google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner

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May 18, 2024

Saturday, May 18, 2024, Parker Higgins

  Themeless Saturday by Parker Higgins


Parker is a Brooklyn-base artist and activist.  This construction has a whopping 101 open squares which makes for a lot of white space with multiple stacks of 9!

The top third of the puzzle had some interesting fill as I did not know EDGE CASES, GIBED (shoulda knowed how to spell it!), DEREN, TROLL (as clued), ESOS, THIRST TRAP and SANSA. I fought my way through and will take only two bad (stupid error) cells and try to make a coherent blog.

Across

1. Results of unpredictable user behavior, perhaps: EDGE CASES. Events that occur only under extreme conditions. An example I saw was sound distortion when a stereo is turned up to max. 



10. Older daughter of Winterfell: SANSA - SANSA Stark from Game Of Thrones. Crosses got it, so no complaints.


15. Unhurried: LEISURELY.

16. Patent __: TROLL.


17. Branch location?: ARBORETUM - Lauritzen Gardens is located in Omaha just above the Missouri River. It has a 100 acre ARBORETUM and has added a $21M conservatory.


18. Did a dress rehearsal: RAN IT. - Places everyone! We'll have an audience tomorrow!

19. Sets (up): TEES.


20. Off-target, in a way: WIDE.


21. Domicile: ABODE.

22. See 27-Across: END and 27. With 22-Across, message before credits: THE 😀

23. __ splicing: GENE - I filled it easily but here is the explanation. Yikes!

24. Many a bridesmaid: SISTER.

25. Tax law pros: CPAS.

26. Mild rebuke: TUT - TUT, TUT, tsk, tsk.

28. Hot shots?: THIRST TRAPS - New to me: thirst trap is a type of social media post intended to entice viewers sexually. It refers to a viewer's "thirst", a colloquialism likening sexual frustration to dehydration, implying desperation, with the afflicted individual being described as "thirsty" It had to fill itself in.


32. Whole __: HOG.

33. Optimistic: ROSY.

34. English scientist who coined the term "cell" in his 1665 work "Micrographia": HOOKE.


35. Pattern that's often pixelated, for short: CAMO - Can you see the soldier in a  pixelated CAMO uniform on this couch?


36. Singer Garfunkel: ART - The voice of an angel


37. In-person appointments that require an online application?: TINDER DATES - Swipe left or swipe right.


39. See to one's seat, slangily: USH 😀

40. WSW opposite: ENE.

41. "Cut that out!": STOP.


42. Riffing on, online: MEMING.


44. College figs.: GPAS.

45. Knicks spot, briefly: MSG - The third Madison Square Garden was built in 1925 and became the home of the NY Knicks NBA team the year I was born (1946).


48. Flowering plants native to the Mediterranean: ARUMS.


49. Slicks back, maybe: GELS.

50. Fabrication specialist?: LIAR 😀

51. "For the love of good food" cereal brand: KASHI.


52. Dazed: IN A TRANCE.

54. "You should get a cold pack on that sprain": ICE IT.

55. Ingratiatingly friendly: NICEY NICE.


56. Short-tempered: TESTY.

57. Come to one's senses: SEE REASON.


Down:

1. Absolutely delight: ELATE.

2. "Meshes of the Afternoon" director Maya: DEREN - Maya was a Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker and an important part of the avant-garde in the 1940's and 1950's. 


3. Called mean names, say: GIBED - My alternate spelling of JIBE didn't work out.


4. Spanish "those": ESOS - ¡Me encantan ESO Cornhuskers! (I love those Cornhuskers!)

5. Mutt: CUR - A flag on the play for me! Many mutts are lovable and not a CUR

6. Defining question?: ARE WE A THING.


7. Unchangeable: SET IN STONE - A favorite poem of mine contradicts this.


8. Get around: ELUDE.

9. Culture writer Rachel: SYME - Okay...


10. Narrow channels: STRAITS.

11. Many Maghrebis: ARABS - The Maghrebi


12. "Anything but!": NO NOT THAT - Sometimes it's just a trick


13. Dirty a plate?: SLIDE HOME 😀 - I got this one right away.


14. Extra lives?: ALTER EGOS - Sometimes when I praised a child at a Parent/Teacher conference, parents would reply they are nothing like that at home.

23. Rte. finder: GPS.

24. One with many good buds: SUPER TASTER - TASTER filled first and eventually SUPER made sense

25. Shout: CRY.

26. Occurs: TAKES PLACE.

28. First responder's pack: TRAUMA KIT.


29. Derby, e.g.: HORSE RACE.

30. Landmasses with two coasts: ISTHMUSES.


31. Dowsing tool: ROD.

35. Limit: CAP.

37. Stretched-ness: TENSITY.


38. Bobs and weaves: DOS.


43. "They got me!": I'M HIT.

44. "Aladdin" figure: GENIE - This Jeannie was told by NBC to keep her belly button hidden, but her high waisted pants sometimes slipped but no one said anything.


45. "The Italian Job" vehicles: MINIS - The MINI Coopers were a big part of this heist film


46. Anarchist convicted with Vanzetti in a 1921 murder trial: SACCO.


47. Not yet ripe, maybe: GREEN.

49. Stirs (up): GINS - Agents are constantly trying to GIN UP interest in their clients for them to get hired. Definition and several etymologies 

50. "Summertime Sadness" singer Del Rey: LANA.


53. Pastrami bread: RYE.