Saturday, December 24, 2022, Juliana Tringali Golden and Kate Chin Park

 Saturday Themeless by Juliana Tringali Golden and Kate Chin Park

Juliana is an editor and mom in Oakland, California. Her puzzles have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, AVCX, the Inkubator, and elsewhere, and she writes a puzzle every Tuesday for Vox.com. You can find her on Twitter @julianatringali. Juliana told me, I actually met Kate when I reached out to her about a puzzle. It was something she'd posted on her site, and Will Nediger called it out on one of his best-of lists. I asked her if she'd like to collaborate sometime, and our work on this themeless began! Since we both live in Oakland, we did manage to meet up with other local constructors this spring. Hopefully we'll do it again soon!

Kate Chin Park has had puzzles in most major newspapers, indie venues such as the Incubator and AVCX, the Boswords and Lollapuzzoola tournaments. She published east midi-sized puzzles one a week at CrosswordClub.com. She lives in Oakland California, with her partner and their "hostile-to-everyone-else cat" (see picture at the bottom of the write-up.) In previous write-ups, we also learned that Kate builds amazing furniture

 

A fun Christmas Eve puzzle by two talented constructors. I hope all of you have been nice and not naughty. This fire looks mighty nice out here on the frozen plains!

Across:

1. Confines, theatrically: TYPECASTS - George Reeve suffered that.

10. Tech site with a "track prices" browser plug-in: CNET.

14. Rank and file: HOI POLLOI - 58 synonyms

15. Give up: WAIVE.

16. "I'm sunk!": ALL IS LOST and 36. Back on board: AFT - The AFT went down last @2:19 below

17. Snoring cause: APNEA.

18. Misery: WOE.

19. Both parents, in some families: MOMS - My neighbor's grandson has two lovely MOMS

20. Heist series title word: OCEANS - The one with "The Rat Pack" started it all

21. "Let me have it": DO YOUR WORST.

23. Plot: PLAN - 26. Father: SIRE - Both sets could be nouns or verbs

25. "A plateau is the highest form of flattery," e.g.: PUN.

28. Chess player Krush who is the only American woman Grandmaster: IRINA.

29. Enviable trait: ASSET.

31. "Wipe your paws" spot: MAT.

32. Turn to: CONSULT.

34. Stands to take a picture?: TRIPODS - Stands is a noun not a verb here. Even for my iPhone:

37. Meryl's "Mary Poppins Returns" role: TOPSY - Emily Blunt plays Mary Poppins and Meryl Streep plays a minor role as Mary's cousin TOPSY.

39. State capital?: MONEY - In Italy it used to be LIRA but now it's Euros 

40. Old Italian 39-Across: LIRA - This 500,000 LIRE note would convert to about 276 Euros 

42. Trojan leader?: TAU -  A Trojan (citizen of Troy) is Τρωός in Greek with TAU being the first (leading) letter

43. Scrapes (by): EKES.

44. Doll featured in many unboxing videos on YouTube: LOL SURPRISE - Open it up and see what you've got. New to me!

48. "We're dying to know!": TELL US.

49. Grandly appointed: POSH.

50. Zoom appt.: MTG - I saved $3,200 on my new hearing aids and talked to a nice guy named Bob via a Zoom MTG and he adjusted them for me online.

53. "Perfect!": A-PLUS.

54. Eucalyptus lover, familiarly: KOALA BEAR.

56. Stadium strata: TIERS.

57. Tragic dancer of French literature: ESMERALDA.

58. One could be a lot: ACRE - Oh, a building lot.

59. Film starring Himesh Patel as the only person in the world who remembers the Beatles: YESTERDAY - A lovely movie with a wonderful premise and the music, hey, it's the Beatles 

Down:

1. Soften: THAW.

2. "No regrets" initialism: YOLO - I didn't ride a big roller coaster until I was 53 and You Only Live Once.

3. Nap on a carpet, e.g.: PILE.

4. Prefix with -phenomenalism: EPI - Here ya go

5. Explorer trained at the Gagarin Center in Star City: COSMONAUT - It's named for COSMONAUT Yuri Gagarin, the Russian who was the first man in space. Yeah, it was a gimme for this NASA guy.

6. Metallic mixture: ALLOY.

7. Replay tech: SLO-MO - The SLO-MO shows the Tennessee player fumbled before the ball crossed the goal line.

8. Tough calls: TOSS UPS.

9. Go unused: SIT.

10. Piccata need: CAPERS  - Capers are the immature, unripened, green flower buds of the caperbush

11. Singer who said, "Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream": NINA SIMONE - A sample

12. Foundation of a barter system: EVEN TRADES 

13. Oolong and pu-erh: TEAS - The former was easy, the latter, huh? All you want to know about pu-reh tea

A Pu-erh TEA cake

15. Home of the Baylor Bears: WACO - The Air Force played Baylor in WACO on Thursday night and it was 11⁰F. Yikes

20. Title holder: OWNER.

21. Ranks in judo: DANS - Everything you want to know

22. Out of shape: RUSTY.

23. Social image?: PROFILE PIC - Mine

24. Grooming aid that might gather dust: LINT ROLLER.

27. Site with artisan shops: ETSY - A frequent cwd visitor

28. Onetime macOS scheduling app: I-CAL.

29. Stock phrase: AT PAR - Here ya go

30. Home for the holidays?: TIMESHARE - or...

33. Flower sacred in Buddhism and Hinduism: LOTUS.

35. Dish whose name means "to slice" in Hawaiian: POKE.

38. Take as a given: SUPPOSE.

41. Draw: ALLURE - We had it yesterday as "21. Seductive quality" 

45. Root (out): SUSS - We crossworders do this all the time

46. Wanders: ROAMS.

47. Dot on a map: ISLET - The ISLET of Mauritius (way to the right (east) on this map) recently hosted a big golf tournament on one of its nine golf courses. 

48. "Cheerio!": TA TA - Do Brits even say Cheerio and TA TA any more?

50. Canasta play: MELD.

51. "See what I did there?": TADA.

52. Overcast: GRAY.

54. Solution: KEY - Here's how I made my own

55. Setting for many a joke: BAR - A physics example and 23 more

 

Speaking of kitties:

This is Ludo.
Kate's beautiful kitty.