Saturday, January 27, 2024, Anne Marie Brethauer and Katie Hale

 Saturday Themeless by Annemarie Brethauer and Katie Hale.

A previous collaboration on a Saturday (7/1/23) themeless I blogged from Annemarie and Katie. I flew through the top of this puzzle with just a few missing cells and then the work began.

The two red cells show Naticks for me that appeared when simple fill, STEAM and SIRI, were replaced by obscure cluing. 

Across:

1. Start of communications with NATO: ALFA

5. Building blocks: ABCS.

9. Seacrest vehicle, familiarly: IDOL.

13. Baby hippo: CALF.

14. Studio Ghibli's animated fuzz ball: SOOT SPRITE - Okay...

17. Rhyming song that's acted out: I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT - We've all done this one!

19. Fanning of "Coraline": DAKOTA.

20. Uber CEO Khosrowshahi: DARA - I got the first "A" in DARA out of nowhere without reasonable cluing for STEAM.

21. Article in a French periodical: LES - Yeah, I thought of La Monde first.

22. In: AMID.

24. Some shortcuts: MACROS - A set of keystrokes you define and use to do a bigger task

26. "I'm late!": GOTTA RUN.

30. Overflow (with): TEEM.

31. "Ew, no": UGH.

32. Doner __: Turkish dish: KEBAB.

34. Gems formed by silica deposits: OPALS.

37. Get up: ARISE.

39. Valuable diamond, say: ACE 😀 Yes, I have heard of a diamond being called ICE, but...

40. "Ask anyone else": NOT IT - I struggled with this and asked a few peeps including Irish Miss but I came back to my original idea. This fun clip seems to reenforce the idea of how every game of "Tag" I've ever played started.

41. Change: CENTS - I never seem to have any coins with me any more

42. Fuming: IRATE - The Detroit Lions coach after the referees disallowed a play that would have won the game.

44. Shiba __: INU - New to me but a beautiful looking dog

45. Meet face-to-face?: KISS. 😗

47. Magnified: ENHANCED - Sorry ENLARGED, not today

49. Pro who worked with Magic: KAREEM.

         Magic Johnson   KAREEM Abdul Jabar

51. "Memories of the Future" author Hustvedt: SIRI crossing 33. Part of a full English breakfast: BEANS. Saturday cluing for common fill.

52. Cribbage piece: PEG - My dad and his brothers could never find the PEGS that went with their very old Cribbage board and so they used matchsticks.

53. Just so: NEAT - Major Frank Burns took great pride in using a string to line up the condiments on the mess hall tables.

55. Figure in a Clement Clarke Moore poem: ST NICK.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be ST. NICK

59. First play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway: A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

62. Many a Gillian Flynn work: CRIME NOVEL.

63. Gladys Knight, for one: ALTO - I can't pick a favorite but Midnight Train To Georgia is right up there.

64. Sardine cans: TINS.

65. Used cars?: RODE - Used is a verb here.

66. With 57-Down, rom-com trope: MEET and 57. See 66-Across: CUTE - Name the wonderful 90-yr-old rom-com with this CUTE MEET: Runaway heiress is forced to share a bus seat with an unemployed journalist. (*answer below)

Down:

1. Rock type: ACID.

2. Dharma teacher: LAMA - What is Dharma?

3. Barrage of criticism: FLAK - If you want a barrage of FLAK, run for public office

4. Solvent: AFLOAT.

5. "Easter Parade" star: ASTAIRE - Fred and sister Adele's birth home in South Omaha.

6. Spam maker: BOT - They can fill up your computer in a hurry

7. Dispassionate: COLD.

8. Video game distribution platform: STEAM - There is common and even clever cluing for STEAM but this was "off the rails" obscure for me when I needed it for SOOT SPRITE and DARA.

9. A Gershwin: IRA - 'S wonderful, 'S marvelous that IRA set wonderful lyrics to brother George's music. BTW, I can understand if you don't get the odd words in the previous sentence.😀

10. Strategically polite: DIPLOMATIC.

11. Chiwere speakers: OTOES.

12. "I'm down": LET'S.

15. Classic Fender, for short: STRAT - A Fender STRATocaster 

16. Message on some holiday cards: PEACE ON EARTH.

18. "That tracks": IT MAKES SENSE.

23. Home of the Museum of the Future: DUBAI.

 

25. Default action, informally: REPO

26. Quick dip?: GUAC.

27. Princess Fiona, after sunset: OGRE.

28. "Nope": THINK AGAIN.

29. Mother-of-pearl: NACRE.

35. Stick figure's torso: LINE 

36. First earring, maybe: STUD 😀

38. Mix: STIR.

43. Symbol of Scotland: THISTLE.

46. Receive: SEE IN - Remember movie ushers?

48. Starting hr. for some: NINE AM - School always started before EIGHT AM and I was always there before 7 AM.

49. Gymnast Strug: KERRI - KERRI supplied one of the guttiest performances I have ever seen in the 1994 Olympics!

50. Estate: MANOR.

52. Accord: PACT.

54. Late show broadcaster?: TIVO - Before we had our own recorders.

56. "__ of Dogs": Wes Anderson film: ISLE.

58. Bedhead problem: KNOT - Yikes!

60. Cyberchats: IMS - Internet Messages - I like how they give you time to consider an answer.

61. Composer Rorem: NED - NED Flanders from The Simpsons gets the day off

*The classic movie with the rom-com CUTE MEET on the bus that I mentioned above

 

Saturday, January 13, 2024, Kyle Dolan

 Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan

Kyle returns with another challenging Saturday exercise for us. This is his 14th Saturday puzzle for this reviewer. His stacks of ten took some time and generated a self-inflicted head slaps when they came to me. I will point out my adventures with all of them. Struggling with EXOPLANETS left a big dent in this NASA guy's tete. Mon dieu! 

Across:

1. Part of GTO: GRAN What GTO means

5. Finds players for: CASTS 😀 - Some say  John Wayne as Genghis Kahn was the worst CASTING ever.

10. Defeats handily: OWNS - Husker coach Tom Osborne OWNED K-State as he was 24 - 0 against them.

14. Drink made with a spice mixture called karha: MASALA CHAI.

16. First name in country music: REBA - She also is a hoot in Young Sheldon 

 

17. Whole alternative: ONE PERCENT 😀

18. Blood group?: CLAN.

19. Bet (on): STAKED - NFL teams STAKE their futures on players they draft each year

20. Aerospace company based in Sweden: SAAB - The automotive part of this firm has been phased out

22. Sonny: LAD.

23. "Heh, not really": I KID - Michael Seth Starr, Don Rickels' biographer, wrote his kind of insult comedy will never return.

25. Disney villain played by Glenn: CRUELLA - A memorable role for Glenn Close

27. Mysterious sign: OMEN.

30. "How about that!": GOSH.

32. Tag word: SMALL 😀

33. Page by phone?: FAX 😀 70% of businesses say they still use FAX machines for important documents

34. Piece of rustic decor: CART - My first thought was of outside decor

35. In the __ of: MIDST.

36. Cold cocktail: FROZEN MARGARITA.

40. Close-range shot: TIP IN - My first thought was of a basketball layup but it was a basketball TIP IN. TAP IN would be a golf fill in as well.

A TIP IN dunk!

41. Hotel bar: SOAP 😀

42. Former "SportsCenter" anchor Patrick: DAN - A straight forward DAN for a Saturday 

His first day in 1989
   Chris Berman           Dan Patrick

43. "Pure goodness" mandarin oranges brand: HALOS - Favorites in our household

44. Just for appearances: SHAM.

45. Course standards: PARS - My standard is closer to bogeys

46. Ax in a concert hall: EMANUEL - New to me

48. Handout to the hungry: MENU 😀 Gotta love this scene from My Cousin Vinny.

50. Peaked: WAN.

51. Crunchy side: SLAW 😀 Fun once I got it!

53. Roar: BELLOW.

57. God who helps the Trojans in the "Iliad": ARES If you must...

59. Kerry Washington role: OLIVIA POPE.

61. Lo-cal: LITE.

62. Warhol, Johns, et al.: POP ARTISTS - Andy and Jasper

  

63. Finishing: LAST - I'll use this as a reason to post one of my favorite instrumentals

64. Correct: EMEND - A nice mnemonic  

65. Try: TEST.

Down:

1. Some biotech products: GMOS - Genetically Modified OrganismS

The answer is D

2. Bluster: RANT.

3. "... against __ of troubles": Hamlet: A SEA - These words are surely among the most famous in the English language and remind me of our friend Jeffery Wechsler

4. Table cloth?: NAPKIN.

5. Taylor Swift hit with the lyric "You put me on and said I was your favorite": CARDIGAN - Perhaps less well known than Hamlet's soliloquy. 

6. Duke's conf.: ACC.

7. Cows and sows: SHES.

8. Hebrew Bible: Var.: TANACH - An alternate spelling

9. Long-necked instrument: SITAR 

 Ravi Shankar and
George Harrison

10. "Dungeons & Dragons" creature: ORC - Familiar cwd creatures

11. "Ooh, I'm so-o-o impressed": WELL LA DI DA - One of the funniest SNL skits ever!

12. Curry, e.g.: NBA ALL STAR 😀 Kind of a curveball for some of our resident foodies

13. Souvenirs from beach walks: SANDAL TANS 😀  - I tried SUN... and SAND... but no!

15. Symbol of Wales: LEEK - Why?

21. Transit convenience: BUS MAP.

24. Namesake of a famous alum, perhaps: DORM - Morey Hall was my college DORM and it was named for a former president, Victor Morey. It was old in 1964 and is still being used in sixty years later.

26. Many an oil-rich ruler: EMIR.

27. Zany: OFF THE WALL 😜 Robin Williams comes to my mind

28. Grammy-winning Santana song co-written by Wyclef Jean: MARIA MARIA.

29. Subjects that may be studied for life: EXOPLANETS - These are planets in orbit around stars other than ours. Are we alone? Fermi's Paradox

31. Stow away: STASH.

34. Individual account?: CENSUS 😀

37. Angels Landing's national park: ZION 😲

38. Don't just stand there: ROAM.

39. Duck, perhaps: GAME BIRD 😀

44. Course with gates: SLALOM.

45. Stand in church: PULPIT. 😀

47. Choose a running mate?: ELOPE. 😀

49. In a glass by itself: NEAT -😀 No ice for our Tinbeni

52. Erase: WIPE and 54. Get rid of: LOSE.

55. Goes (for): OPTS.

56. "La fanciulla del __": Puccini opera: WEST - The Girl Of The Golden West he wrote in Italy. It was his first opera that premiered in America. The story of this work. BTW, he wrote Madam Butterfly having never been in Japan.

Its 1908 Premiere in NYC
with Enrico Caruso

108 years later presented by the

Santa Fe, NM Opera Company

58. Prepared: SET.

60. Vehicle that really moves?: VAN 😀