Themeless Saturday by Matthew Stock and Pravan Chakravarthy
Matthew Stock has another collaboration, this time with Pravan Chakravarthy. Matthew is an 8th grade math teacher in Gainesville, FL. and he put me in contact with Pravan who was kind enough to tell us this:
I grew up in New Jersey and am currently a sophomore in college at the University of Chicago, where I’m studying linguistics and physics. Outside of classes I’m on the crossword team of the Chicago Maroon, and like long-distance running and writing/playing music. I’ve been solving crosswords since middle school, but didn’t seriously get into constructing until early 2020. It was around this time I met Matthew, who’s given me an incredible amount of advice on the art and science of puzzlemaking, and without whom this puzzle would not exist!
1. Works on the margins, perhaps: SAVES PAPER - I thought of page formatters and retail sellers before this:
11. Water color: CYAN.
15. "Were you followed here?": ARE WE ALONE.
16. Hold sway: RULE.
17. Ambitious workers: CAREERISTS - I've never seen it but it makes sense
16. Hold sway: RULE.
17. Ambitious workers: CAREERISTS - I've never seen it but it makes sense
18. Wasatch Mountains resort: ALTA.
19. Oscar-nominated biopic about a Supreme Court justice: RBG.
20. "Your Movie Sucks" author: EBERT.
21. Dial on old TVs: VERT.
22. Disney princess from Avalor: ELENA.
25. Choler: IRE - I've only seen in cwd's
26. Pt. of VAT: VALUE - VALUE Added Tax
27. Ditches: DESERTS.
29. Cocktails flavored with orgeat syrup: MAI TAIS - Orgeat syrup
31. Actor Millen of "Orphan Black": ARI - Of all the ARI's in the world, Matt, Pravan and/or Patti chose this one
32. Change in holiday entertainment?: GELT - Chocolate candy in the shape of coins, usually wrapped in metallic foil, usually eaten on Hanukkah and often used for games of dreidel.
32. Change in holiday entertainment?: GELT - Chocolate candy in the shape of coins, usually wrapped in metallic foil, usually eaten on Hanukkah and often used for games of dreidel.
33. "Spring forward" letters: DST.
34. Small wing nut: LEPIDOPTERIST - Getting butterfly "nut" was the key to my completing the puzzle
38. "A __ upon thee!": POX - A first class literary put down
39. Checks: VETS.
40. Sticker in a cushion: PIN.
41. Black Friday exhortation: ACT FAST.
43. Made a course standard: SHOT PAR - Normal for some, a goal for me
47. Burnett who appeared on the final season of "Better Call Saul": CAROL - I can't wait to see how this came about
48. Actress Longoria: EVA.
50. Pink bear in "Toy Story 3": LOTSO - For LOTSO huggin'
51. Of all time: EVER - Candidates for best EVER in their sport
52. Puffed up: PROUD - Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. 1 Corinthians 13:4
54. __-free: container label: BPA - All you'd ever want to know
55. Capital on the Gulf of Guinea: LOME - It's about a 4-hr drive from Accra, the capital of Ghana, to LOME, the capital of Togo
59. Son of Hera: ARES.
60. Wildly incompatible: POLES APART - MILES APART is not wildly incompatible, it's just wrong here
61. __ control: PEST.
62. "Studying, simplified" website: SPARKNOTES - This looks like a good site.
Down:
1. "Is nothing __?": SACRED.
2. Ready for field work: ARABLE - Oh, the ground itself is declared ready for field work
3. Teeters (on): VERGES.
4. Meryl Sheep of "Sesame Street," for one: EWE.
5. Date: SEE.
6. Cut (down): PARE.
7. Outs: ALIBIS
8. Someone who's all style and no substance: POSER
10. Musical pause: REST - Do you know what song is being referenced here (*answer at bottom): Phillips said that he wrote the song quickly, in about 20 minutes. The song includes a pregnant pause before the coda, which modulates up a semitone.
11. Necktie: CRAVAT.
12. Icelandic gift-givers of lore: YULE LADS - All you want to know about these creatures of 17th century Iceland.
13. Selfless sort: ALTRUIST.
14. Marie Kondo superlative: NEATEST.
23. With 28-Down, twice-daily occurrences: NEAP and 28. See 23-Down: TIDES.
24. End of a Google Maps route calculation: ARRIVAL my 32. Way finder: GPS arrival time is sometimes too late because speed limits are just a suggestion for me sometimes
26. Bile: VITRIOL - See choler above
30. First Hebrew letter: ALEPH.
34. Neighborhood diner?: LOCAVORE - Portmanteau #2
35. Absolute ends: EXTREMES - Nebraska sumer and winter temperatures
36. Treat with DJ Tropicool and Louie-Bloo Raspberry flavors: OTTER POP - Not around here
37. Wild about: INTO.
38. Warmup stretch: PACE LAP - The red car is leading these NASCAR vehicles in the pace lap and it is not allowed to go over 45 mph
42. Sylvan area: FOREST.
43. Flying __: SAUCER.
44. WWII craft: PT BOAT - You can buy this Revell kit for $23 and build a model of the famous PT 109 that was commanded by JFK
46. Cooks slowly: ROASTS.
49. "You can clap now!": VOILA - A clear blue sky and some nice home editing allows this guy to say VOILA.
52. Fires (up): PEPS.
53. Gloaming: DUSK.
57. Akira Kurosawa's retelling of "King Lear": RAN - Ran (ä¹±, transl. "chaos" or "turmoil")
58. Shares time, for short?: IPO - When a company goes public and offers shares for sale.
*That song with the pregnant pause is Monday, Monday written by John Phillips for The Mamas and Papas
