Theme: None
Words: 70
Blocks: 34
A new constructor for me, Steve Salitan, and this is his first LAT Saturday, though we last had a Thursday puzzle from him with "Rounds" as the theme. One grid spanner crossing a climber with-
35A. Strategy-change declaration : NO MORE MR. NICE GUY - which makes me think of this song; and, at first, with MRN _ _ EGU _, looking hard to parse.
8D. "No clue" : IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME - anyone remember this song?
Triple stacks of tens with a sort of smiley-face in the center - gotta keep it friendly, because this one looked like it could beat me early on....
ACROSS:
1. R&B singer whose given name is Antoine : FATS DOMINO - I have two music links in, you can supply the rest, my fellow bloggers ~!
11. Repose : CALM
15. 1984 Robert Urich sci-fi comedy, with "The" : ICE PIRATES - I saw this flick, and liked it, although it was a bit tasteless, and Mr. Urich did not have much work after it - "oh no, Space Herpes" - "ALIEN" spoof scene
16. Not right : AWRY - I did try LEFT to start, being LEFT-handed
17. Daring swingers : AERIALISTS
18. They follow pis : RHOS - GREEK letters, and no, they're not GREEK to me
19. Rolling set : TIRES
20. Mariner gp. : NASA - Mariner went to Venus and Mars, here's NASA on it
21. Pub serving : PINT - BEER was not going to work
22. Dutch burg : STAD - an early WAG
23. St. with an arc-shaped northern border : DEL - Delaware; though it could be W.Va, Wis., and others; take a look here
24. Longtime Yankee announcer Allen : MEL - I may be in New York, but I despise the Yankees - not much of a baseball fan ( sorry, C.C.) - big "Broadway Blueshirts" fan
25. Hurt amount? : WORLD - "oh, you're about to be in a WORLD of hurt...." - Chuck Norris; see below
27. Not able : INEPT
30. Belgian leadership group, to some residents : SENAT
33. Age badly, as jokes : GET STALE - are these stale? (some language)
37. Binging : ON A SPREE - Too early in the morning, I was looking for the sound of a "BING"
38. Iberian bread : EUROS - Iberian :: bread = European :: money
39. Charity, e.g. : DONEE - that which gets your donation
40. "Moll Flanders" author : DEFOE
42. Drunk's end : ARD - I was a drunkARD, once
43. Awareness : KEN - was Ken "aware" of Barbie's indiscretions in the mobile home?
44. Calf warmer : SOCK - I tried SOCK, and it stayed
48. Source of low-alcohol wines : ASTI
50. Small red crawlers : EFTS - hand up for ANTS to start?
52. Soprano role in Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" : LEILA
53. Game interruption : RAIN - mostly baseball
54. Vegetable storage area : ROOT CELLAR
56. Block : CLOG
57. 1951 play that inspired "Cabaret" : "I AM A CAMERA" - the short Wiki
58. Lobster moms : HENS - thought it might be COWS; learning moment
59. Knows something is rotten in Denmark : SMELLS A RAT - a 'Pied Piper' reference???
DOWN:
1. Royal orders : FIATs - not the new craze in "mini" car, but this
2. Play a par-3 perfectly : ACE IT - and eagle (2-under) on a par three golf hole is a hole-in-one
3. Earth : TERRA - Latin, as in Terra Firma - solid ground
4. Looked through a knothole, say : SPIED
5. Semana parts : DIAS
6. Florida NBA team, on scoreboards : ORLando, the Magic
7. Augusta native : MAINER - from the state of Maine, meh
9. Fishing gear : NETS
10. Tasmania's highest peak : OSSA
11. One working on a board : CARPENTER - one working WITH a board - hey ~! That's me~!
12. Some time back : A WHILE AGO - I think this is a good song/band/album name...smooooth
13. "Fear" author Hubbard : L. RON - Mr. Scientology
14. Riven is its sequel : MYST - great thinking computer game, where you have to unlock codes, secrets, clues and hints - I found them to be very difficult
23. Indulgent sort : DOTER
24. Error : MISCUE - especially shooting pool
25. Crooked : WARPED - like my sense of humor, and personality
26. Home room : DEN - the only other one I could think of was "MUD"
28. And : PLUS - too, also, hence, therefore, ergo, etc....
29. "Brat Farrar" novelist : TEY (Josephine)
30. Prefix with gram : SONO - sonogram, the image from a sound pulse device in hospitals and such
31. Outflow : EMANATION
32. Unsubtle jewelry : NOSE-RINGS - yes, unsubtle, and not very attractive, IMHO - the nose stud is not so bad....
34. Attach, in a way : TIE-ON
35. Choice indicator : NOD
36. __ school : MEDical
41. Celebratory : FESTAL
44. Name on a southern National Historic Trail sign : SELMA
45. Crude carrier : OILER
46. Santa __: Intel headquarters : CLARA
47. Measure of rock fineness? : KARAT - my measure is how good are you compared to Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Mötley Crüe, etc. - did anyone else celebrate "National Metal Day" for 11-11-11 ???
48. Crafty : ARCH - as in one's ARCH enemy
49. Pitcher's success : SALE - oh, a salesman's pitch, not baseball - OK, so maybe I do know a little bit about baseball; I went with "SAVE"
50. Goddess of discord : ERIS
51. Head of a bar? : FOAM - a 42A likes to see the foamy head on a 21A - but not for long....
52. Open stretches : LEAS - fields
55. A quarter of M : CCL - Roman M = 1000 ÷ 4 =250, C+C+L - a shout out to our blog host?
Answer grid.
Splynter
Words: 70
Blocks: 34
A new constructor for me, Steve Salitan, and this is his first LAT Saturday, though we last had a Thursday puzzle from him with "Rounds" as the theme. One grid spanner crossing a climber with-
35A. Strategy-change declaration : NO MORE MR. NICE GUY - which makes me think of this song; and, at first, with MRN _ _ EGU _, looking hard to parse.
8D. "No clue" : IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME - anyone remember this song?
Triple stacks of tens with a sort of smiley-face in the center - gotta keep it friendly, because this one looked like it could beat me early on....
ACROSS:
1. R&B singer whose given name is Antoine : FATS DOMINO - I have two music links in, you can supply the rest, my fellow bloggers ~!
11. Repose : CALM
15. 1984 Robert Urich sci-fi comedy, with "The" : ICE PIRATES - I saw this flick, and liked it, although it was a bit tasteless, and Mr. Urich did not have much work after it - "oh no, Space Herpes" - "ALIEN" spoof scene
16. Not right : AWRY - I did try LEFT to start, being LEFT-handed
17. Daring swingers : AERIALISTS
18. They follow pis : RHOS - GREEK letters, and no, they're not GREEK to me
19. Rolling set : TIRES
20. Mariner gp. : NASA - Mariner went to Venus and Mars, here's NASA on it
21. Pub serving : PINT - BEER was not going to work
22. Dutch burg : STAD - an early WAG
23. St. with an arc-shaped northern border : DEL - Delaware; though it could be W.Va, Wis., and others; take a look here
24. Longtime Yankee announcer Allen : MEL - I may be in New York, but I despise the Yankees - not much of a baseball fan ( sorry, C.C.) - big "Broadway Blueshirts" fan
25. Hurt amount? : WORLD - "oh, you're about to be in a WORLD of hurt...." - Chuck Norris; see below
27. Not able : INEPT
30. Belgian leadership group, to some residents : SENAT
33. Age badly, as jokes : GET STALE - are these stale? (some language)
37. Binging : ON A SPREE - Too early in the morning, I was looking for the sound of a "BING"
38. Iberian bread : EUROS - Iberian :: bread = European :: money
39. Charity, e.g. : DONEE - that which gets your donation
40. "Moll Flanders" author : DEFOE
42. Drunk's end : ARD - I was a drunkARD, once
43. Awareness : KEN - was Ken "aware" of Barbie's indiscretions in the mobile home?
44. Calf warmer : SOCK - I tried SOCK, and it stayed
48. Source of low-alcohol wines : ASTI
50. Small red crawlers : EFTS - hand up for ANTS to start?
52. Soprano role in Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" : LEILA
53. Game interruption : RAIN - mostly baseball
54. Vegetable storage area : ROOT CELLAR
56. Block : CLOG
57. 1951 play that inspired "Cabaret" : "I AM A CAMERA" - the short Wiki
58. Lobster moms : HENS - thought it might be COWS; learning moment
59. Knows something is rotten in Denmark : SMELLS A RAT - a 'Pied Piper' reference???
DOWN:
1. Royal orders : FIATs - not the new craze in "mini" car, but this
2. Play a par-3 perfectly : ACE IT - and eagle (2-under) on a par three golf hole is a hole-in-one
3. Earth : TERRA - Latin, as in Terra Firma - solid ground
4. Looked through a knothole, say : SPIED
5. Semana parts : DIAS
6. Florida NBA team, on scoreboards : ORLando, the Magic
7. Augusta native : MAINER - from the state of Maine, meh
9. Fishing gear : NETS
10. Tasmania's highest peak : OSSA
11. One working on a board : CARPENTER - one working WITH a board - hey ~! That's me~!
12. Some time back : A WHILE AGO - I think this is a good song/band/album name...smooooth
13. "Fear" author Hubbard : L. RON - Mr. Scientology
14. Riven is its sequel : MYST - great thinking computer game, where you have to unlock codes, secrets, clues and hints - I found them to be very difficult
23. Indulgent sort : DOTER
24. Error : MISCUE - especially shooting pool
25. Crooked : WARPED - like my sense of humor, and personality
26. Home room : DEN - the only other one I could think of was "MUD"
28. And : PLUS - too, also, hence, therefore, ergo, etc....
29. "Brat Farrar" novelist : TEY (Josephine)
30. Prefix with gram : SONO - sonogram, the image from a sound pulse device in hospitals and such
31. Outflow : EMANATION
32. Unsubtle jewelry : NOSE-RINGS - yes, unsubtle, and not very attractive, IMHO - the nose stud is not so bad....
34. Attach, in a way : TIE-ON
35. Choice indicator : NOD
36. __ school : MEDical
41. Celebratory : FESTAL
44. Name on a southern National Historic Trail sign : SELMA
45. Crude carrier : OILER
46. Santa __: Intel headquarters : CLARA
47. Measure of rock fineness? : KARAT - my measure is how good are you compared to Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Mötley Crüe, etc. - did anyone else celebrate "National Metal Day" for 11-11-11 ???
48. Crafty : ARCH - as in one's ARCH enemy
49. Pitcher's success : SALE - oh, a salesman's pitch, not baseball - OK, so maybe I do know a little bit about baseball; I went with "SAVE"
50. Goddess of discord : ERIS
51. Head of a bar? : FOAM - a 42A likes to see the foamy head on a 21A - but not for long....
52. Open stretches : LEAS - fields
55. A quarter of M : CCL - Roman M = 1000 ÷ 4 =250, C+C+L - a shout out to our blog host?
Answer grid.
Splynter
32 comments:
Morning, all!
This one, I'm sad to say, completely and utterly defeated me. TEY, MEL, LEILA, SENAT, ICE PIRATES, OSSA (I thought that was a Greek mountain), ACE IT, FESTAL, STAD... Totally out of my wheelhouse.
And then, ARCH means crafty? I see from Dictionary.com that Crafty is, indeed, one of the definitions of ARCH, but I never new it before. It's not, however, the same ARCH that is used in the phrase "Arch enemy."
And low-alcohol wines come from ASTI? Who knew? Well, not I, that's for sure.
The long answers were actually quite common and delightful phrases, but with so much else missing I didn't have a chance at getting them.
So, epic fail all around for me. Thanks, Steve! ^_^
It's a mystery to me why I wouldn't give up on that phrase even though nothing would work off of it in the middle. Too much "meh" for me. Went to red letters to finnish and STILL struggled.
Ah-ha, NYT got the Silkie Saturday this week.
Good day folks,
My dumb mistakes and brain lock have done me in most of this week, so why not end it that way too? Today the SW corner did me in. Like Splynter, had SAVE for PITCHERS SUCCESS. The CL in 56A & 48D & 49D were blank. Oh yeah, and in 30A & D, entered an M rather than an S.
Started with LEFT for NOT RIGHT, but AWRY eventually made its appearance.
The rest of the fills were sussed out, but the eraser had another good workout.
Lots of Wags & Swags today. Even though I didn't complete it. I did enjoy the struggle.
I'm done for the week. Sunday an income producing day (Hopefully). Enjoy your weekend and we'll talk on Monday.
Finished faster than usual, but failed to get all of it right. I had SEAS and SEILA instead of LEAS AND LEILA. When it comes to Bizet, if it ain't Carmen, I don't know it.
Yes, Splynter, hand up for ANTS and for ITS A MYSTERY TO ME. Gave up on the latter rather quickly, though.
Thanx Mr. Salitan for a fine Saturday puzzle and to Splynter for a fine writeup.
Could not finish center west block even after a time out to walk the dogs. It was a toughie. I saw BINGing not binge-ing. Bing is a search site so I got royally messed up there. Had "nice guy" but had "old" for "old school" so couldn't make headway. But thanks, Steve, for the brain challenge! I like the tough ones.
Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.
Wonderful write-up and links to help guide the way on this one, Splynter! Yes, hand up for “ants” instead of EFTS. I really didn’t think a person from Maine is called a MAINER. I always thought they were Mainiacs (LOL)? But I did like seeing my name at 11D.
I really thought I would never finish the SW corner. But I finally sussed NO MORE MR NICE GUY and ON A SPREE. With ASTI and HENS in place, I somehow was able to fill in the rest without too many problems. But it had me scratching my head for a while.
Thanks for a super Saturday stumper, Steve!
"Be careful what you wish for." I wished for harder puzzles and received this Stumper. DNF. I had the same problems as most of you.
Mornin' to all,
I like to struggle with a puzzle but not have a down-and-out fight to get a letter or a word. Red letters really glared at me, and that is not a great way to start off the day!
Maybe I'd better go back to printing the puzzle instead of using the laptop.
Grrrrr......
I saw BINGing not binge-ing.
I had the exact same experience, but was too embarrassed to mention it in my original post... ^_^
Hi there ~!
Don't worry, Barry, I was thinking even less of the BING search engine, and was stuck on the sound an arriving elevator makes....
Splynter
ITSAMYSTERYTOME why this wasn’t correct. A seemingly daunting but very doable and enjoyable Saturday effort, Steve and Splynter.
Musings
-Didn’t/don’t know SENAT and Monogram worked for me and so I was one cell short
-FESTAL and TEY were Greek to me
-Long fills helped more than the short ones
-I am a big fan of Tony Kornheiser who starts every segment with music. Any reference to New Orleans elicits a Fats Domino song and he always refers to him by his given name.
-I also went for the hard G, as per Don…
-The Donee gets charity and is not the act for me
-I thought Norm was the head of the bar (2:25)
-A lobster hen? Really, wow.
-As a kid I sat in the “Knothole Section” for a dollar at Husker games. That area is now home to a 99 row edifice and seats are $60 a copy
-Our very cute clerk at Wal Mart last night told us she has 4 face piercings including a NOSERING that she has to remove for work
-I hope everyone is safe at the Husker/PSU game today. There has certainly never been a game played under these circumstances before.
Addendum - Thanks for all the kind comments yesterday about my lovely wife's 65th birthday. How she agreed to marry me remains a mystery worthy of reposing at KARNAK.
Good morning:
This was a very difficult puzzle, our constructor has moved up from Tuesdays to Thursdays and now this work out, but I enjoyed it and the structure with the intersecting middle grid spanners was fun. It really set the puzzle into quadrants. I did not know Lobsters mommies were HENS, nor the history behind the very entertaining movie CABARET . I also thought “daring swingers” was very nice, and the shout out to both Marti and Splynter in 11D was interesting.
Nice write up, S., but you could not be more wrong about ROBERT URICH not working after ICE PIRATES in which he played a character named Jason btw. Urich went on to play Spenser, the detective from the very popular Robert Parker series, both for four years in a series and in later TV movies. He also had a great part in Lonesome Dove . Like Burt Reynolds before him, he went to Florida State on a football scholarship, and was the lead actor in 19 tv series. He died young from a rare cancer.
Happy Saturday all.
Good morning Splynter and all.
I agree with most of you. Too many arcane clues; SENAT, OSSA, TEY, etc. But the grid spanning and long acrosses and downs were doable if you could only get them launched. SONOgram was hard to get after trying a host of others - holo, mono, kilo, etc. A few bright spots - EFTS after having 'ants' and SALE, very clever. DEL was a gimme.
I thought I was going to be in a WORLD of hurt on this one. I laid it down and walked away twice before I finally took everything out of the SW corner and started anew. Getting rid of recession, stop, kilo and outs in that corner finally let me back into it from the other areas. SONO or mONO? I guessed that SENAT, which is similar to our SENATe, made sense.
Yes, those red ants were there before the EFTS chased them away, along with left before AWRY.
Last to fall was that H down in the corner. I finally decided that crafty = ARCH was possible and HENS works for other females, why not lobsters?
One foulup kept me from getting a completion. Stupid mistake. We have a Devoe Cadillac agency here and I wrote in Devoe instead of DEFOE. Vestal looked OK, so I didn't give it another thought.
Great Saturday puzzle. Thanks to Steve and to Splynter for the write up.
I just went out and bought three lobster HENS for dinner tonight. Local seafood market is always fresh - these just came in today, so my mouth is already watering...
well,27-not able... describes my lack of ability to even get started.
I can't imagine knowing IcePirates or the given name of Fats Domino...
Reading Barry G.'s opening post made me feel a little better, because this sure was a tough DNF for me, and I'm glad I wasn't alone.
Weirdly, I too got many of the long items and had most of my trouble with the shorter ones. Had 'nor' instead of 'nod' and 'no strings' (which made no sense) instead of 'nose rings.' As a result never did get 'donee' for 'charity, even though it occurred to me once or twice but didn't seem to fit with the perps.
Of course thought baseball instead of adman for 'pitchers 's success' and put in 'save'--too much sports all around these days. As a result 'arty' instead of 'arch' and 'TVog' instead of 'clog'--kept wondering what the heck that referred to.
I guess a little humility is not a bad thing, once in a while, and okay on a Saturday.
Thanks for the challenge, Mr. Salitan, and the great write-up, Splynter.
Well JD, I knew Fats Domino's given name right off the bat! And it all pretty much came to a screeching halt after that. Arch = crafty? Senat? Bing-ing not binge-ing.
Yep, what everyone else said. The cluing was most clever... too much so for me. That's what makes a Saturday puzzle!
Think I'll try the NYT's Silkie. That should really make me feel inadequate!
Happy Saturday to One and All.
Puzzle was a DNF for me. I left ants in and had started with HG's Norm for the bar head and ended up with Noam. Too little enthusiasm at that point to figure any more out. So...near victory, but just a little short. Agree that it was a very difficult outing and was satisfied even without the win.
Speaking of wins, the PSU v NU game was as respectful as it could be, all things considered. I'm glad it was a good contest and am even happier it's behind us. Now if they would just leave Joe Pa alone for the rest of the day, everyone could get a little rest.
On the first pass through I confidently plugged in Tony Bennet, then had doubts he is R&B. Oh well, go on. The only things I got were DeFoe, Karat and Smells a Rat.
After perusing the atlas I came up with OSSA and (surprise! it's right) NASA. So then I wanted Tony Orlando at 1A which led me to put down ORL rather than MIAmi at 6d.
Kindle store gave me the other authors. (Research is the only cure for ignorance.)
Then I fled to our dear Saturday pal, Splynter, to get me started. Fats? Really? Okay, ACE IT and TIRES (not wheel).
Enjoyed the music to soothe my frustration. Thanks, Splynter, good write-up. Glad you graduated from drunkard.
-PK
A very satisfying puzzle today. I had the toughest time in the WSW. Once I broke through to ON A SPREE (originally OVERDOSE for me) and NOSE RINGS (instead of NO?E????S), it was a piece of cake.
Hola Everyone, I did fill in all the white squares today, but not without the help of my CW Dictionary. Some of the more obscure names, such as Tey, Ice Pirates, Leila and Senat filled in as I finally got the longer answers in one by one.
I don't usually do Sat. puzzles. This one was challenging,but not impossible. This was another learning experience for me and I must say was a great ego builder.
Hands up for Ants before Efts. Also tried Mono before Sono(gram). My eraser worked just fine today.
Thanks for a great writeup, Splynter.
Have a great rest of the weekend everyone.
Greetings, group. Thank you, Splynter, for your very much needed explanations on this difficult puzzle.
I'm very late for today's FESTAL comments as I attended a birthday lunch for one of our group where we had a really festive time
I managed to finish this one but was in a WORLDOFHURT finding a good foothold.
Knowing DEFOE, STAD, and SMELLARAT helped but it was a long, slow dance; I chipped away at it until the end and yet had some errors.
EFTS, FOAM, SONO, and SENAT were corrected after reading the blog.
This was a great challenge from Steve Salitan and I congratulate him.
I hope your Saturday has been as lovely as mine, everyone!
PK - I had to chuckle, as your comment appears to indicate that you used an atlas to find NASA. Ha!
Since I seem to have had the same problems as you all, I'm bypassing the standard WBS, and going with WES: what everyone said.
Loved the challenge, though. Thanks!
Holy cats, this puzz beat me soundly. ICEPIRATES, DEL, DONEE, DEFOE, OSSA, FESTAL, and ARCH were killers.
Loved "Head of a bar?" = FOAM.
Time for a glass of wine.
Delaware is actually defined to have an arc shaped border, and I believe the center of the arc might be the top of the capital building. The other states mentioned are all somewhat arc-shaped, but Delaware is an actual arc.
Frank, I know it sounds dumb, but I looked up OSSA and immediately also wrote in NASA. Who knows how the synapse snapped?
-PK
Agree with others about the SW corner, but also wanted to point out that 45 dn, "crude carrier," does not define "oiler," which is a ship that carries fuel and supplies to other ships... No crude oil
Good Sunday morning, folks. Thanks, Steve, for the puzzle. It was a toughie. Thank you, C.C. For the comments.
I lost on this one. Messed with it off and on all day yesterday when I had a break. could not get it all.
Binging got me. Missed EFTS. Had ANTS. I have gotten EFTS correct for years, but never clues that way. hope I remember.
Of course I had SAVE instead of SALE.
Had NORM instead of FOAM.
Never heard of MYST?
Now that it is early Sunday morning, I will try to find an L A Times Sunday paper and attempt that puzzle on the plane back to Chicago.
See you later today.
Abejo
"Ken" is Scottish, or Gaelis for know or understand as in, "Do you ken where the kirk is laddie?"
Post a Comment