Saturday, March 2, 2024, Stella Zawistowski

Themeless Saturday by Stella Zawistowski

The look the face of our weightlifting constructor Stella reflects some of the anguish I felt as I worked my way through the latest of her always always challenging puzzles. After bobbing and weaving through the grid, I had enough letters to start to make sense of her ten-letter fills and finish up. Her top two ten-letter fills were fun to learn. 

As you can see in the grid, I did have one cell where my coin flip failed. My lack of knowledge of three-string Japanese instruments and Rhianna's music was my undoing.

Across:

1. Unplanned adoption: FOSTER FAIL - FAILING at being a FOSTER parent for a pet and then falling in love with and adopting that pet hardly seems like a FAILING to me. 😀

11. Adoption org.: SPCA.

15. Intended to prevent a torrent, perhaps: ANTI-PIRACY - As usual, Stella has a term I have never encountered that fell into place: Torrenting is a term used for distributing and downloading unusually large files like those for movies using the BitTorrent protocol. More

16. Name on the highest-grossing concert film in history: ERAS - It has grossed over $250M in gross sales against a $15M budget

17. Certain Central American: SALVADORAN - The lovely custodian at our school is COSTA RICAN and that name went in first.

18. Natural traps: WEBS.

19. Olympic badminton team, e.g.: DUO.

20. Victor Hugo's world: MONDE - MONDE is French for world

22. Sea bream, in a sushi bar: TAI - ... and my culinary education continues

23. Sushi bar list: SAKES - As long as we're at the sushi bar...

25. Snooty creatures?: ANTEATERS. 😀

27. Divine: PREDICT - Carnac's gift was to be able to divine the answers without first seeing the questions.

29. "Awesome!": SWEET  and 30. "Awesome!": YES.

31. Cheer (up): BUOY.

33. Working days?: STINTS.

34. Practitioner of traditional medicine: HERBALIST.

36. Burlesque: SATIRE - A BURLESQUE is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

39. Smallest ratite: KIWI - Ratite: A bird having a flat breastbone without a keel, and so unable to fly.

40. Elle King's "Ex's & __": OHS - A Top Ten album

43. Subject of the 2014 documentary "Game Over": ATARI.

44. Jam: BAD SPOT.

46. Get rich: MAKE A PILE.

50. Melancholy work: ELEGY - I wasn't all that melancholy when dirge didn't work 😀

51. Salt target: ICE.😀

52. Levi's Stadium player: NINER.

53. Word with Days and Holiday: INN. 😀 Motels 

54. Well-thought-out: SANE.

56. "Hubba hubba!": VA VA VA VOOM - We had this recently with only two VA's but I remember it better with three

60. Let out: EMIT.

61. Feature of non-eco-friendly containers: ONE TIME USE - Why our landfills get full

62. Syllables in Rihanna's "What's My Name?": NANA If you need some raunchy lyrics

63. Moved mindfully?: TELEPORTED - Star Trek did this a lot. Kirk never actually said, "Beam me up Scotty." Teleporting by mind

Down:

1. Scale tones: FAS - Do, Re, Me, FA, So, La, Ti, Do

2. Rashly: ON A DARE.

3. Name on some church-run hospitals: ST LUKES.

4. Saved to watch later: TIVOED.

5. Org. that regulates HFCs: EPA.

6. Free (of): RID.

7. Step one: FROM A TO B. 😀

8. Noted New York Judge: AARON - Judge is capitalized so...

9. "It's all too much": I CAN'T.

10. Paul of "Hollywood Squares": LYNDE - One of his many zingers: Peter Marshall: According to Tony Randall, “Every woman I’ve been intimate with in my life has been…” What?

Paul Lynde: Bitterly disappointed.

11. Compete on "Project Runway," say: SEW.

12. Many a fan of "The Baby-Sitters Club": PRE-TEEN.

13. "Willkommen" musical: CABARET.

14. Sue Bird's WNBA record 3,234: ASSISTS.

21. Home of New York's Museum Mile: EAST SIDE.

23. Northern __ apples: SPY - Here ya go

24. Like the Chukchi people of Russia: SIBERIAN.

26. Fool: TWIT.

28. Fix: CURE.

32. Yona of "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic," for one: YAK - No idea.

33. Media personality JoJo: SIWA - No idea.

34. Bring on: HIRE.

35. Let out: LIBERATE.

36. Instrument played with a bachi: SAMISEN - A one minute sample

37. Region of Chile used by NASA to test equipment for Mars missions: ATACAMA.

38. Fooled: TAKEN IN.

40. Expand, in a way: OPEN OUT.

41. Upturned feature of some snakes: HOG NOSE.

42. Pen: STY.

45. Shard: SLIVER.

47. Pirouette, essentially: PIVOT.

48. Unworthy of consideration: INANE.

49. Tool box item: LEVEL.

55. Text to someone who's late: ETA.

57. Velvet rope crosser: VIP.

58. "O Deus ego __ te": Catholic hymn: AMO - My God, I love Thee, 

59. Scrip spec: MED.

BTW, our newspaper carries the LA puzzle and a second puzzle they call The Daily (Commuter) Crossword that is much easier. For years this puzzle has had Jacqueline Mathews listed as the constructor. Ms. Mathews of Spokane has retired and now the daily constructor has been Stella Zawistowski for several weeks (see "Created by" under the puzzle). Looks like Stella has a steady gig.

 

Friday March 1, 2024 - Ryan Patrick Smith

Theme: Friday night at the movies

Check out the link in the theme title to see movie trailers and short video movie clips. I may want to bookmark this for finding future links for my blog ...

Friday night "date night"

Puzzling thoughts:

I don't know about you, but Friday night has become sort of  a "date night" at the Chairman's house ... dinner is almost always pizza and salad, and afterward we watch a movie; either on DVD or on one of the streaming sites. It's quite fitting that Ryan Patrick Smith chose this play-on-words clued movie theme for today's puzzle; five entries and no reveal, with the themers being placed in a pinwheel display. Lots to digest so let's get started, OK?

20-across. Movie with lots of pan shots?: RATATOUILLE. First thing to digest with these entries is that all of the parodied clues "focus" on an element of filming a movie. For example, in the entry RATATOUILLE the clue "... pan shots" refer to the scenes shot in a kitchen (pots and pans) as opposed to a filming technique that involves horizontally moving the camera from a fixed position. The camera pivots either to the left or right, capturing a panoramic view (see image and video below)

There's got to be a pan in there, somewhere

41-across. Movie with an iconic long shot?: ROCKY.  Lots to like here, too.  In this case, the clue refers to ROCKY being a "long shot" (underdog) to win the bout, as opposed to the movie filming technique of a long shot (see examples below)

The Chairman ran up these same steps many moons ago

58-across. Movie with lots of reaction shots?: OPPENHEIMER. How cool to find a current movie title that allows for this play-on-words clue?! In film production, cinematography and video production, a reaction shot is a shot which cuts away from the main scene in order to show the reaction of a character to it.  The reaction shot is a basic unit of film grammar.  The "reaction shots" in OPPENHEIMER are featured below, as well as another type of reaction shot that this clue/answer ISN'T about ...

A literal reaction to a shot

 

11-down. Movie with lots of zoom shots?: SPEED RACER. So, by now, I hope y'all have figured out the connection between the clues, the movie references, et al. The video below shows an old commercial (Zoom, Zoom) with a zoom shot or two ... 

BTW, didn't we have "SPEED RACER" in a puzzle earlier this week?

Last, but not least, 29-down. Movie with lots of dolly shots?: CHILD'S PLAY. See images below:

Chucky doll

A film dolly

A mid-blog recap:

    1) "Pan shot", as in a photo of a pan used by a chef or a film-making term that shows lateral                     movement of the camera (RATATOUILLE)

    2) "Long shot", as in an underdog or a film-making term that shows multi-layers of detail in a scene        (ROCKY)

    3) "Reaction shot", as in picture of a nuclear reaction or a film-making term that show a character's          expression about an off-camera event (OPPENHEIMER)

    4) "Zoom shot", as in a sound made by a racecar or a film-making term that shows a closeup of an          image or character (SPEED RACER)

    5) "Dolly shot", as in a picture of a doll (child's toy) or a film-making term that is taken from a                "vehicle" known as a "dolly" (CHILD'S PLAY)

The grid (sorry, forgot to highlight "ROCKY")

On to the rest of the clues/words/phrases ...

Across:
1. Curly's replacement in the Three Stooges: SHEMP.  This one caught Chairman Moe's attention 😀

6. Canal spot: EAR.  Panama / Erie / Suez did not fit

9. Files that can't be opened: RASPS.  Cute Friday clue; a RASP is a type of file

14. Bar mitzvah scroll: TORAH.  Ryan could've clued it as "Bat mitzvah scroll" and had the same answer

15. Name of the T. rex at Chicago's Field Museum: SUE.  Sue, the T. rex

16. Short exile?: EXPAT.  As in "EXPATriate".  "An expatriate 

is a person who resides outside his or her country of citizenship. The term often refers to a professional or skilled worker who intends to return to their country of origin

 ..." [Wikipedia]

17. State known for huckleberries: IDAHO.  Moe-ku:

    IDAHO dog breed

    Can sniff out certain fruits; they're

    Huckleberry Hounds

Huckleberry was around in my childhood days 

    

18. Canine care org.?: ADA.  American Dog Association?? Oh, the other canine ... or in the case of the inage below, a canine's canine ... would the American Dental Association approve of these choppers? I'D BET they would

Pretty clean looking, for a dog; it must floss

19. Actress Witherspoon: REESE. Have we established that she only likes peanut butter cups?

23. Language suffix: ESE. Chinese Japanese Portuguese ...

24. Actor Chaney: LON. 

25. Ramble: MEANDER.  As opposed to "serpentine":

27. Missing criminal who inspired James M. Cain's "Rainbow's End": D.B. COOPER. Read all about it

32. Limburger feature: ODOR. Limburger cheese is pretty stinky

33. "Wowzers!": OOH. I think I've seen the exclamation "wowzers!" used here by another blogger, perhaps?

34. Trojan War figure: PARIS.  Learning moe-ment: "Paris (Ancient Greek: Πάρις), also known as Alexander (Ἀλέξανδρος, Aléxandros), is a mythological figure in the story of the Trojan War. He appears in numerous Greek legends and works of Ancient Greek literature such as the Iliad. In myth, he is prince of Troy, son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, and younger brother of Prince Hector" [Wikipedia]

36. Pathway stone: SLATE.  Hand up for having "PAVER" as the first word chosen for this spot?

39. Dip: SWIM.  As in taking a dip in the pool; or as in skinny-dip ... but not as in taking a dip from a tin of Skoal

43. Antioxidant-rich sorbet base: ACAI. A 21st century example of crossword-ese

44. Measure out: ALLOT. 

46. Berlin's "Blue __": SKIES. The Willie Nelson version (with lyrics)

48. Goof: ERR. Something the Chairman does often when he tries to solves an xword puzzle

49. Capital on the Persian Gulf: DOHA. I've seen this clue/word before

51. Orange garnish for sushi: SMELT ROE. aka "Masago" (a type of fish egg or fish roe. Masago is a very popular ingredient throughout Asia, particularly in Japanese cuisine), or the stuff shown in the image below

53. Some Cassatt works: PASTELS. OILS and WATER COLORS didn't fit. Here's a Cassatt for you to gaze upon

56. Ryan's "La La Land" role: SEB. All by perps. Never saw "La La Land" so this did not resonate

57. Little dickens: IMP. Could TINY TIM be clued as "A little Dickens'?"

64. Not as flushed: PALER. Flushed, as in "red-in-the-face"; not flushed, as in "partially-filled commode"

66. Regret: RUE.

67. River that feeds Utah Lake: PROVO. Never knew the city name PROVO was also the name of a river. The Provo River (Ute: Timpanoquint, “Rock River) is located in Utah County and Wasatch County, Utah, in the United States. It rises in the Uinta Mountains at Wall Lake and flows about 71 miles (114 km) southwest to Utah Lake at the city of Provo, Utah [Wikipedia] (see image)

 

 

68. Stage: PHASE.

69. Spleen: IRE. ORGAN didn't fit

70. "Yeah, sounds like": "I'D BET!".

71. Affectionate letters: ILYSM.  I had not seen this text abbr. before today.  Thanks to Margaret's younger son, he correctly identified the acronym as: I Love You So Much😍

72. 30-Down, for one: GOD. (30-down. Mythical archer): EROS.

73. "It's Gonna Be Me" band: NSYNC.  Margaret's younger son helped here, too

Down:
1. Shift slightly: STIR. [crossword tracker dot com] is a very useful data site for crossword puzzle constructors as well as solvers.  When I checked, this is a first use for this clue and answer:

Results

Sorry, no matches were found. If you think this is in error, please send us an email with what you were searching for and someone will take a look.

Tip: Try changing the clue to just a keyword (for example, if the clue is "Measurement with square units" try entering just "measurement") and supplying what you know of the answer so we can look for answers that are the right length. Even if you don't know any of the letters, just knowing the length of the answer can help the search engine immensely.

Answer

Tip: Use ? for unknown answer letters, ex: UNKNO?N You use the spacebar to enter question marks quickly

Clue

2. TV host Kotb: HODA.  She shows up every now and again

3. Proof word: ERAT.  If ACAI is 21st Century Crossword-ese, ERAT is a 20th Century example

4. Island "thank you": MAHALO.

5. Camera setting?: PHOTO OP.  Not an F-STOP - wouldn't fit and wasn't punny 

6. Genesis twin: ESAU.  Like OREO, ERIE, EIRE, and scores of other words that have 3 vowels and 1 consonant ... very useful to xword constructors

7. Bavaria-based automaker: AUDI.  I owned two of these in my lifetime; great cars.  Another 4-letter word with three vowels and one consonant

8. Sphere: REALM.

9. Enjoys a favorite novel, say: RE-READS.  I am happy when I read a novel, let alone RE-read it

10. Felling tool: AXE. 

12. So five minutes ago: PASSE.  RETRO also fits, but I don't think anything five minutes old should be considered passe
 
13. Use a wheelchair's joystick, say: STEER.  In the assisted living care community where my mom lives they refer to these vehicles as "scooters"

21. Commensurate (with): ON PAR.  A slight CSO to HuskerGary who more often scores a PAR when playing golf ... though the phrase ON PAR has nothing to do with golf

22. Zodiac lion: LEO.  Folks born under the sign "LEO", and who want to know their 2024 "forecast", it is described here

26. Home of the NBA's Pels: NOLA.  CSO to all those from the Pelican State, and specifically New Orleans

27. Pancake served with chutney: DOSA.  I checked the word out @ [crossword tracker dot com] to see its usage.  This is an "archaic" word (crossword-wise) that's making a big comeback, post-pandemic:

Recent usage in crossword puzzles:

• Universal Crossword - Dec. 24, 2023
• Universal Crossword - Sept. 14, 2023
• USA Today - March 14, 2023
• LA Times - Aug. 16, 2022
• USA Today - May 2, 2022
• USA Today - March 14, 2022
• USA Today - April 6, 2021
• USA Today - Jan. 26, 2021
• USA Today - Jan. 19, 2021
• USA Today - Sept. 7, 2020
• New York Times - April 1, 1987
• New York Times - Feb. 14, 1970

28. Cereal dish: BOWL.

31. "Casablanca" cafe: RICK'S.

35. Hardly pore over: SKIM.  As in "read briefly"

37. Staple in African cuisine: TARO.  

38. Country led by the Taoiseach: EIRE.  As a lover of whiskies (Irish and Scotch) the ending "ach" is often used on the labels. I'm guessing it's Gaelic. The word EIRE filled in after I got the E, I, and R

40. Academic: MOOT.  Moot as in "boot"; not moot as in "mute" (although I do sometimes hear it pronounced this way)

42. "Gimme a break!": YEESH.  Earlier in the week a few of you were discussing the proper spelling of "tush" ... "YEESH" and "Yees" are sometimes used interchangeably, and are just a letter off of each other: Yeesh versus Yees 

45. Math proposition: THEOREM. We haven't seen this word @ an LA Times puzzle since 2018
 
47. Wake up late: SLEEP IN.  Something Margaret and I do often ... retirement is fun ... we try to schedule no appointment(s) before 10:30 am

50. Swiss peak: ALP.

52. Sporty Fords: T-BIRDS.  "... and we'll have fun, fun, fun 'til my daddy took the T-Bird away"

53. Longstocking of chapter books: PIPPI.

54. "__ and the Night Visitors": AMAHL.  An old joke:

A woman gave birth to twins and gave them up for adoption. One of them went to a family in Egypt and was named “AMAHL” 

The other son went to a family in Spain; they named him “Juan.”

Years later Juan tracks down his birth mother and sent a picture of himself to his Mom.

Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband she wishes she also had a picture of Amahl.

Her husband responded, "if you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Amahl"

55. Thyme piece: SPRIG.  Ya know, if this word was spelled "SBRIG" it would be pronounced the same.  Try it ...

59. Vision prefix: EURO.  This:  Eurovision Song Contest

60. Shortage: NEED.  Good clue

61. Stage name of electronic musician Richard Melville Hall: MOBY.  Another clue/answer that Margaret's son offered when I asked.  I guess "___ -Dick" would've been too easy ... but it's interesting that Richard MELVILLE Hall shares his middle name with the author (HERMAN Melville) of the book, "MOBY-Dick"

62. Not odd: EVEN.  Anyone care to guess at the smallest EVEN number that is also a prime number?

63. VMI program: ROTC. Virginia Military Institute is the school (VMI); naturally they have a ROTC program

65. Self starter?: ESS. The letter "S" (pronounced "ESS") starts the word "self" ... it also starts the word "starter"

And once again we reach the end of the blog.  Thanks to Ryan for the fun solve.  Please feel free to comment below ...