L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday

Showing posts with label Saturday. Show all posts

May 4, 2024

Saturday, May 4, 2024, Amie Walker

Saturday Themeless by Amie Walker

Amie Walker is an attorney/current stay-at-home parent to three little girls in Chandler, Arizona. When she’s not thinking about puzzles, she loves spending time with her family and singing in her women’s choir. Here is a picture of Amie on Jeopardy on 3/28/22.

When I did her puzzle in January, I finished the bottom first and the headed back to the top. Today I did just the opposite and you can see by the graphic, the bottom was a struggle for me. Some of the cleverness and 21st century slang gave me a real challenge.

Across:

1. Exclusively: ALONE.

6. Tach readings: RPMS - My car runs so quietly that I have to look at the tach (far left) to see if the engine is still running.

10. Annie Lennox, e.g.: SCOT - Anyone else put ALTO?

14. Spot with spotty reception, perhaps: REMOTE AREA - We got no reception in the Redwoods 😀

16. "Don't start with me": UH UH.

17. Chore that's a bore: MENIAL TASK.

18. __ noire: BETE.

19. "Funny or Die" segment: SKIT.

20. Dishwasher setting: RINSE.

21. Country with the largest number of Quechua speakers: PERU - 4:30 of listening

22. Time for scare tactics?: SPOOKY SEASON.

25. Sweeney of "Euphoria": SYDNEY - Famous Australian Opera House city is not "Saturday" enough

28. Deep blush shade: BERRY.

29. Indulge: HUMOR.

30. Gridiron cues: HUTS.

31. Spell: JAG.

34. Moonrise direction: EAST.

35. Signs: OMENS.

37. Caesar dressing?: TOGA 😀

38. __ sample: DNA - #1 and #3, you're free to go. #2, uh, we'd like a word with you.

39. Listen to: OBEY.

40. 1990s TV nerd: URKEL.

41. Cookbook verb: ROAST.

43. Belief systems: CREEDS.

44. Waffle, perhaps: ICE CREAM CONE 😀 An ice cream vendor at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair ran out of dishes. Turns out the vendor next to him was selling thin waffles. Voila!

48. Chew toy for a naughty puppy: SHOE.

49. Unsmiling: STERN.

50. AFC East team: PATS

54. "Dance the Night" singer Dua __: LIPA - After sufficient appearances here, I have learned this name.

55. Tool for turning over a new leaf?: SALAD TONGS 😀

57. Fairly matched: EVEN.

58. Personal driver?: EGO BOOSTER - Your ego might make you have more personal drive

59. Second place at a math Olympiad?: TENS 😀 Amie!

60. Fed. IDs: SSNS.

61. Bares fruit?: PEELS 😀

Down:

1. Plank supports: ARMS.

2. Allium cultivar: LEEK and 45. Allium cultivar: CHIVE.

The Allium Family

3. High-end hotel chain: OMNI.

4. "Wrong": NO IT'S NOT.

5. "Should we start wo u?": ETA - When r u getting here?

6. Flood with negative replies on social media: RATIO - Learning for me. At the bottom of social media like X (formerly Twitter and other social media) there is a list of the number of comments, retweets and likes. Comments are assumed to be negative and so if the RATIO of comments to retweets plus likes is more than 2:1, it is assumed to be a bad tweet. A poster can be said to have been RATIOED if there are a lot of comments.

Comments = 59K, Retweets = 21K
Likes = 6K. Bad RATIO

7. Jape: PRANK.

8. Casual-chic do: MESSY BUN.

9. Collections that include tokkuri and ochoko: SAKE SETS - More

Serving glasses - ochokos
Flask - tokkuri

10. Disappointing: SUBPAR - Not disappointing in golf at all

11. "You gouda brie kidding me," for one?: CHEESY JOKE 😕

12. Closing bars: OUTRO - a short, distinct closing section at the end of something (such as a piece of music, a performance, or a news report). A complement to INTRO.

13. Country group, briefly?: THE UN 😊

15. Cartoon boy in a Space Cub troop: ELROY - ELROY is at the left in front of his dad George Jetson in this 60-yr-old Jetson's cartoon. Yes, I said 60 years!

23. According to: PER.

24. Some hesitations: ERS.

25. Lose: SHED.

26. 10 jiao: YUAN - It takes 10 jiao to make 1 YUAN. 1 Yuan = $0.13 or about a dime.

A new EV car in China costs about ¥100,000 ($13,912)

27. "Feel free to contact me privately on social": DMS ARE OPEN - This tells the world that you're available and willing to receive and read direct messages from unknown people is by announcing your "DMs are open". A tactic you'll see used by journalists on Twitter looking for scoops.

30. "Watch it!": HEY.

32. Mellowed, perhaps: AGED.

33. Misses: GALS.

35. Loses sleep (over): OBSESSES.

36. HTML data: META TAGS - How the line above looks in HTML:

35. Loses sleep (over): <b>OBSESSES</b>.<br /><br />

37. Yoga stance also called Vrksasana (Sanskrit: वृक्षासन, romanized: vṛkṣāsana): TREE POSE.

39. One of two in a row: OAR - 😀 This hit me like a ton of cute! An OAR is one of two that are in a row in the boat and they are used to row!

40. Samovar: URN.

42. Lots: OCEANS - The Coasters sang, "It's gonna take an OCEAN, Of calamine lotion..."

43. Airbnb listing: CONDO.

44. Key: ISLET

Quiet Cove Key, Florida

46. Galia, for one: MELON.

47. "Deadliest Catch" boatload: CRABS.

51. Fee for a card-carrying member?: ANTE - 😀 He had to ANTE but is only carrying these lousy cards

52. Neutrogena product: TGEL.

53. Much of E. Europe, once: SSRS.

56. Exceed: TOP.

Apr 27, 2024

Saturday, April 27, 2024, Evans Clinchy

Saturday Themeless by Evans Clinchy

Evans is a master scrabble player who lives in Tacoma Washington. Obviously he is also a great crossword constructor as you can see by his first LA Times entry we get today. I moved right along in my solve but had a natick at the jumping off point of 1 Across/1 Down. I do not know any New Orleans neighborhoods, old or new, and joining that with uber obscurely clued T-RAP made for some very unsettling final minutes for me. 😖 I guessed at a "K" but I had other equally bad/desperate options. Boo!

Across:

1. One of the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans: TREME - Excuse my ignorance Big E!

6. Into footwear?: SHOD - A well SHOD unit

10. Included, in a way: CCED.

14. Settle down: RELAX - Aaron said this in 2014 when the Packers started 1 - 2. They then made the playoffs and massed making it to the Super Bowl by 6 points.

15. Come down: POUR - N.W. Ayers and Son ad agency came up with this slogan in 1914 for Nebraskan Joy Morton's salt company.

16. Barcelona's Fundació Joan __: MIRO - Joan MIRO's foundation has the biggest display of MIRO's works and supports many new artists in Barcelona. More info

17. Homes.com units: APARTMENTS - Our granddaughter is very familiar with this site in her job in D.C.

19. Like a kumquat: OVAL.

20. Fair activities for kids: PONY RIDES.

21. Carrot family plant: ANISE

22. Academic domain: EDU.

23. Took a spill: TUMBLED - The source of Wide World Of Sports' "The Thrill Of Victory, The Agony Of Defeat"

25. Nightie nights?: PAJAMA PARTIES 😀

30. Young egg cells: OVULES.

31. "It's not you, it's me," maybe: LIE.

32. Web-footed divers: AUKS.

35. Struggles with sigmatism: LISPS.

36. Nurse: SIP 😀 Make that drink last!

37. Resolve: SPINE.

38. Swear words: OATH.

39. State on the Arabian Sea known for beautiful beaches: GOA - West coast of India

40. Vandyke kin: GOATEE.

41. World Chess Champion from 2013 to 2023: MAGNUS CARLSEN - Norwegian Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen

44. "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" star: SEYMOUR.

46. Waze suggestion: Abbr.: RTE.

47. Facility for tech-savvy HS kids: AV LAB - Every student in America these days is pretty tech-savvy and goes to an AV LAB.

48. Election map figure: BLUE STATE - Here is the 2020 election by county

54. Long-handled hammer: MAUL - I split a lot of wood with my splitting MAUL

55. Fan attribute: TEAM SPIRIT.

56. Part of YOLO: ONCE.

57. Belgrade native: SERB.

58. Possible warning signs: OMENS.

59. Uses Siri, maybe: ASKS.

60. Holy chests: ARKS - Opening the Lost ARK was not a good decision

61. Cantankerous: TESTY.

Down:

1. Genre of Ariana Grande's "7 Rings": T-RAP - I threw a flag on this play where this ludicrous cluing with TREME seemed unfair for a common word! In case you're interested: "7 Rings" is a trap-pop song with elements of hip hop and R&B that runs for 3 minutes, with Grande rapping the hook and final verse."

2. Used car, perhaps: REPO.

3. Great exuberance: ELAN.

4. Barra of General Motors: MARY.

5. Highs and lows: EXTREMES - For April 27, Nebraska's EXTREMES are 95°F in 1989 and 24°F in 1950.

6. Got the lead out: SPED UP.

7. Give an edge: HONE.

8. Surpass: OUTSTRIP.

9. MRI orderers: DRS.

10. "Help me out here": C'MON BE A PAL.

11. Means of settling some disputes: CIVIL SUITS - OJ was found not guilty (not innocent) in his criminal trial but was found guilty in the CIVIL SUIT charging he caused wrongful death.

12. Take marks off: ERASE - There was a time...

13. Gave out: DOLED.

18. Touchy one?: MIDAS 😀

21. "__ wrong?": AM I.

24. SLC athlete: UTE - In Salt Lake City

25. Game that may be played on horses, bicycles, or elephants: POLO.

26. Brand of slip resistant shoes: AVIA.

27. "Short straw again": JUST MY LUCK.

28. Figures in a dominance hierarchy: ALPHA MALES.

29. Protective cover?: ALIAS.

33. __ sock: KNEE.

34. Spotted: SEEN.

36. Gose or lambic: SOUR BEER - "Sour beer is beer which has an intentionally acidic, tart, or sour taste. Sour beer styles include Belgian lambics and Flanders red ale and German Gose and Berliner Weisse."