Saturday Themeless by Craig Stowe
Thanks for the email. I hope the picture is ok. It was taken in 2018 in Gatineau, Quebec - when we could still visit casinos.
I really enjoy making themeless puzzles and I think they are the most satisfying to solve. Sometimes constructors begin with a grid design and fill it accordingly but usually there’s a seed entry that the puzzle is built around. In this case that entry is TOO BAD SO SAD, which had been on my radar for a while. It vanished when another venue used it in a (themed) puzzle but reappeared when I wanted to design a themeless with a central stack. This is my first attempt at such a stack. I don’t care for the smaller corners from a design point-of-view but I like themeless grids to have a little stretch to the entries so it was a painful compromise. I have to say I like to my clue for the seed entry “[playing the world’s smallest violin]” only because it reminds me of Fat Tony playing that tiny violin on “The Simpsons.”
Breakdown of what was completely changed, somewhat changed and unchanged is roughly equal across all three categories. I really like “Mozart’s mother” over my original clue “Horsford of ‘Amen’” – what can I say? I loved “Amen!” But I also really love classical music and can’t wait to get back to the symphony and opera. Learning moment for this non-fan of Mozart.
A quick guilty-of-crosswordese-list. First, I don’t think crosswordese is necessarily a bad thing. It potentially keeps words alive that might otherwise completely disappear – it happens all the time. It can also give a seasoned solver an entry into a puzzle. That being said I try to avoid it at all costs. ETUI, HAP, ERSE, ESTER and the prefix IDEO- are not the finest entries in the world. I think affixes are worse than crosswordese as they’re parts of words. It’s not a cross-partial-words puzzle. So guilty as charged but a low word count is going to bring about its share of constructor staples to get things done.
I think I’ve rambled on long enough. Hopefully it’s a pleasant solve for folks and not too painful.
Cheers!
Craig
I got a good foothold in the SE, worked back to the NW and then finally wrestled the SW into submission after the corner Monopoly square came to mind and I passed Go and collected my $200 SALARY.
1. "Can't someone else?": DO I HAVE TO - A teenager's lament
10. Floor: AMAZE.
15. Mozart's mother: ANNA MARIA - This plaque marks where Wolfgang and his mother lived in Paris and where she died
16. Dressing extreme?: NINES - Some guesses on the origin of "Dressed To The NINES"
17. Comebacks: RESPONSES - Lady Nancy Astor to Winston Churchill, "If I were married to you, I'd poison your tea." I'm betting you know his RESPONSE.
18. See 43-Across: ANGST 43. Genre full of 18-Across: EMO - A 1962 EMO song by one of the Gene's I had in my "Name That Gene Game" last week
19. Set to assemble: KIT - Set as a noun. Here's something else from 1962
21. Franklin's bill: C NOTE - $100 There is a website that will sell you this "play money". You have to look pretty hard to see COPY | PLAY MONEY
22. Inferior: WORSE.
24. Unwanted information, usually: SPOILER - "What? Rosebud is a sled?"
26. Small sewing case: ETUI - I'm sure this was in 1962 cwds too
27. Cantore in a storm: JIM - JIM and his crew meet some Huskers just before a big snow event in Lincoln
30. Member of the first class of World Golf Hall of Fame inductees, 1974: SNEAD - Sam Snead
31. Retreated: BACKPEDALED - Patrick Mahommes BACKPEDALED all day against the Buccaneers as they 54. Rushed toward: RAN AT him and knocked him down a lot
34. "Voilà!": THERE YOU ARE.
37. Expression of mock sympathy: TOO BAD SO SAD - Letter home from college, "No mon, no fun your Son." Reply, "TOO BAD, SO SAD, your Dad."
40. Involuntary contraction: SPASM.
44. Part of un drame: ACTE - Le point culminant d'un drame arrive au troisième ACTE (The climax of a drama comes in the third act)
45. Forms a union?: MARRIES.
47. More than just talk: ORATE - Edward Everett ORATED before Lincoln at Gettysburg and afterwards wrote to Abe, "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."
48. Single out: ELECT.
49. Appear by surprise: POP IN - The Seinfeld take on the POP IN
53. Ring site: LIP
57. Rough: CRUDE.
58. "... quaint and curious volume of __ lore": Poe: FORGOTTEN.
59. Really excited: HYPER.
60. Democracy concern: FREE PRESS.
Down:
1. Limited-access Internet area: DARK WEB - Interested?
2. The least bit: ONE IOTA.
3. Show how: INSTRUCT - Been there, doing that.
4. "Our __ is loss, our hope but sad despair": "Henry VI, Part III": HAP - General HAP Arnold missed the cut
6. Weather __: VANE.
7. Gaelic tongue: ERSE - A tongue we see often here
8. Plastic bag accessories: TIES - They have so many uses
9. Hot spots' hot spots?: OASES.
10. Amazon threats: ANACONDAS - Google at your own peril
11. Mouse first voiced by Walt Disney: MINNIE
12. Namibia neighbor: ANGOLA - Okay, where is it? Answer
13. Prepped, as peels: ZESTED - Last week, Adrian Johnson and Jeff Chen gave us 31. Strip often twisted: LEMON RIND
14. Perfume compound: ESTER - A table of ESTERS
23. Follower of Nanak: SIKH - The first SIKH Guru
25. Unreal: PSEUDO
28. Graphic intro?: IDEO.
32. Vacationer's need, maybe: PET SITTER
33. Good earth: LOAM.
35. One may be heard on safari: ROAR - In this "Safari" in Chile, roles are reversed and you can be up close and personal to hear the ROAR
36. Get out of hand in a hurry: ESCALATE - Did you ever talk politics at a family gathering?
38. Dresses: ATTIRES.
39. Becomes more complicated: DEEPENS.
40. Word on a Monopoly corner square: SALARY - Took me longer that it should have
41. Asset protection plan, briefly: PRENUP - George thought this would make Susan back out of the marriage
42. Place to play: ARCADE
45. Branded wares, informally: MERCH - MAKES went down in flames
46. Spruce (up): SPIFF.
47. Triumphant: ON TOP.
50. Wrinkled-nose cause: ODOR.
56. NBA position: CTR - The debate rages as to who was the all time best (**Names are listed below) and here is one person's opinion
