Saturday, November 7, 2020, Brian E. Paquin

Saturday Themeless by Brian E. Paquin

Our retired computer systems developer, and now crossword constructor, from Kingston, Ontario returns today with a lovely little puzzle.

I had a very quick and pleasant tiptoe through the cells as the long fills were very helpful and gettable. 

Here is Brian's gracious and informative response to my request for info on this puzzle including on the process of cluing and editing by Rich and his staff which we have discussed here recently: 

Hi Gary,

It really saves me time that you provide the published clues in your emails.   It makes it easier for me to update my records.  Thanks for that.

Here are my comments:

This grid is similar to the one I used for my last appearance in the LAT.   Namely, the longer entries cross in the middle.   When those entries are filled, it just leaves me 4 mini-puzzles in the corners.  It is kind of my lazy grid because it takes advantage of the strengths of computers.   But any grid can fight back strongly, and I usually have to try this and try that on my own to make it work.

I actually hadn't seen that puzzle for quite a while, having submitted v1 in May of 2019.   I see that I have a lot of proper names in the grid.  I keep telling myself to stop doing that, but I just don't seem to listen.  Most of them are well known, but some of the clues have been "Saturday-ed" to make the difficulty level appropriate.  How many people know that Bonny Blue's birth name was Eugenie? The clue that I was disappointed to lose was for 24D CAYENNE: "Moderately hot chili pepper" (a reference to the rock group, of course).   But there were significant cluing improvements done.

Brian

Across:

1. Actor Richard Anthony Marin, familiarly: CHEECH - Cheech (sans Chong) made an appearance on Grey's Anatomy and was billed as CHEECH Marin.

7. TV's "Moonlighting," for one: DRAMEDY - We crossworders know it's a portmanteau of Drama and Comedy. I think Grey's Anatomy would qualify as one.

14. Sarcastic comment to a complainer, maybe: POOR YOU.

15. Bonnie Blue's birth name, in "Gone With the Wind": EUGENIE - Rhett and Scarlett's post-war baby

16. Eno, for one: ANAGRAM - So clever, Eno is an ANAGRAM of One and is another "meta" clue Jeffrey Wechsler told us about last Saturday.

17. Erodes: ABRADES  and 39. Sign of aging: WEAR - This is my 25-year-old "tiller that won't die". Even the ABRADING and WEAR on the belt doesn't motivate me to buy a new one because everything still works.

18. Mil. break: RNR - Rest and Relaxation - On M*A*S*H they all wanted RNR in Tokyo

19. Greek vowel: ETA.

20. Venison source: DEER.

21. "__ consummation devoutly to be wish'd": Hamlet: TIS A - TIS A gloomy part of this famous soliloquy 

23. Ancient Peruvian: INCA.

24. Capital of French Guiana: CAYENNE - On the other side of the South American continent 

25. Mother __: EARTH - This picture of Mother EARTH rising over the Moon was taken in 1968 by Scott Anders on Apollo 8. He said, "We came all this way to explore the Moon and what we found was the EARTH."

29. "I don't believe it!": YEESH.

31. Hard __: CASH - "Atta boys" are nice but I'd prefer HARD CASH

33. Non-discrimination letters: EOE - As opposed to EEO this time

34. Time-saving words?: YADA YADA YADA.

38. Made something more desirable: SWEETENED THE POT - A perk for some people who work for ABC/Disney is an all-access pass to Disney Parks.

41. Typical Louis L'Amour work: WESTERN NOVEL - He wrote a 100 of 'em.

42. Rd. service club: AAA.

43. Ill-advised move: NO NO - Don't bring your queen out so early!

44. Lyon lasses: Abbr.: MLLES - An abbr. for Mademoiselles

48. Beetle larvae: GRUBS - If you see these guys, you have sod webworms!

51. Techie, often: NERD.

53. Do an usher's job: SEAT - A verb here

54. Symbol of innocence: LAMB.

56. Col. neighbor: NEB - NEB's Lake McConaughy attracts a lot of COL peeps

58. Matter-of-fact opening?: AS A 

59. Jackson dubbed "Queen of Gospel": MAHALIA - Here you see MAHALIA to Dr. King's left on Aug. 28, 1963. MLK's speech wasn't going as well as he liked when MAHALIA yelled, "Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!" - an idea she had discussed with him before. Dr. King pushed his prepared speech to the left and his extemporaneous, "I had a dream" speech leapt into the American consciousness. 

62. Old rubber?: ALADDIN - Fun change of rubber from a noun to a verb

64. Winning steadily: ON A ROLL.

65. Metaphor for misfortune: ILL WIND - The Gulf Coast has had too many of these!

66. Advil rival: TYLENOL - My doctor said to say away from the ibuprofen in Advil and use the acetaminophen in TYLENOL

67. Bill of __: LADING - Here's one from 1775

Down:

1. News anchor Chung: CONNIE - CBS said Connie and Dan's bad chemistry led to bad ratings and was part of her losing the gig. You can look up "the rest of the story"

2. Sounding rough: HOARSE

3. Joule part: ERG.

4. Victorian heroine: EYRE - Charlotte Bronte's first novel written under the male pseudonym of Currer Bell

5. Raccoon kin: COATI - A cute 52 sec. video showing these two members of the Procyonidae family

6. Risky aerial act: HUMAN CANNON BALL - You don't see guys of this caliber very often anymore 

7. Kaput: DEAD AS A DOORNAIL - All you'd want to know about this phrase

8. Sticks figure: RUBE - The most famous RUBE who lived in the sticks?

9. Match: AGREE.

10. Half a comedy duo: MEARA - Ann MEARA and Jerry STILLER's son Ben lives near our cwd friend Chef Wendy on Kauai 

11. Wrap up: END.

12. Rolled game piece: DIE.

13. "You betcha!": YES.

14. It may be a blast: PARTY.

22. So far: AS YET.

26. Gather: REAP - What ye sow

27. Well attachment?: TO DO - I spent a lot of yute in my friend's well TO-DO household

28. Cops: HEAT - The HEAT Is On sung by Glen Frey of The Eagles. He was paid $15,000 to play guitar and sing this song for Beverly Hills Cop

30. Word with crime or watch: HATE - HATE Crime is disgusting but familiar, however I had to look up HATE Watch which is where one watches a TV show they actually hate like I did last night when I watched a competitive cooking show for two minutes.

32. Couch potato's buy: HDTV.

35. "The 'Burbs" actor: DERN - Rotten Tomatoes critics gave it a 53%. Their audiences gave it a 71%

36. "Pardon me ... ": AHEM.

37. Long-distance calls?: YELLS - 2020 Texas A&M YELL leaders

38. Plunder: SWAG - Nominees in the best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, and best director categories get a SWAG Bag containing $215,000 of goodies.

40. Biblical twin: ESAU.

45. Introduction: LEAD IN - In the beginning, Seinfeld benefitted by having Cheers as a LEAD IN

46. Letting up: EASING.

47. Artist's aid: STAND - Yeah, I tried EASEL first too

49. Sit on, as a horn: BLARE - The temptation is very strong after 10 minutes in a drive-thru lane but I don't because everyone today has a weapon and an attitude. I let it go!

50. Elegant room: SALON.

Stockholm Royal Palace Meleager Salon 

52. Reese of "Chico and the Man": DELLA - I hereby grant myself poetic license to link to  my favorite DELLA song

55. Ventimiglia of "This Is Us": MILO - MILO is on the right (HG correction)

57. __ eagle: BALD.

59. Clever remark: MOT - I'll bet this is a real page turner

60. "__ ideas?": ANY 61. Baseball exec Steinbrenner: HAL - Yankee owner HAL might be asking "ANY ideas?" since the Yankees have won only one World Series in the last 20 years but have spent millions.

63. SADD concern: DWI - Driving While Distracted (DWD) is a big problem also

 

Saturday, October 31, 2020, Jeffrey Wechsler

 Themeless Saturday by Jeffrey Wechsler 

Jeffrey is second from the left in this picture

Today we have a Jeffrey Wechsler puzzle that is a Halloween treat but not devoid of tricks.

Here are Jeffrey's very interesting and generous comments in answer to my inquiry about this puzzle:

Gary,

 

It’s very nice to hear from you. 

Puzzle editors have a free hand in rewriting clues, and sometimes might change up to half of them in a puzzle.  I see the changes as not only a matter of trying to improve clarity and accuracy, and a way to modify the overall difficulty of a puzzle, but also an occasion for puzzle editors to exercise their own creativity.  Sometimes I appreciate the changes, sometimes not.  In this puzzle, several clue changes can demonstrate the range of alterations.

 6-Down is an interesting place to start.  Husker Gary wrote to me that it took a long time for him to figure it out.  My clue was certainly “meta (Husker - self-referential)”, but remarkably, Rich substituted [Number before Number], a different “meta” clue!  Mine was [Number to the left], meaning that SIX was to the left of the clue.  Both clues are fine, in my opinion.  Elsewhere, Rich left in one “meta” clue, and removed another.  Rich used 62-Across: [With “fix”, it describes itself] for PRE.  He changed the clue at 1-Across, which was [Its symbol is described by 2-Down’s answer].  2-Down is ONE K, and a single letter K is the chemical symbol for POTASSIUM.  Perhaps that was too much “meta” for one puzzle, especially at 1-Across.

 

Clue changes can make answers easier or harder to discover.  Changing the clue at 41-Across to [Pram occupant’s diaper], from the original [Apparel for a pram occupant], made NAPPY much more obvious.  On the other hand, I think that 61-Across’s [1963 Johnny Thunder hit] is much harder than the original [Example of aerial derring-do] for LOOP DE LOOP.  

 

It’s always gratifying when a clue that one considers rather clever is maintained, such as [Request before reaching 21?] for HIT ME AGAIN at 11-Down.  Alternatively, an editor may consider a clue too cutesy, which I think happened at 49-Across, when Rich used a straightforward clue defining TITANIA, when I had offered [One whose emotions hit Bottom?].  In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Titania is affected by a love potion, causing her to fall in love with the character Nick Bottom.  Now, I like this clue very much, but I can understand that Rich might have thought “Enough!”.  As many LA Times regular solvers might have noticed, I try to insert a Shakespeare quote (usually as a fill-in-the-blank) or reference into each puzzle I submit.  Sometimes they are used, sometimes they are not.  In this puzzle, I received a double whammy.  Besides the loss of the Bottom clue, I had a Shakespeare quote clue at 18-Down: [The air bites shrewdly; __ very cold”: Hamlet], for IT IS.  Rich changed that to the suffix ITIS.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jeffrey

Now let's look for the other treats Jeffrey has put into our literary bag:

Across:

1. One of the alkali metals: POTASSIUM - Like all the alkali metals, POTASSIUM is very reactive and is usually stored in mineral oil or an inert atmosphere. It does this when it is dropped into water.

10. Enjoy a meal, with "down": CHOW.

14. Lacking taste, say: UNARTISTIC - I had to replace INARTISTIC

16. Yul's "Solomon and Sheba" co-star: GINA - Rotten Tomatoes indicated it lacked 19. Ability: SKILL and 30. Skills: COMPETENCE.

17. Where fajitas may be seen: TEX-MEX MENU.

18. Senior suffix: ITIS - Prospective graduates last spring did not get to experience SENIORITIS in person

20. Breaks down: SOBS.

22. Big extinct bird: MOA.

23. "Frozen" snowman: OLAF.

26. Chem lab substance: REAGENT.

28. Casino option: BACCARAT - James Bond playing BACCARAT against Emilio Largo in Thunderball. The dealer holds a card on the palette.

32. Exercise apparel: SWEATS - My standard outfit these days

33. Out of control: AMOK.

34. Increase: GROW.

36. Fungal rye disease: ERGOT.

37. Wheel part: RIM.

38. Attack, as with questions: BOMBARD.

40. Org. monitoring gas prices: AAA.

41. Pram occupant's diaper: NAPPY.

43. __ lily: Utah state flower: SEGO.

44. W.E.B. Du Bois' Tennessee alma mater: FISK.

45. Looks of contempt: SNEERS.

47. Maker of Contadina products: DEL MONTE - DEL MONTE acquired the brand in 1997

49. Shakespeare's fairy queen: TITANIA - From A Midsumer Night's Dream

51. Evening in Paris: SOIR - Ce SOIR, nous distribuerons 250 sacs de bonbons (Tonight we will hand out 250 bags of candy)

53. Wings with rooms: ELLS - My old school is building one on the last piece of ground they can use

55. __ fog: DENSE.

59. Outer layer: RIND.

61. 1963 Johnny Thunder hit: LOOP DE LOOP - Ah, a classic of my misspent yute! YouTube if you must.

64. Footwear for the stealthy, maybe: MOCS.

65. "Where's everyone else?": YOU'RE ALONE

66. Originate: STEM - We are all trying to STEM the tide of the Corona virus

67. Like some eggs: FREE RANGE - Free at last!

Down:

1. With 31-Down, finalizes, in publishing: PUTS and 31. See 1-Down: TO BED.

2. Short race: ONE-K - .67 mile

3. Approach the gate, perhaps: TAXI.

4. Wrestling maneuver: ARM LOCK.

5. Blanche's sister, in a Williams play: STELLA 

6. Number before Number?: SIX - 6. Number before Number?: SIX - SIX is the Number before the word Number in this "meta" clue. Wow, getting the fill here was pretty easy but making the connection took me a while!

7. Belief suffix: ISM.

8. Pickup cousins, briefly: UTES - A UTE  being loaded into a pickup

9. Inconsequential: MINOR.

10. Movie SFX: CGI.

11. Request before reaching 21?: HIT ME AGAIN - This chart tells you

12. Savory baked bread: ONION TOAST.

13. Hung in the balance: WAS AT STAKE - The game WAS AT STAKE when this smallest guy on the team walked onto the field 

15. Dice, e.g.: CUBES.

21. Shortened a log: SAWED.

24. Ship that encountered Sirens: ARGO - Here the Sirens are calling to Jason

25. Rural spreads: FARMS - Here are some here in Dodge County Nebraska from the air

27. Switz. neighbor: GER - On our German tour, a cousin of mine met us in Kißlegg, GERmany and drove us to his (and my grandfather's) hometown of Heiden, Switzerland at 125 mph in a European Ford Escort

28. Campaigns rurally: BARNSTORMS - Before he landed in Paris in 1927, Charles Lindberg did this kind of BARNSTORMING

29. "That was so stupid of me!": AM I AN IDIOT.

35. Pay: WAGES.

38. Talking Heads lead singer David: BYRNE - Why he left the group

39. Cone-like candy: ROLO.

42. Little veggie: PEA.

44. Patti Austin album dedicated to a legendary jazz vocalist: FOR ELLA - Her musical 52. Dedicatory lines: ODE to Ella

46. Frivolous: SILLY.

48. Piercing locale, perhaps: MIDEAR.

50. Disinterested: ALOOF.

54. Whiskey __: SOUR.

56. Palindromic time: NOON - You movie buffs will know this is the time Will Kane had to meet Frank Miller and his gang. Frankie Laine's fabulous theme song

57. Grammy honoree: SONG - The High Noon theme song was a 1952 Oscar awardee. The Grammy's started in 1958

58. Duel tool: EPEE.

60. Mil. decoration: DSM - Eddie Rickenbacker won 8 Distinguished Service Medals

62. With "fix," it describes itself: PRE - Another fun clue. PRE is a PREFIX for the word PREFIX

63. Land's end?: DEE - The end of the word LAND not terra incognita 

Comments?