Saturday, October 5, 2024, David P. Williams

Saturday Themeless by David P. Williams

I was fortunate to blog Dave's first puzzle that was published for the LA Times on May 15, 2021. It was so long ago that Rich Norris was still the editor.

The brilliance of Dave's puzzle is evident when you see the three vertical and three horizontal 11-letter fills in the heart of the puzzle. Subsequently, he had a very low word count of 66. The last horizontal fill is only 51. Across and the last vertical fill is 47. Down

My failure was at MIN_US/_ENTIANS which fills my definition of a Natick. I wrote my grandson (see below), who is a professional jazz musician and getting a Graduate Degree at The University of North Texas, and he immediately knew MINGUS and told me some terrible stories about him.

My Grandson

Across:

1. Street in London home to many medical offices: HARLEY.

7. Charles known as the "Angry Man of Jazz": MINGUS.

13. Cold spells: ICE AGES.

15. Like most drafts: UNSENT - Mentally, I went through several definitions of draft before I arrived at the ones that indicate that you might want review a few times before you hit Send.

16. "Hang on": JUST A SEC.

18. Pose: STANCE.

19. Duck: AVOID.

20. Admit: COP TO - On the other hand...

22. Get some sun: TAN.

23. Get too much sun: BURN - On the other hand...

24. "No kidding!": TRULY.

25. Guinness order: PINT.

26. Ready: SET.

27. Large venue: ARENA.

28. Song birds?: SWANS - Two came to my mind

  

29. Serious scratch: PRETTY PENNY - The idiom explained

31. Poutine kin: CHEESE FRIES - You can hold the cheese on my FRIES

Not a big fan below either!

32. Comes full circle?: WRAPS AROUND.

33. Second-most populous urban area of the Tibetan Plateau: LHASA 

LHASA pop. 521,000

Getting from LHASA to Kathmandu takes a WRAP AROUND route.

 

34. Primary rte.?: US ONE - From Ft. Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida

35. Ask sincerely: BEG.

38. A in Kindergarten: EINE - Kindergarten is German so "A" dog is EINE Hund

39. Like some accents: ACUTE.

40. Adidas rival: FILA.

41. Sound of disapproval: TSK.

42. Shorts' lack: KNEES 😀

43. John whose Civil War trilogy was adapted as a miniseries starring Patrick Swayze: JAKES - You'll have to look hard to see John's name in the credit

44. "Don't bother": SKIP IT.

46. Star witness?: SIDEKICK.

48. Moderate: GENTLE.

49. International understanding: ENTENTE - The most famous/infamous one?

50. Instruments that are difficult to donate, ironically: ORGANS - Now that is a great observation!

51. Help: ASSIST.

Down:

1. Garments similar to mantillas: HIJABS.

 

2. Contacts company: ACUVUE.

3. Sandals, e.g.: RESORT.

4. Mass medium: LATIN - The Catholic Church changed from being all in LATIN just before we got married over 60 years ago. Some LATIN phrases are used during the liturgical year. 

5. "Zounds!": EGAD.

6. Pitcher's aim?: YES - Not a baseball pitcher or a water pitcher. This pitcher is a salesman.

7. Dank: MUSTY.

8. Digging: INTO - I really got INTO Dave's puzzle

9. PRISM org.: NSA.

10. Plants whose roots flavor angostura bitters and Aperol: GENTIANS Angostura bitters  is a concentrated bitters (herbal alcoholic preparation) based on gentian, herbs, and spices, produced by House of Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

11. Eerie: UNCANNY - Just some of the eerie comparisons

12. Surgical tubes: STENTS.

14. Ingredient omitted from a recipe, perhaps: SECRET SAUCE - There's some things they won't tell you. 😀

17. Retaliates, in a way: COUNTERSUES - The man on the right sued Taylor Swift for $3M saying she got him fired, but he lost the suit. Taylor countersued for $1 for assault which he is doing in this picture and won that suit.

21. Do some sole searching: PLAY FOOTSIE - I know Irish will like this version

24. Arborist's concerns: TREES - After living on the treeless prairie, Nebraskan J. Sterling Morton proposed Arbor Day to support planting trees.

Very early Lincoln, NE 

25. Trounced, as a n00b: PWNED - The word "pwned" has origins in video game culture and is a leetspeak derivation of the word "owned", due to the proximity of the "o" and "p" keys. It's typically used to imply that someone has been controlled or compromised ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

27. Corncake that may be filled with queso: AREPA.

28. One making bank in Paris?: SEINE - I'm going out on a limb to say I'll bet you understand this picture  

29. Moon unit: PHASE.

30. Dried plum: PRUNE.

31. Revolutionary activity?: CRANKING - Success!

32. Hair of the dog: WHISKER 😊

33. "It's that time": LET'S GO.

35. Midriff-baring suit: BIKINI.

36. Chooses: ELECTS - Carol Blood is running against Mike Flood in our 1st District Congressional race.

A clever sign!

37. Flood insurance?: GASKET - Given enough time...

39. They're paid to play: ANTES.

40. Mountebanks: FAKES - Derivation

42. Brick oven: KILN.

43. Takes off: JETS.

45. Org. that publishes Our Children magazine: PTA.

47. Father figurer: DNA.