Saturday, May 17, 2025, Rich Feely

 Saturday Themeless by Rich Feely 

Rich's puzzle provided a real challenge which yielded to my "hunt and peck" strategy.

The fill in the NW had some fun learning (TOUCH GRASS) and cleverISH cluing that took some time.

The SW where I finished also took some effort with obscure-to-me names ATOP each other but it was very satisfying 😳 when I got the Congratulations message.

Across:

1. Toss: SCRAP - Modern slang of YEET was only four letters and PITCH didn't work.

6. "The Sound of Music" backdrop, briefly: WWII - ALPS joined PITCH from 1 Across as "close but no cigar".

Baron von Trapp shows
his feeling towards Nazis

10. Start and end of New Mexico's Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway: TAOS.

14. "Put your phone down": TOUCH GRASS - 😀 I had no idea but it made perfect sense when I filled in the last letters. It means "get off your devices and go out in the real world".

 

16. Side with?: ABUT.

17. Quarterfinalists: ELITE EIGHT - The winners of these games went to the Final Four. Rumor has it that EIGHT TEAMS would have worked too.

18. French head: TETE.

19. Chaps: MEN.

20. Folder's forfeit: ANTE - You paid to see the cards and if you fold your hand you forfeit that money.  This is statistically the worst starting cards in Texas Hold 'Em.

and 11. Payment guarantee?: A BET IS A BET.

21. Polite gesture: HAT TIP.

23. "Say no more": I SEE.

24. Lollygags: DALLIES

25. Some memory triggers: AROMAS - The pungent AROMA of alfalfa being dehydrated filled the summer air in my misspent youth. It still triggers great memories.

28. Feels for: PITIES.

29. Lightweight material: LINEN - Leonardo di Caprio looking cool in LINEN as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.

30. Unconscious __: BIAS.

31. "And there you have it": TADA.

34. Happy accident: A FEATURE NOT A BUG.

37. Connected by a common thread: SEWN 😀

38. Take into account: NOTE - Duly NOTED.

39. Two-time WNBA MVP __ Delle Donne: ELENA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

40. Time for curls: ARM DAY - It is recommended that you alternate

42. UNESCO City of Literature in Devon: EXETER - Exeter is a city in the county of Devon.

43. Multifaceted: LAYERED.

45. Sheep sounds: BAAS.

46. One vertex of the Summer Triangle: ALTAIR - A gimme for us astronomy peeps. Like the Big Dipper, it is an asterism not a constellation. 

47. Cobra or bridge surfaces: MATS.

48. Sign of success: SRO - Husker VB is the only women's NCAA sport to make a profit thanks to its string of 376 consecutive sellouts that feature Standing Room Only crowds.

51. Designer Lagerfeld: KARL - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

52. Uninterested in the party scene, perhaps: APOLITICAL.

55. Comedian Wakim who is the first Lebanese American cast member of "SNL": EMIL. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

56. Texter's "Hey, boo": GHOST EMOJI - 👻

57. Viscous: ROPY - In Earth Science we call this ROPY lava pahoehoe (pun hoy hoy) lava.

58. Chef Lewis who specialized in Southern cooking: EDNA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

59. City on the Nile north of Lake Nasser: ASWAN.

Down:

1. Cherry picker's target: STEM.

2. 2023 AL Cy Young winner Gerrit: COLE.

3. Demolish: RUIN.

4. Pretend: ACT.

5. Gallinaceous bird native to Eurasia: PHEASANT - Some Nebraska landowners open their ground to PHEASANT hunting when they are in season.

Tekamah, Nebraska

6. Dash off: WRITE - I try to dash off a reply as quick as I can when I get an email

7. Pay: WAGE.

8. "Plus or minus": ISH - My solve time for this puzzle was 30ISH minutes

9. Skeptical response: IS THAT SO.

10. Folks who tend to give things away: TATTLE TALES 

12. Navel type: OUTIE.

13. Tally on some trackers: STEPS.

On an Apple Watch

15. Small inheritance?: GENES.

22. Boxing legend: ALI.

23. "They cannot be serious": I MEAN REALLY.

24. Guerrero of "Doom Patrol": DIANE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

25. Sigh of woe: ALAS.

26. Teeming (with): RIFE.

27. Journey in a relocation: ONE WAY TRIP 😀

28. Devotion: PIETY.

30. Overarching: BROAD - The overarching goals of athletic teams is to win a championship.

32. Timothée Chalamet epic set on a desert planet: DUNE - The star at top center ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

33. Petri dish gelatin: AGAR.

35. In the minority?: UNDER AGE 😀

36. Crude, slangily: TEXAS TEA - I sent these TV theme lyrics below to my 28-yr-old granddaughter and asked if she had ever heard them before. She quickly replied, "No". Sigh... The show is at the bottom of this write-up.*

Come and listen to my story
'Bout a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer,
Barely kept his family fed.
And then one day
He was shootin' at some food,
And up through the ground came a-bubblin' crude.
Oil that is, black gold, TEXAS TEA.

41. CT scan kin: MRI.

42. Fail big-time: EAT IT.

43. Former Minneapolis NBA player: LAKER - I am old enough to remember when the LAKERS played in Minneapolis in the 50's and their star was George Mikan who is seen below at the right with Kareem and Shaq. In 1960, the LAKERS took the team and the nickname westward although LA is not known for any significant lakes.

44. Site of Crockett's last stand: ALAMO - A silent movie version. I remember Fess Parker and John Wayne playing that role later.

45. Material for crafts and rafts: BALSA.

47. New __: MOON - Ten days from now, the Moon will "rise" with the Sun and will not be able to be seen all day. As I have told thousands of students, the MOON is not in the evening sky every night.

48. Garbage barge: SCOW.

49. Indian royal: RAJA can be RANA also

50. Actor/director Ken: OLIN - I remember him as Det. Harry Garibaldi (far right) in the fabulous Hill Street Blues.

53. High deg.: PHD.

54. Uses Kik, say: IMS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

* Jed Clampett and family after they discovered and cashed in on their TEXAS TEA.

Saturday, August 10, 2024, Rich Feely

 Themeless Saturday by Rich Feely

I blogged Rich's LA Times debut in April and now he is back with this challenge. I zoomed through the NE and SE and had to fish around to earn my "got 'er done" on the western side.

Across:

1. Trust-worthy figure: HEIR.😀 - Many of my golf buddies are recommending we set up an irrevocable trust for our two HEIRS.

5. Guardians, on scoreboards: CLE - In 2021 the Cleveland Indians became the Guardians.

8. Daytime fare: SOAPS.

13. Item that may bring a room together: ACCENT RUG.

16. Accustom: INURE.

17. Deep-sea pod cast?: WHALE SONG 😀 - Whales are deep-sea animals whose "singing" can be done by a pod of whales acting as a cast

18. __ four: PETIT.

19. Offensive deception?: NO-LOOK PASS.

21. Patches, in a way: SODS 😀 

22. Goons: APES.

23. Fugitive's request: HIDE ME - Rick sticks his neck out for no one

25. Withstood: ABIDED.

28. Early Sony devices: BETA CAMS - Our video guy said a BETA CAM was the future and so we bought one. Everyone else went VHS and we soon had a white elephant. 

30. Creed: TENET.

31. Sent in: FILED - Today reporters simply send in/FILE stories from their computers. Before the digital age, reporters had to either call in their stories or drive to the newsroom to type it out to FILE it.

32. Also: TOO.

33. Maintain: HOLD - An air traffic controller might tell a pilot, "Maintain present heading and altitude" which means "fly straight and level"

34. Invoices: BILLS.

35. St. whose Charter Oak fell in 1856: CONN - An interesting story about a 650 year old tree

36. __ pro nobis: ORA - Pray for us

37. Fathers: SIRES - Secretariat had seven of his progeny in the 2023 Kentucky Derby

38. Family nickname: AUNTY - Clara Blandick played Dorothy's AUNITE Em

39. Elements of love and hate: SILENT E'S - 🙄 My last fill as the meta cluing hit me

41. Actress Cuthbert: ELISHA.

42. Sole protector?: GALOSH - Around here we use them in pairs and call them "five-buckle overshoes".

43. NASA __: research center in Silicon Valley: AMES.

44. Third novel in Marilynne Robinson's "Gilead" series: LILA.

45. "Just watch me!": YOU BET I CAN.

50. __ purchases: IN APP - Put simply, an IN-APP purchase is something that you buy when using an app on your computer or mobile device. 

52. Five-spice powder ingredient: STAR ANISE - Five spice is a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds.

53. Clerical home: MANSE.

54. "No sweat": EASY PEASY.

55. "The __ Scrolls": video game series: ELDER - If you have ever played or heard of this game, that makes one of us.

56. Sound before the orchestra begins: SHH.

57. 2020 NL batting champion: SOTO.

Juan Soto

Down:

1. Russell's "The Christmas Chronicles 2" co-star: HAWN - Kurt Russell and his longtime companion Goldie HAWN

Rotten Tomatoes Audiences
gave it a 44%

2. Fifth letter of the NATO alphabet: ECHO.

3. Bygone scheduling app: ICAL.

4. Added to a card, e.g.: RELOADED - Chuck E Cheese calls it recharging, just bring your credit card to pay for more games

5. Makes a borderline call: CROPS - Yours truly changing  the borderline in cropping this picture of me talking to 500 kids.

 

6. Moon goddess: LUNA.

7. Source of calcium and magnesium in compost: EGG SHELLS.

8. Taste: SIP.

9. "Hang on": ONE SEC.

10. Robotic sorts: AUTOMATONS - Disney has thousands of them

11. When Obergefell v. Hodges was issued: PRIDE MONTH - Obergefell v. Hodges: On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that the 14th Amendment requires all states to license marriages between same-sex couples and to recognize all marriages that were lawfully performed out of state.

12. Groups at the gym: SETS.

14. Tamagotchi alternative: NEOPET.

                          

15. Expressed impatience: TSKED.

20. Lots to build on: SITES - How bout these SITES to build on in Italy?

24. "Hi hungry, I'm __": DAD 😀

25. Literary musketeer: ATHOS.

26. "March to the beat of your own drum!": BE ORIGINAL.

27. Checked out: IN LALA LAND 😵 Where Mike Tyson put a lot of boxers

28. Gymnast honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022: BILES.

29. Posthumous "General Hospital" Daytime Emmy winner Eddy: SONYA - Fellow cast member and Emmy winner Robert Gossett paid tribute to the late SONYA in his acceptance speech.

31. Items that wind up on red trucks: FIRE HOSES - Wind up 😀

34. Quite wee: BITSY.

35. Cookbook categories: CUISINES.

37. __-cone: SNO.

38. Public house fixture: ALE TAP.

40. Go by: ELAPSE.

41. __ board: EMERY.

43. Humiliate: ABASH - You have the option to remain unabashed

44. Green shade: LIME.

46. Jazz venue: UTAH - The team kept the nickname when it moved from New Orleans just like the Los Angeles kept the name Lakers when they moved from Minneapolis. UTAH is not known as a hotbed for jazz and LA has very few lakes compared to Minneapolis. 

47. Parting word: CIAO.

48. Second: Abbr.: ASST.

49. "Self Explanatory" R&B artist: NEYO.

51. A pop: PER - We buy bottled water at a big box store for $.15 but at this game they are $3.50 a pop.