very interesting!!


Across:

1. Epidemiologist's "ground zero": INDEX CASE - Also called:


10. Swiss city that hosts the World Economic Forum annual meeting: DAVOS Here ya go

15. Tourist income source for some farmers: CORN MAZES - A high tech GPS device and a low tech mower made this famous Spanish artist into a CORN MAZE


16. Isfahan inhabitant: IRANI - A 4+ hr drive south of Tehran. 


17. Emphasized: IN ITALICS.

18. Big name in skin care: ARPEL.


19. Is sweet on: LOVES.

20. Field fare, briefly: MRE - My WWII dads and uncles would probably have preferred these Meals Ready to Eat to K-Rations.


21. Mother __: GOOSE - Mother Goose headline quiz

22. River through Flanders: YSER - A 48 mile long river that empties into the North Sea that saw violent fighting in WWI.


23. Good, to Guillermo: BUENO 
¡Este rompecabezas es muy bueno! (This puzzle is very good!) 
   
25. Wee warbler: WREN.

26. Grumps: MUTTERS - The verb not the noun

28. Mil. group integrated with male units in 1978: WAC.


29. Eli of "The Magnificent Seven": WALLACH - Eli got second billing but played the bad guy in this 1960 classic.


33. Fill: SATIATE.

35. El __ Pacífico: OCEANO.



















s36. Shredder: TEARER.

37. Sells to consumers: RETAILS.

39. Projecting architectural features: DORMERS - From the inside


40. Ed.'s inbox fillers: MSS - ManuScriptS (any port in a storm)

41. Genuine: SINCERE.

43. Cease: HALT.

45. Father-and-son actors: CAANS - Here is dad James working on Hawaii 5-0 as a guest star where son Scott has a role

James Caan                       Scott Caan

46. Vertical actions: BOBS - Ali BOBS and weaves














50. Chiwere speakers: OTOES 























52. Many a GI: PVT 

53. Solitaire measure: CARAT -  ~.007 oz 


54. "Glassheart" singer Lewis: LEONA Her IMDB

55. Many a recital piece: PIANO SOLO.

57. Twain's "Taming the Bicycle," e.g.: ESSAY A fun read


58. Depleted: EATEN INTO - Niagara Falls

















59. Flute features: STEMS - Oh those flutes!
60. "All good?": ARE WE COOL?



Down:

1. How an archrival might be greeted: ICILY - Brrr...














2. Faux pas: NONO'S - Some of the group above thought certain other members of the group had committed a faux pas.

3. Initiative: DRIVE.


4. Log: ENTER - Hourly employees have to log their hours

5. 'Tis the season: XMAS - XMAS ads usually start running around Labor Day

6. __ Poly Pomona: CAL.


7. Surveyor's measurement: AZIMUTH - Astronomer's too














8. Like Superman's alter ego: SECRET - Man! The glasses really fooled me!


9. Early Judaic sect: ESSENES - They are thought to be the authors of The Dead Sea Scrolls which were written ~2,000 yrs ago near Jerusalem  

10. Laptop screen meas.: DIAG - A woman here in town bought her husband a 50" DIAG TV and then put the old TV in the new box and set it out on her porch. Some porch pirate got a big surprise!

11. Feathered flier: ARROW - There's an ARROW in there somewhere!


12. Highly touted computer product we're still waiting for: VAPORWARE - Computer hardware or software that are announced but are not and may never be available. Bluetooth was VAPORWARE for quite a while

13. Kayak, typically: ONE SEATER - This one comes with a tightly fitted "spray skirt" to keep water out of the kayak


14. Brits' mufflers: SILENCERS - In America we call that tank on the right a muffler. The Brits call it a SILENCER


23. Pastoral: BUCOLIC.

24. Figures of speech?: ORATORS - My chem teacher's lab sign


26. Salon treatments: MANIS and pedis

27. Firewood measure: STERE.


29. Sci-fi passages: WORM HOLES - Remember the recent Michael Paleos' puzzle with these WORM HOLES in the grid?

30. Nails the exam: ACES A TEST.

31. Unties, maybe: LETS LOOSE - What's in the box Pandora?

32. Trout's team, on scoreboards: LAA - LA Angel Mike Trout is proof that one very highly paid superstar can not win a baseball championship 

34. 2007 Will Smith film "__ Legend": I AM - Meh...


38. Veggie with an edible pod: SNAP PEA.


39. Like many hibiscus leaves: DENTATE - Leaves that have a dental margin


42. Blini topper: CAVIAR - Blini (Russian pancake) topped with Crème Fraîche,  smoked salmon and Hackleback CAVIAR


44. Common brunch hr.: TEN AM.

46. Simple: BASIC - Also "Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". My first programming language

47. University town near Bangor: ORONO.



















48. Heroic 1920s sled dog: BALTO - BALTO got the most credit because he arrived in Nome with the serum but the real hero was the lead dog Togo who ran much further in much worse conditions.

Balto's statue in
NYC's Central Park

49. Potter's perch: STOOL.

51. Word before or after "who": SAYS - or SEZ

53. Geometric solid: CONE - We math teachers taught about CONES and Conic sections


56. Untested: NEW.

Pawel's extra "inside baseball" comments:

Gary,

I am working on another rotational themeless and I was reminded about your "inside baseball" comment.  An FYI - here is the worksheet I created for the NW corner of Saturday's puzzle - 

indexcaseindexcaseindexcaseindexcaseindexcaseindexcaseindexcaseindexcase
goodkarmacornmazescornmazescornmazescornmazescornmazescornmazessoupmixes
loggedoutoperafansbvitaminsimonadietinitalicsacademics/iesacademics/iesfreeagent
okiessegosmavenedwinlovesmaconramonoaten
oyesassnseerrenoyserelonelanrhos

 
 
 

iglooicosaicbmsiciericilyicameicareisfor
nookynopesnovaenomdenonosnocalnocalnorah
dogiedregsdrivedrowndrivedracodramadueto
edgesenronenterennioenterendonendonepees
xkesxmasxmanxmanxmasxmenxmenxman
cadcafcamcadcalcamcamcig

I found eight possibilities that worked, and then compared them two at a time to go from 8 to 4 to 2 to 1.  If I don't like any of them, I go back, tweak the black squares and then start over.   8 possibilities is a relatively low number - for the puzzle I am working on now , I started with  27 combos and gradually worked my way down.   I repeat the process for every corner, but a constructor has the most latitude with the first corner (usually the NW), since there are no other word constraints already in the puzzle.

Just some more "inside baseball" for you.

Pawel