Saturday Themeless by Kate Chin Park
Kate is a custom furniture maker who is a proud non-whiz when it Originally from Spokane, she has lived in San Diego, Brooklyn, London, and Brooklyn again before settling down in Oakland. She began solving crosswords in 2019 and making them in 2021, and credits mentorship both formal and informal for her growth as a constructor. When not awash in words or sawdust, Kate loves to read, eat the food her partner cooks, snuggle with her hostile-to-everyone-else cat, and watch the Golden State Warriors. Here is her website
This puzzle was a fun exercise where I ended up where I started, the NE. Kate's grid is eye-catching with 108 open squares.
10. Best effort: A-GAME - I don't know about you but these Saturday puzzles take my A-GAME
15. Request for multifactor authentication?: ASK ANYONE 😀
16. Gurira who plays Okoye in the MCU: DANAI - 0 for 3. I did not know DANAI, Gurira or what MCU (Marvel Comic Universe) stood for. DANAI filled herself.
17. Collective noun?: PHILATELY 😀- Stamp collection finally hit me and then I stumbled through the spelling.
18. Choose to join: OPT IN - Philately is not a hobby to which I would OPT IN
19. Hook, in journalism lingo: LEDE - Don't bury the LEDE! 12/7/41 "Visibility will be very limited today as you look out over Pearl Harbor."
20. Quench: SATE.
22. Deadly septet: SINS.
23. Chicane shape, on some racetracks: ESS - A tight sequence of corners in alternate directions. Usually inserted into a circuit to slow the cars, often just before what had been a high-speed corner. We all know of chicanery but I was happy to learn this form of that root word.
24. "Well played": GOOD ONE.
27. Violent figure of Egyptian mythology: SET - Talk about yer Saturday cluing!
28. Explorer's code, hopefully: LEAVE NO TRACE.
30. Twisted: WRITHED.
32. Birthplace and subject of writer Vu Trong Phung: HANOI - This was pretty obvious after a letter or two
33. "Mais oui": BIEN SÛR: Granddaughter, who minored in French and just finished her first year of grad school in D.C., told me this means, OF COURSE.
34. Seneca Falls Convention figure: STANTON - Elizabeth Cady STANTON was a big part of this convention supporting women's suffrage.
36. Alpaca habitat: ANDES - Recently I told you of my former student who now lives in Colorado and makes hats of of the fleece of these animals that live mostly in the ANDES. This is Debbie's website: https://shoutoutcolorado.com/meet-deb-larsen-culig-from-design-marketing-advertising-executive-to-custom-hatter/
37. Tutsi or Hutu: RWANDAN - I once showed Hotel RWANDA as a substitute and I really learned of the barbarity between these two tribes.
38. Childish taunt: NEENER NEENER - Sheldon gets one from Stephen Hawking. Our lovely Lucina is polite enough to NOT send this to me in winter while I am freezing and she is luxuriating in the warmth of the desert.
41. Chats privately, briefly: DMS - Direct Message rather than a reply on social media.
42. Like some yoga socks: TOELESS.
43. FD employee: EMT - My friends son Grant, just became a fully certified EMT for the Bennington (NE) Fire Department, following in his dad's footsteps.
46. "Fortunately, the Milk" writer Gaiman: NEIL - Simon, deGrasse Tyson, Sedaka and the first man on the Moon did not make the Saturday cut.
48. Permafrost concern: MELT - Parts of the permafrost are melting under the AlCan highway which breaks up the roadway. Therefore some repair sections are getting insulation underneath to keep the ground colder and less susceptible to melting.
49. BBQ side: SLAW.
50. Scottish cattle: ANGUS - Some have made their way to this part of the world and fetch big money when sold at auction.
52. Immeasurable regions of the universe: DEEP SPACE - Voyager 1 left Earth in 1977 and it took 35 years for it to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space in 2012 even traveling at ~ten miles/second. Real time Voyager data after nearly 46 years in space.
55. Nosh: MUNCH.
56. Hall addition: ENSHRINEE and 21. Brian who said ambient music "must be as ignorable as it is interesting": ENO. Brian was an ENSHRINEE in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a part of Roxy Music in 2019.
57. Composition: ESSAY.
58. Waiting periods?: DOT DOT DOT ... - 8. Took off: UNLADED - We often see LADE as fill for filling up, so took off...
Down:
1. Tall, sappy type: MAPLE 😀
2. Clambake debris: ASHES.
3. Starts to slip: SKIDS.
4. Curly cruciferous commodity: KALE - Today I learned "chicane" and "cruciferous". The names have vanished already.
5. Garten of earthly delights: INA 😀 - Garten is chef INA's last name
6. "She Said" paper, briefly: NYT - The trailer for the movie based on two New York Times reporters who investigated Harvey Weinstein.
9. "Doogie Kamealoha, M.D." star __ Elizabeth Lee: PEYTON films on 25. Island with a state capital: OAHU. Peyton Manning and Peyton Place? Not so much on Saturday
10. Stir: ADO.
11. Breaks: GAPS - The famous Watergate tapes had an 18-minute GAP
12. Evil Christmas figure such as Krampus: ANTI-SANTA - I guess...
13. State cat in New England: MAINE COON.
14. "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" author: EINSTEIN - Oh, I see 😳
24. Prepares: GETS SET.
26. Some fracking byproducts: ETHANES - I suppose...
28. Summer material: LINEN.
29. Chilling episode?: R AND R - Rest and Relaxation
30. Vintage collections: WINE MENUS 😀
31. Logo overhauls, e.g.: REDESIGNS.
33. Label for some musicians?: 😀 BAND NAME.
34. Most satisfying, as a victory: SWEETEST - The Huskers beat the Iowa Hawkeyes last year after losing to them 7 games in a row. They were still 4 - 8 but still...
35. They may be fake: TANS - Yeah, I know...
37. Chile __: stuffed dish: RELLENO.
39. Bucharest's nat.: ROM - Irishman Bram Stoker based his Dracula character on ROMANIAN prince Vlad the Impaler
40. Cried out for: NEEDED.
43. Runner in ancient African cave art: ELAND - It's just a week after Mother's Day, so...
44. Funk saxophonist Parker: MACEO - My grandson Parker is named after jazz great Charlie "The Birdman" Parker not this gentleman.
45. Chirp: TWEET.
47. 2021 Pixar film that premiered at the Aquarium of Genoa: LUCA.
49. Rotisserie part: SPIT.
51. Protected by an icy exterior, perhaps: SHY.
53. Degree of difficulty?: 😀 PHD.
54. B'way sign: SRO.
