Saturday, December 23, 2023, Will Eisenberg

 Saturday Themeless by Will Eisenberg

Will has had a lifelong love of language and wordplay. He has recently taken the leap from solving crosswords to constructing them. Professionally he plays and teaches the French horn. He is the current 3rd horn of Orchestra Iowa and a founding member of the Minnesota Horn Quartet. Will has performed extensively at home and abroad from New York to Italy and China including solo performances at Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis and the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage in Washington D.C.

I sailed along the top half of the puzzle as PARABOLA and the James Webb SPACE TELESCOPE were gimmes for this math and physics guy! 

Then I hit some speed bumps in the bottom half. My ignorance of puffy bread and hip-hop artists (Currier's partner worked that out) slowed the bottom but eventually it all came together and all was right in my puzzling world. PAN SAUCE and PATTER SONG also took some doing but I enjoyed the exercise and learning.

As you might have suspected with ADZ, LEX, AQUA and JEN, Will's puzzle is a pangram and you can see this in the chart below the grid.

Across:

1. Leather accessory: CHAPS - My first fill of PURSE didn't quite make it!

6. Sandbox game items?: PAILS.

11. Rangers home, familiarly: MSG.

 

14. Cocoon fillers: PUPAE.

15. Actress MacDowell: ANDIE - Name this fun movie that was one of the highest grossing films of 1993 where ANDIE co-starred with Bill Murray. (*answer at bottom)

16. Took a course?: ATE 😀

17. Ancient Greek market: AGORA - A familiar cwd shopping area

18. Fed. security: T-NOTE - This 1891 T-NOTE recently sold for $2.3M

19. MSNBC's "Inside With __ Psaki": JEN - Yesterday's JEN was more obscure. 

20. James Webb, for one: SPACE TELESCOPE.

23. Really feel the heat: BAKE - BOIL and BURN? Not so much...

24. Introduces an MGM film?: ROARS - In 1928, Jackie the Lion provided MGM's mascot Leo's roar.

25. Hosted: HAD OVER and 10. Shows the door: SEES OUT - Hello/Good Bye

28. Arrests: HAULS IN 😀 Ya gotta love the car Steve McQueen used in this movie where he played a bounty hunter.

30. __ Polytechnique: ECOLE - More We see the French word for school quite often.

31. "Severance" actor: SCOTT - Adam is definitely Saturday cluing for SCOTT

33. Source of local produce, for short: CSA.

34. __ regia: gold-dissolving substance: AQUA - Keep your doubloons out of this

35. Puffy deep-fried bread: POORI.

36. Muscles worked in pull-ups and pull-downs: LATS.

37. Spice blend: RUB.

BBQ DRY RUB MIX INGREDIENTS

This barbecue rub goes great on pork, chicken, burgers, and especially pork ribs! The best part is you probably already have all of these ingredients in your cupboard right now!

• Smoked Paprika
• Brown Sugar
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Dry Mustard

38. "Black Skin, White Masks" writer Frantz: FANON.

39. __ mignon: FILET.

40. Inclined: TILTING.

42. Spelling practice?: SORCERY 😀

44. Receiving line?: HEIRS 😀

45. Layered snack: OREO.

46. Silent nemesis in "Peanuts": KITE EATING TREE 😀 - I loved this after it hit me.

51. Is for many: ARE 😀

52. Smoothie option: GUAVA.

53. Daniel who writes the Gabriel Allon spy novels: SILVA.

55. Luthor in the Legion of Doom: LEX - Through the years. I only know of Gene Hackman's great portrayal (top middle) in the original Superman movie.

56. Row of pawns, e.g.: OCTET 😀 We have recently had 15. The Ivies, e.g.: OCTAD and 19. Tarantula legs, e.g.: OCTAD 

57. Needed Advil, say: ACHED.

58. Superlative suffix: EST.

59. One-named rapper in the hip-hop collective Doomtree: DESSA - I had no chance on this fill but she's on the right.

60. "The Constant Gardener" Oscar winner: WEISZ - Rachel and Ralph Fiennes below

Down:

1. Pro concerned with returns: CPA - I'll bet there's a CPA who participates in CSA and PTA in the USA

2. Brings it in, in a way: HUGS 😀

3. Each: A POP.

4. y=2x² plot, e.g.: PARABOLA - I've taught about them many times. 

5. Coastal formation: SEA CAVE - A famous one we have visited 

6. Gilbert and Sullivan staple: PATTER SONG -The patter song is characterised by a moderately fast to very fast tempo with a rapid succession of rhythmic patterns in which each syllable of text corresponds to one note. You're welcome. Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man is also a very familiar one.

7. Rice, for one: ANNE

8. K-pop star, say: IDOL.

9. Book club?: LITERATI.

11. Pitches delivered in sequence?: MAJOR SCALE 😀

12. Member of a blended family: STEP SISTER - What Marcia was to Greg, Peter and Bobby.

13. Tiny inheritance?: GENE 😀

21. __ out: EKE.

22. Berkeley, familiarly: CAL.

25. "Barracuda" band: HEART - An incredible rock and roll anthem! 

26. Purchases a company to obtain talented employees: ACQUIHIRES - What a great portmanteau! 

27. Follow up too soon, perhaps: DOUBLE TEXT - Guilty (and impatient) as charged!

28. Beethoven composition for brass virtuoso Giovanni Punto: HORN SONATA - I tried for a long time to make this more diffficult.

29. Repugnant: NASTY.

32. Imitate a dove: COO.
 
35. Many a reduction: PAN SAUCE  

A pan sauce—made with just a handful of ingredients and in a matter of minutes—can look and taste nearly as rich as a classic, labor-intensive French sauce. The base of a pan sauce is the fond, or browned bits, clinging to the bottom of the skillet after sautéing or searing meat, poultry, or fish. You're welcome.

36. Good & Plenty flavor: LICORICE - This candy is like M&M's with LICORICE in the middle rather than chocolate.

38. Vulcan or Agni: FIREGOD - No Mr. Spock here

39. Tool for intricate cutting: FRET SAW.

41. Draw: TIE.

43. Part of some email addresses: ORG.

46. Vegetable baked for chips: KALE 

47. Parts of a sleeve: TATS.

48. Lithographer James Merritt: IVES - Partner of Nathaniel Currier

            Sleigh Ride

There's a happy feeling nothing

In the world can buy

As they pass around the coffee

And the pumpkin pie

It'll nearly be like a picture print

By Currier and IVES

These wonderful things are the things

We remember all through our lives

49. Precollege yrs.: ELHI 🤨

50. The before times?: EVES - Tomorrow is an important one.

54. Wood shaper: ADZ.

*Andie and Bill relived Ground Hog Day over and over

Saturday, December 16, 2023, Ryan Patrick Smith

Saturday Themeless by Ryan Patrick Smith

 

Ryan Patrick Smith lives in Austin, TX and is a writer, editor, gamer and frequent moviegoer who has been constructing word puzzles for over a decade. He says he is pleased to be making his LAT debut today.  His work has previously appeared in the NYT and other venues. He and I have been visiting via FaceBook messaging and he is a very nice guy.

The northeast corner was a real struggle for me as you can see above which occupied my screen for a long time although I had HANS and ALOE tentatively. After nice explanations from Ryan and some research, I acquired some learning and relief from my completion anxiety! As I've said before, I am smart enough to know how little I know.

Across:

1. Like some windows: ONE WAY - Windows on your house can become these as well.

7. Notes app?: SHAZAM - I have SHAZAM on my phone and have used it many times but took "Notes app." to be an app for note taking! 😑 Any time I hear music I don't know, I run it thorough Shazam and after a few notes, it gives me the song, the artist, the lyrics and a chance to play the whole thing.

13. Sotomayor alma mater: YALE LAW.

15. Gap: LACUNA - Ryan told me that as a film nerd, he wanted to use LACUNA because it was a NYC firm in the movie Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind that creates gaps in memories. I had no idea but my brilliant solver/constructor friend from Lincoln knew it immediately but had never seen or heard of the movie.

16. Wyo. has one: STATE REP - Each state has one U.S. REP for every approximate 700,000 population 

18. GM system: ON STAR - I have it in my new car for "free" for three years but I do everything on my iPhone anyway

19. Pub fixture: TAP.

20. Motion-sensing Xbox peripherals: KINECTS.

22. Tender robot?: ATM 😀 and 42. 22-Across figs.: AMTS.

23. Disney heroine whose sister is beguiled by 8-Down: ELSA and 8. See 23-Across: HANS - From Frozen

25. Texas MLBers: STROS.

26. Smoothie option: ALOE - I did not know our cwd favorite ALOE was edible!

27. Instagram feature since 2020: REELS - More

29. Pedant's preoccupation: NIT 😀

30. Small garden party?: GNOME 😀  

31. Subject with strange attractors: CHAOS THEORY - I got it but here is the complicated explanation. I would have gotten "Idea posited by Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park."

34. "Speak of the devil": LOOK WHO IT IS.

35. Contribute to: HAVE A HAND IN - What I do here every Saturday for this wonderful blog

36. Gambits: RUSES.

37. Wane: EBB.

38. Features of some classic coupes: T-TOPS.

43. French multimedia artist who refers to her work as "carnal art": ORLAN - Perps took care of this name

45. Put out: SORE - I warned Ryan that some solvers might be "put out" by his puzzle.

46. Voyage opener: BON 😀

47. Hazardous 55-Across maneuver: WHEELIE and 55. Moped kin: SCOOTER.

49. Actress Tyler: LIV - I really enjoyed her in the That Thing You Do that Tom Hanks wrote, directed and starred in.

50. Muscular: BRAWNY.

52. Trip down a hill: SLED RIDE.

54. Repetitive Black Eyed Peas hit: IMMA BE - I got the idea in the first ten seconds and then shut it down! It's the first and last time I'll listen to it.

56. Taken for: SEEN AS - I might be SEEN AS not liking the song above. Ya think?

57. War reporters, often: EMBEDS.

Down:

1. Peacemaker po'boy morsel: OYSTER - I've never had/seen one. You?

2. Celebrazione religiosa a dicembre: NATALE -Translation from Italian: Religious celebration in December - Christmas

3. Pass: ELAPSE -  I am going to let my newspaper subscription ELAPSE.

4. Not yet set: WET - The man is standing on cement that has already set to work with cement that is not set and is still WET

5. Model Wek who was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR in 2013: ALEK.

6. Longtime Toyota subcompact: YARIS.

7. Mirage enticement: SLOTS - OASIS left quickly and I caught onto the Mirage hotel/casino in Las Vegas

9. Cooling systs.: ACS.

10. "SacrÈ bleu!": ZUT ALORS - No chance for me! I knew of Sacre Bleu but my French-major granddaughter, who lived in Grenoble for a while, said ZUT ALORS is a cruder form of "Oh My" and is not often heard in America. Marcel Duchamp is an avant-garde artist and some his works include bicycle parts as you see below.

 

11. Gray area?: ANATOMY - My favorite clue! The TV show is Grey's Anatomy 

12. Role for Laura in 2019's "Little Women": MARMEE - I had no idea about Alcott's characters

14. Never got off the ground: WENT NO WHERE.

17. Things that may take a turn for the worse: PERISHABLES.

21. Medicine cabinet supply: COTTON BALLS.

24. Mosques' mihrabs, e.g.: ALCOVES.

26. Rubs the rite way?: ANOINTS 😀

28. Low pair?: SHOES 😀

30. Question after a moment of silence: GET IT?

32. Dossier letters: AKA.

33. Screened: HID.

34. Uniform feature, often: LAST NAME.

35. "I know, but please try": HUMOR ME - I suppose someone said that to Justin Bieber

36. Some wedding parties: RABBIS 😀

39. Rock whose name means "egg stone": OOLITE.

40. __ oneself on: PRIDED.

41. Cuts off: SEVERS.

43. "And how!": OH YES.

44. One who might have a grand opening?: NIECE - We have several grandNIECES 

47. A'ja Wilson's org.: WNBA.

48. Ancient Dead Sea kingdom: EDOM.

51. Ashy: WAN.

53. Take badly?: ROB 😀