Themeless Saturday by Trent H. Evans
Here we see him pictured with his good friend Donut and below is part of his generous response to my email:
As far as the puzzle goes, I constructed this one in May of 2019 when I had not yet done very much themeless constructing [Husker note: My note to him was the first he knew that the puzzle was going to run today]. I don’t recall very much about the process. I know I slapped down PEDAL TO THE MEDAL to start with and after roughing out a grid, the next thing I put down was FRED SANFORD. Sanford and Son was one of my favorites as a kid, and my high school band director seemed to have an anecdote from a specific episode of Sanford and Son to cover almost any life lesson he wished to impart. By the way, if you haven’t seen the YouTube clip of Fred wearing a mask and trying to socially distance from a sick Lamont, it’s worth your time [Husker note: Picture is in the write-up]. See, I told you there’s a Sanford and Son episode for all situations!
Since I made this puzzle, I started a crossword blog at gridtherapy.com and among the puzzles on the site are 15 themelesses as of now. I call them ‘Free Association’ puzzles in keeping with the ‘therapy’ motif (I am a psychologist as you said). Looking back on this LA Times puzzle, I’m still fairly pleased with it, but I hope I’ve improved with more practice. As of this writing, the most recent puzzle on Grid Therapy is titled “Addled” which coincidentally enough makes an appearance at 9-down in this LA Times puzzle.
I hope you and yours are as well as can be expected during these difficult days. Me, my wife Beth, and our four (!) teenagers have refrained from any acts of violence against each other over the course of our six or so weeks in lockdown, which I am going to call a win!
Take care Gary.
Take care Gary.
Trent
Now let's do some "Free Association" with the good doctor on this first Saturday in May
Across:
1. Groom like a groom, maybe: MANSCAPE - Everything below my neck remains, uh, ungroomed. TMI?
9. Is in store: AWAITS.
15. Green getaway: ECO HOTEL - This one is in South Africa
16. "Crud!": DARN IT.
17. Beneficiaries of preferential admission: LEGACIES - Youngest daughter followed oldest one into this Pi Beta Phi house on 16th Street at UNL
18. Delightful: DREAMY.
19. Texas congressman who ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988: RON PAUL - He got about 1/2 of the green section here:
21. Nice refusal?: NON - A Nice, en France, je dirais NON à manger des escargots (In Nice, France, I would say NO to eating snails)
22. When things just don't click: OFF DAY
25. Aide-__: mnemonic device: MEMOIRE - An easy to understand French loanword. I taught ROY G BIV for decades as a mnemonic device.
29. Gets stuck: BOGS DOWN.
32. Let go: AXE and 33. Let go: FIRE - Somebody's losing their job here.
34. Air freshener deliveries: MISTS.
37. High-speed metaphor: PEDAL TO THE METAL - Trent's seed entry. I remember it as CB lingo.
41. Give out: ISSUE.
42. Colorado tributary: GILA.
43. "So you admit it!": AHA.
44. "Star Wars" film subtitle: A NEW HOPE - I really liked the first Star Wars movie, went to sleep in the second one and have not returned.
47. Classist type: SNOB.
48. Breath-freshening brew: MINT TEA.
50. Board game conduits: CHUTES - A guy is offering this complete original game for $50 on eBay
53. Lawmaker: ENACTOR - Not lately
56. Barked: WOOFED.
59. Pregame party site: TAILGATE - Husker pre-game activities have graduated from the TAILGATE of pickups to elaborate affairs that are noted for inviting fans of opposing teams to join in
63. Tee off: ENRAGE.
64. Pavarotti classic: O SOLE MIO - Sherrill Nielsen with O SOLE MIO and then The King follows with It's Now Or Never
66. Broad Eastern cuisine category: PAN-ASIAN - A extensive PANASIAN menu
Down:
1. Harris of "thirtysomething": MEL - Then (1987) and now for "MEL" - Mary Ellen Harris
2. Flying phenom: ACE.
3. Eggy drink: NOG.
4. Fragments: SHARDS.
5. __ butter: COCOA.
6. Not very much: A TINY BIT.
7. Single animal-shaped candy?: PEEP - More than A TINY BIT of sugar!
9. Mystified: ADDLED.
10. Serious declaration: WAR.
11. Is for many: ARE - Groucho is funny, the Marx Brothers ARE hilarious
13. Divided island north of Australia: TIMOR - The west end of the island is Indonesia that is also known as West TIMOR
14. "Don't Rain on My Parade" composer: STYNE - I'll bet most of you know 1) What musical had this song and 2) Who belted out this Jule STYNE anthem
22. Beast known as the zebra giraffe: OKAPI - The only members of this family
24. Junk dealer in a '70s sitcom: FRED SANFORD - Here's a picture from the Sanford and Son episode Trent mentioned
26. Family nickname: MOMMA.
27. Tot's scrape: OWIE.
30. Peru panning target: ORO - The tragic story of mining gold in Peru (11:00)
31. Outset: GET GO - I liked Trent's puzzle from the GET GO
33. Speedy: FLEET.
35. Nevada tourist mecca: TAHOE - Michael and Fredo had a conversation in Michael's home on Lake TAHOE before Fredo went on a fatal fishing trip
36. Foundation pieces: SLABS - A cool, dry basement is very desirable in Arizona but most houses are build on concrete slabs because the rock hard caliche (kuh LEE chee) soil, made up of calcium carbonate and granite, means digging a basement can add thousands to the cost of a house
38. Bee or Em: AUNT - Opie Taylor's and Dorothy Gale's
39. With it: HIP.
40. Choice event: ELECTION
45. Prepared a bed, maybe: WEEDED - SEEDED got, uh, WEEDED out
46. Solo pilot?: HAN - HAN Solo and Princess Leia are frequent visitors in our crossword universe
47. Swells: SURGES.
48. Spoke Burmese?: MEWED - Our Lily prefers Siamese
49. Actress Massey: ILONA - Here she plays the Baroness Frankenstein in 1943's Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman
51. Casual greeting: HOLLA - "Hey dude, give me a HOLLA when you get home"
54. Perched on: ATOP.
55. 61-Down's dwelling: CASA and 61. Familia member: TIA - Nos encanta que TÍA Rosa visite nuestra casa (We love to have Aunt Rosa visit our home)
57. __ Four: FAB - The name of this tribute band
58. One may be bruised: EGO.
60. Challenging retort: AM I? - "Gary, you're going to eat that liver!"
62. Word that's sometimes an exaggeration: EON - I haven't seen my California cousins for EONS!
I also found this picture of Trent who plays trumpet in an Alumni Jazz Band that just recently toured Europe. I'll leave it to you to find Trent with his trumpet in hand. He's a real renaissance man!
Any comments for Trent?
