Saturday, June 8, 2024, Emily Biegas, Sala Wanetick

 Saturday Themeless by Emily Biegas and Sala Wanetick

I ran through this puzzle in very good time, finishing in the Northeast. As usual, the long fill was the key to the solve as they were all "gettable".

Across:

1. Emmy-winning sitcom created by Susan Harris: SOAP - I'm going to assume you can all pick out the young Billy Crystal who is said to be the first openly gay character on a TV series.

 

5. Held in suspense: BATED.

10. Eats: GRUB.

14. Mercury Prize-winning singer-songwriter Parks: ARLO - This Saturday ARLO replaces Mr. Guthrie and lists herself as a Q in the LGBTQIA+ array.

15. "She-Hulk" actress Renée __ Goldsberry: ELISE.

16. Decor do-over, informally: RENO - Some tornado victims in this season's storms have to choose between a RENO or a DEMO

17. Prosaic: UNORIGINAL - Many teachers have very prosaic day-to-day lesson plans and have merely 19. Parroted: APED what they have done or seen done for years.

20. "My pleasure": DON'T MENTION IT.

22. Stresses, in a way: ITERATES.

23. "The quicksand of reason," per George Sand: VANITY - I admire this quote. 

26. Coolers, for short: ACS - I grew up without any A/C at all. You?

27. Real mensch: GEM.

28. Lav: LOO - My sister is a hard core St. Louis Cardinal fan but told me their new uniform option makes her think of a toilet.

29. Piedmont product: ASTI - The region outlined in red is the Piedmont area of Italy. Can you find the city ASTI in this NW part of Italy? It is a 50 min drive ESE of Turin.

32. City in French Flanders: LILLE

34. Bother: IRK and 42. Wrath: IRE.

35. Question of when: WHAT'S TODAY'S DATE - Uh, ASAP?

39. Peachy: AOK - I remember NASA making A-OK common parlance in the 60's starting with Alan Shepherd's initial space flight.

40. "Tell me you didn't": OH GOD 😀

41. Singles: ONES - Who's to say the bills under that hundred are just a bunch of ONES!

43. Prefix with diversity: BIO.

44. Compass rose dir.: SSW - Here you can find SSW at 202.5˚ on the Rose Compass

46. "Next week on ... " segment: TEASER - How about one from 70 years ago?

48. Most tidy: CLEANEST.

53. Crunchy snack: HARD SHELL TACO - Your choice

55. "Uh, no": AS IF.

57. March Madness stage: ELITE EIGHT - Omaha's Creighton Bluejays were in the ELITE EIGHT in last years men's NCAA basketball tournament. 

58. Garden veggie: CUKE.

59. Gulf of Aden republic: YEMEN - YEMEN and Somalia make the Gulf Of Aden a dangerous place for shipping

60. Idea shared by many: MEME.

61. Prefix on many Chinese brand names: EVER - Ultimate Saturday cluing. Explanation

62. Swelling: EDEMA - Better get some ice on that bad boy!

63. Winged figure in Piccadilly Circus: EROS - Also known as the Shaftsbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus

 

Down:

1. Riyadh resident: SAUDI - A great deal of water for the SAUDIS in Riyadh is piped in hundreds of miles from desalinization plants on the Arabian Gulf.

2. " ... unless you think otherwise": OR NOT.

3. Solo: ALONE - A very famous solo took place 97 years ago.

4. Hanging in a drawing room: PORTRAIT - Sir Winston hated his and had it destroyed in a bonfire.

5. Brings about: BEGETS - The book of Matthew chronicles a whole bunch of BEGETTING!

6. Dress shape: A-LINE.

7. Colors: TINTS.

8. Actor Morales: ESAI - Cwd fodder

9. Cole Porter biopic starring Kevin Kline: DELOVELY 

Cary Grant took a turn as Porter in 1946 with another classic tune as a title.

10. Wood flooring feature: GRAIN.

11. Coldly calculating: REPTILIAN - Ebenezer Scrooge leapt to my mind.

12. "Ceci n'est pas __ pipe": UNE - The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe", I'd have been lying!

— René Magritte

13. Compact figure?: BOD - Not all are

18. Big Apple output: IMAC.

21. William and Mary: NAMES - René Magritte would love this clue! See two clues above.

24. Decadent cake: TORTE.

25. Joins the team?: YOKES 😀

27. Hefty alternative: GLAD - We use Hefty trash bags I'm told.

29. Keep an eye out for: AWAIT.

30. Haruki Murakami's "Kafka on the __": SHORE Quotes

31. "Beat it": TAKE A HIKE.

32. Letterhead image, maybe: LOGO - Where I sub

33. Terse oath: I DO.

36. Composed: SOBER.

37. Chakra that signifies the unconscious mind: THIRD EYE - Kids swear teachers have this gift. Chakra

Click to enlarge

38. Quiet stretch: DOWN TIME.

44. Singer dubbed the "Tejano Madonna": SELENA.

45. Prime Day event: SALE.

47. More cautious: SAFER.

48. Ring: CHIME.

49. "Who cares what they do": LET 'EM.

50. More than ready: EAGER.

51. Poor sap: SCHMO.

52. "Uh, yeah": TOTES - Adult drivers in N.C. may have to ask their kids about this sign containing slang we are seeing quite often in Crosswordville!

54. __ dog: SLED.

55. Part of LGBTQIA+ or 10-J-Q-K-A: ACE - Saturday cluing for ACE. ACE is slang for asexual.

56. Tucson or Santa Fe: SUV - Both made by Hyundai. 

Friday, June 7, 2024, David Levinson Wilk

 Theme: "Well, we're waiting!"

 

Puzzling thoughts:

Today's puzzle takes three familiar phrases that include a day of the week in them, but the actual "day" is chopped off of the end to support the reveal ... I guess 

Here's how:

18-across. "Whew! I was so worried the Kahlo was counterfeit!": THANK GOD ITS FRIDA.  The familiar "Thank God It's Friday" (oft-times abbr. to TGIF for xword puzzle fill) loses a "Y" in exchange for a weirdly clued quote about a Frida Kahlo painting being real or fake ... meh

30-across. NFL document intended to protect the secrets of the Big Game?: SUPER BOWL NDA.  Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest sporting events of the year.  In this entry, the event loses an "S", a "U", and a "Y" to leave an NDA (also known as "Non-Disclosure Agreement) which is a document usually signed by an employee or independent contractor to protect any intellectual property owned by their employer ... meh

45-across. Retro-chic style that originated with the family of a movie charioteer?: THROWBACK HUR.  Throwback Thursday is familiar to Instagram/Facebook/X users as a means to honor some nostalgic events/persons; and specifically on Thursday.  Pictures of these events/people are captured with a #TBT.  The 1959 movie Ben-Hur starred Charlton Heston as "Judah Ben-Hur".  The chariot race is one of the iconic moments in the film.  In this entry, the letters "T", "S", "D", "A", and "Y" were omitted ... another, meh

Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur

The reveal:

59-across. Impatient person's comment, or an apt title for this puzzle?: I HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY.  Implying (I guess) that because the entire day of the week name (FRIDAy) (SuNDAy) (THURsday) is not in the entry, it aligns with the reveal.  I see it, but I wonder whether it warranted an extra 15 squares to fill (16x15 grid pattern)

The grid:

Note my two errors @ the crossing of DOULA and VAX

The rest of the fill:

Across:

1. Brewer's ingredient: HOPS.  Used in the brewing of beer and ale

5. Paragons: IDEALS.  Paragon is defined as "a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality".  I suppose that you can use the word "IDEAL" as a noun to support this clue, but personally I wouldn't have then made it plural

11. Tea, in Hindi: CHAI.  As in a CHAI latte

15. "Or so __ say": THEY.  But who are THEY??

16. Like some cottage cheese: NON-FAT.  Anyone else try LOW FAT here first?  I did

17. Captain's post: HELM. Its origin (HELM) is from the Old English helma; probably related to helve

21. Re-tiring workers?: PIT CREWS.  The group of six - eight workers who attend to the race cars (NASCAR or Indy Cars) during the event are known as the PIT CREW.  One of their duties is to change the tires.  So "re-tire" might be a stretch, but hey, it's Frida ... also, the plural already is CREW not CREWS

22. Swift composition: LYRIC.  Taylor Swift is a singer-songwriter known for her LYRIC description of life-happenings

23. Chinese: Pref.: SINO.  SINO

24. Stupefies: DAZES.  

27. "That's it!": AHA.

35. Competition with pros?: DEBATE.  The competition also has "cons".

37. Bygone toy company: TYCO. 

38. "The Bear" Emmy winner __ Moss-Bachrach: EBON.  Never watched this show, so the name was totally unfamiliar

39. Not boyish: MANLY.  We had a Health and Phys Ed teacher at my HS named "Mr. Manley"

40. Greek X's: CHIS.  Another word that is rarely seen as a plural

41. Electric shaver brand: BRAUN.  I use a Norelco shaver; Braun toothbrush

42. Object: ITEM.  

43. Slender: THIN.

44. Mortar's partner: PESTLE.

48. Oxford Word of the Year for 2021: VAX.  I had the V and the X but guessed wrong with an E.  I should've known that VAX was a much newer word.  Also, it can now be used in the board game Scrabble.  If I recall the tile values, V+A+X = a total of 14 points.  A nice little filler ...

49. Extinct birds: DODOS.

50. "Riiiiiight": I BET.

52. Cast member: ACTOR.

55. "And so on": YADA YADA.  I usually think of this phrase with 3 "YADAs": YADA, YADA, YADA.  But as the clip below confirms, you can either "YADA YADA" or "YADA YADA YADA"

As I saw this, I kept wondering if the constructor ever considered this as one of the entries or reveal?  If you look closely, you can see the word "DAY" both forwards and backwards inside this phrase ... 

(note:  I pasted this snip many days before HG used it on Wednesday June 5; watch again in case you missed his ...)

63. Facts and figures: DATA.  

64. Reprimand sharply: BARK AT.  Is this a case of the tail wagging the dog?  

65. Green land?: EIRE. Not Greenland, a colony of Denmark ... Ireland, aka EIRE

66. Yelp rating unit: STAR.  Mostly used by individual consumers for rating restaurants.  If I had to rate this puzzle (on the Yelp scale of ⭐ to ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) I would give this a ⭐⭐

67. Étouffée cuisine: CREOLE.

68. "Dang it!": RATS.  Speaking of rating, RATS spelled backwards is star

Down:

1. Start of some addresses: HTTP. The secure ones are plural:  HTTPS

2. "You just get here?": OH, HI.  

3. __ moss: PEAT.  Had the word "moss" been capitalized I might have chosen:  KATE

She is much more attractive than peat moss

4. Aligns: SYNCS.

5. Naive stock character: INGENUE.  [an on-line dictionary cites the origin as] "French, feminine of ingénu ‘ingenuous’, from Latin ingenuus (see ingenuous)

6. "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" genre: DOO WOP.  Probably one of the most covered songs in history.  Here's the one I chose:

1964 Beach Boys - 2:00 version

7. Finales: ENDS.

8. "100 Years... 100 Movies" org.: AFI.  All perps - This is them

9. Back muscle, for short: LAT.  Many of us use the abbr. LAT for the name of the newspaper that publishes these puzzles

10. Ave. crossers: STS.

11. LeBarons, e.g.: CHRYSLERS.  I actually got this without any perps.  The erstwhile sport luxury car that also became synonymous with the family truckster used in the movie Family Vacation

 

1941 Chrysler LeBaron Newport

12. Successor: HEIR.

13. No-frills grocery chain: ALDI.  I wish we had one closer to us

14. Apple desktop once marketed with the Rolling Stones song "She's a Rainbow": iMAC.

19. Actress Swanson: KRISTY.  I am not a Buffy the Vampire slayer fan, so this needed perps

20. Whizzed (by): FLEW.

24. Need for some copiers: DRY INK.  Do they mean toner??

25. Basics: ABCS.  

26. Petting __: ZOO. 

27. Allow in: ADMIT. 

28. Moor: HEATH. Check this out:

29. "Li'l" fellow: ABNER.  "Li'l Abner was a satirical comic strip that featured a fictional clan of hillbillies located in Dogpatch, USA.  Al Capp wrote and illustrated this strip which ran for 43 years (1934-1977)

Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae

31. Branch of philosophy: ETHICS.

32. Channel for hoops fans: NBA TV.

33. Birthing coach: DOULA.  This came to me in perps

34. New wing: ANNEX.

36. "Talk to Her" Oscar winner Pedro: ALMODOVAR.  No clue as to who he is

40. Rosalind of "3 Body Problem": CHAO.  She doesn't appear to be one of the headliners in this series 

41. "Get serious": BE REAL.  My under-my-breath comments as some of these clues and words were being figured out 

43. Sked placeholder: TBD.  "Sked" is a new-age abbreviation for "schedule".  The letters stand for: To Be Determined

44. Occasion for a launch party, informally: PUB DATE.  I kept thinking this meant the "launch" of a dart and we were at a pub, on a date.  Nope; it's the "publication" date

46. Sported: WORE.  Got this one, but by the time I did I was wore [sic] out 

47. Having a gap: HIATAL.  As much as I dislike having (or writing) clues that are "fill-in-the-blank" I probably would've solved this sooner if the clue read: ____ hernia

51. Polk predecessor: TYLER.  Guessed this one correctly

52. Supports: AIDS. 

53. Chinwag: CHAT.  I never use the term "chinwag".  You?

54. "__ for now": TATA.  See you later ... 

55. Ono from Tokyo: YOKO.  One of the "gimmies" today

56. College basketball coach Barnes: ADIA.  Another of the obscure proper names today

57. Feathered missile: DART.  The item I was going to launch on our PUB DATE

58. Those in favor: AYES.  

60. Peacock network: NBC.

61. Roofing goo: TAR.

62. Test for prospective M.A. students: GRE. 

Note:  I will be back next week (for the June 14th puzzle) and then Mal Man will blog the 21st and 28th June puzzles