Saturday, September 25, 2021, Adrian Johnson

Saturday Themeless by Adrian Johnson 

I first encountered Adrian Johnson on Feb. 13 of this year when he co-authored a Saturday themeless with Jeff Chen. Today we have a solo puzzle by Adrian with a very striking grid design. Adrian's comments:

Hi all,

It’s great to be back in the LA Times, and I’m excited to share my take on one of the most iconic themeless patterns of recent memory with you this weekend. 

 

I started with a NE crossing of PR BLITZ & ZEDONKS, which I thought was a fun, lively and scrabbly launching point for my creative thinking (though it didn’t survive my final edits). When I moved south and got JALISCO/JUKEBOX/XY PLANE to work in the SE, I knew I was onto something. My favorite clues that survived edits are 18A (which I owe to Brad Wilber), 41A and 41D, while my favorite entries are 15A, 1D and 8D.

 

Ultimately, I’m delighted by the end product, a feeling not based on how I might judge a “fun” or “lively” crossword, but instead rooted in the variety of words and phrases I was able to fit into the puzzle. The grid’s 36 7-letter entries give ample opportunity for a constructor to push themselves to develop an engaging picture of our world using many parts of life and culture, forcing solvers to stretch their brain and use all their knowledge to get to a victorious finish. In just one corner of this grid you get Mexican geography, French language, English playwriting, two musical entries that couldn’t be more different, some math, a cleaning agent and a tedious synonym. That kind of diversity is what makes me the happiest when reminiscing on this year-old crossword.

Thank you for taking a crossword journey with me on this fine Saturday, and I hope you enjoyed the puzzle! 

My email adrian johnson 435 at gmail.com is open to anyone wanting to chat about crossword stuff, or life in general. I’d love to hear from you!

-AJ

Across

1. P.D.Q. Bach's "Iphigenia in Brooklyn," e.g.: CANTATA - A CANTATA is a musical a medium-length narrative piece of music for voices with instrumental accompaniment, typically with solos, chorus, and orchestra. Peter Schickele's group performs many fun pieces mocking classical music and this is one of them. Here is some of this silliness

8. Dumpling cooker, perhaps: STEAMER - I wrote to C.C. and told her I'd bet a lot of money that she has a bamboo STEAMER. Her reply: "You lose! We have a small kitchen. These steamers are so bulky. In China, all families have steamers. Chinese don't bake bread. We steam mantou (Chinese bread)."

15. So cool it hurts: UBER HIP.

16. Cost of winging it?: AIRFARE - A fun Adrian clue. 

17. Court figures: LAWYERS - William Jennings Bryan v. Clarence Darrow is a very famous pairing

18. Bistro cheese?: MAITRED - A MAÎTRE D is a "big cheese" in a restaurant. I struggled for the name of a cheese and then for recognizing the French word i generated but got 'er done.

19. "90 Day Fiancé" airer: TLC - Google if you must

20. Fireballs, e.g.: METEORS - Pieces of space rock that usually just burn up in the Earth's atmosphere can be streaking across the sky in this long exposure picture 

22. Kings, on NBA scoreboards: SAC - Even Omaha was a part of  this family tree from 1973 - 1975

23. Ungulate feature: HOOF - Good advice I seldom heed

25. Music with conga drums: SALSA - Desi Arnaz's/Ricky Ricardo's instrument of choice

26. Nigerian pop star: SADE - Let's take a nice, smooth jazz break

27. Get a tat: INK UP.

29. Connection: TIE.

30. ESPN analyst Rose: JALEN and 47. Net support: RIM - Those RIMS are now spring loaded so they don't break off when guys like JALEN Rose used to dunk on them

31. Adolescents: TEENERS - Okay, if Merriman Webster says so...

33. Samovar transport: TEA CART.

35. Bit of hope: RAY.

36. German gripe: ACH.

37. Offered as proof: ADDUCED.

41. Pay-to-play system: JUKEBOX - This would not pass the woke test today

45. Director Sergio: LEONE.

46. Sr. income source: IRA.

48. Emotionless: STONY.

49. Streaming concerns: LAGS - A new ISP is coming to our town and promises much faster downloads

50. Skate park features: RAILS - What could possibly go wrong?

52. Leader of a popular breakfast trio: SNAP, Crackle and Pop. A great item in your Keto diet.

53. ER personnel: MDS.

54. "Heather Has Two __": 1989 children's book: MOMMIES - My neighbor's grandson has two MOMMIES and they are both lovely women.

56. Buck Henry was the first to host it five times, briefly: SNL - Who knew it would be a big hit in TV and crosswords?

57. "Do we have the ok?": IS IT A GO - Our constructors' conversations with Rich. Rich's reply, "Yeah, were' going to give it a 4. Shot: TRY."

59. Common cleanser: SAL SODA - It's been around for decades 

61. Habitual surfer: NETIZEN.

62. Medieval trumpet: CLARION.

63. London area: EASTEND.

64. "The Entertainer" playwright: OSBORNE.

Down:

1. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," e.g.: CULT HIT - Ya think?

2. Awabi sushi mollusk: ABALONE.

3. Unsuccessful rollout that tried to imitate Pepsi: NEW COKE - The Edsel of soft drinks

5. "I'm talking now": AHEM.

6. Rotation targets: TIRES - Most say you should rotate your tires every 7,500 miles

7. High-level H.S. math course: AP STATS.

8. Abenaki leader who first contacted Plymouth settlers: SAMOSET - He is said to have wandered into the Plymouth camp and asked for some beer in English which he learned from British sailors with whom he had had contact on the coast

9. Crown: TIARA.

10. Goddess of discord: ERIS - Here ya go

11. Sailor's direction: AFT.

12. Wine used to flavor zabaglione: MARSALA.

13. Modern book case?: E-READER.

14. Trifling sum: RED CENT - Derivation

21. Certain Ivy Leaguer: ELI.

24. Community-building races: FUN RUNS - FUN and RUN in the same sentence?

26. Potpourri packets: SACHETS.

28. Parting word: PEACE - The one-word sign off word for the host of the original Today Show, Dave Garroway

30. Pickup game: JACKS - The set I had

32. Manhattan liquor: RYE -  2 oz RYE or Canadian whisky, 3/4 oz Sweet red vermouth, Dash Angostura bitters, Maraschino cherry (Garnish)

34. Café freebie: EAU

37. Hardly sharing words: ALL MINE.

38. Jordan River outlet: DEAD SEA.

39. Monitors a Lab, say: DOG SITS - Uh, that lab is a canine, not a scientific area

40. Place to play ball: DIAMOND.

41. State known for its tequila: JALISCO - Blue Agave plants used to make tequila in a field near Tequila, Mexico in the state of Jalisco 

42. Lyon greeting: BON SOIR - Good Evening in Lyon and the rest of France

43. Without respite: ON AND ON.

44. Where many plots are made: XY PLANE - Plot these points in an XY PLANE (Cartesian Plane), join the points and you got yourself a triangle 

50. Seth who played Wozniak in "Steve Jobs": ROGEN - ROGEN and Woz below

51. Makes watertight: SEALS.

54. Place to use an exit strategy: MAZE.

55. Rock quarry unit: SLAB - This quarry in Carrara, Italy produced the SLAB that Michelangelo used for the David

58. Start of a fair exchange: TIT - TIT for tat

60. Sign of success: SRO - Husker VB has a streak of 270 consecutive sellouts and so Standing Room Only tickets are all that are available for games

Saturday, June 19, 2021, Pawel Fludzinski

Saturday Themeless by Pawel Fludzinski  

I had a run of Pawel's wonderful themeless Saturday entries in 2019 and now I am so pleased to see him back again. His last Saturday puzzle that I blogged was on May 14, 2019 but in some correspondence we have had since then he said he had received notice on 1/1/21 that he had had a themeless accepted and figured with the usual six month lag time it would be a summer puzzle. Well, here it is, two days before the first day of summer.

Pawel did his doctorate and post doctorate work in organic chemistry and retired to Santa Fe, NM after 31 years of working for Eli Lilly in Pharmaceutical R and D. Eight of those years included stints in England and Japan. Since then Pawel has moved to Denver to be closer to his new work in Boulder. 

Here are his gracious and informative comments on this puzzle:

Hi Gary,

Thanks for reaching out - always enjoy your commentaries on Saturday puzzles!  Appreciate the time and effort you put into them.

Regarding the puzzle - I seem to have gravitated towards creating themeless puzzles - about 1/2 my overall effort, and probably 80% of recent efforts.  I went through a period of trying to create puzzles with rotational symmetry - the puzzle today was the 9th such effort, but the first one accepted anywhere.  Not surprising - the pandemic has led to a whole new group of excellent constructors, so the likelihood of acceptance, especially for a themeless, is pretty low.  I am pleased/humbled that this puzzle made the grade.

In constructing themeless puzzles, I build around seed entries.  Given the symmetry of this puzzle, I had a seed for each quadrant - INDEXCASE, AREWECOOL, SILENCERS and WORMHOLES - and then I completed the construction around them.  My only regret is that my favorite clue for these four seed entries is the only one that the editor did not keep - I suggested "Librarians, at times" for SILENCERS.   Perhaps my clue was too easy - I am happy to defer to the judgement of the editor.

Across:

1. Epidemiologist's "ground zero": INDEX CASE - Also called:

10. Swiss city that hosts the World Economic Forum annual meeting: DAVOS - Here ya go

15. Tourist income source for some farmers: CORN MAZES - A high tech GPS device and a low tech mower made this famous Spanish artist into a CORN MAZE

16. Isfahan inhabitant: IRANI - A 4+ hr drive south of Tehran. 

17. Emphasized: IN ITALICS.

18. Big name in skin care: ARPEL.

19. Is sweet on: LOVES.

20. Field fare, briefly: MRE - My WWII dads and uncles would probably have preferred these Meals Ready to Eat to K-Rations.

21. Mother __: GOOSE.

22. River through Flanders: YSER - A 48 mile long river that empties into the North Sea that saw violent fighting in WWI.

23. Good, to Guillermo: BUENO - ¡Este rompecabezas es muy bueno! (This puzzle is very good!) 

   

25. Wee warbler: WREN.

26. Grumps: MUTTERS - The verb not the noun

28. Mil. group integrated with male units in 1978: WAC.

29. Eli of "The Magnificent Seven": WALLACH - Eli got second billing but played the bad guy in this 1960 classic.

33. Fill: SATIATE.

35. El __ Pacífico: OCEANO.

s36. Shredder: TEARER.

37. Sells to consumers: RETAILS.

39. Projecting architectural features: DORMERS - From the inside

40. Ed.'s inbox fillers: MSS - ManuScriptS (any port in a storm)

41. Genuine: SINCERE.

43. Cease: HALT.

45. Father-and-son actors: CAANS - Here is dad James working on Hawaii 5-0 as a guest star where son Scott has a role

James Caan                       Scott Caan

46. Vertical actions: BOBS - Ali BOBS and weaves

50. Chiwere speakers: OTOES 

52. Many a GI: PVT

53. Solitaire measure: CARAT - About .007 oz for a solitaire diamond

54. "Glassheart" singer Lewis: LEONA - Her IMDB

55. Many a recital piece: PIANO SOLO.

57. Twain's "Taming the Bicycle," e.g.: ESSAY - A fun read

58. Depleted: EATEN INTO - Niagara Falls

59. Flute features: STEMS - Oh those flutes!

60. "All good?": ARE WE COOL?

Down:

1. How an archrival might be greeted: ICILY - Brrr

2. Faux pas: NONO'S.

3. Initiative: DRIVE.

4. Log: ENTER.

5. 'Tis the season: XMAS - XMAS ads usually start running around Labor Day

6. __ Poly Pomona: CAL.

7. Surveyor's measurement: AZIMUTH - Astronomer's too

8. Like Superman's alter ego: SECRET - Man! The glasses really fooled me!

9. Early Judaic sect: ESSENES - Do the Dead Sea Scrolls of the ESSENES mention Jesus?

10. Laptop screen meas.: DIAG - A woman here in town bought her husband a 50" DIAG TV and then put the old TV in the new box and set it out on her porch. Some porch pirate got a big surprise!

11. Feathered flier: ARROW - There's an ARROW in there somewhere!

12. Highly touted computer product we're still waiting for: VAPORWARE - Computer hardware or software that are announced but are not and may never be available. Bluetooth was VAPORWARE for quite a while

13. Kayak, typically: ONE SEATER - This one comes with a tightly fitted "spray skirt" to keep water out of the kayak

14. Brits' mufflers: SILENCERS - In America we call that tank on the right a muffler. The Brits call it a SILENCER

23. Pastoral: BUCOLIC.

24. Figures of speech?: ORATORS - My chem teacher's lab sign

26. Salon treatments: MANIS and pedis

27. Firewood measure: STERE.

29. Sci-fi passages: WORM HOLES - Remember the Michael Paleos' puzzle with these passages in the grid?

30. Nails the exam: ACES A TEST.

31. Unties, maybe: LETS LOOSE - What's in the box Pandora?

32. Trout's team, on scoreboards: LAA - LA Angle Mike Trout is proof that one very highly paid superstar can not win a baseball championship 

34. 2007 Will Smith film "__ Legend": I AM - Meh...

38. Veggie with an edible pod: SNAP PEA.

39. Like many hibiscus leaves: DENTATE - Leaves that have a dental margin

42. Blini topper: CAVIAR - Blini (Russian pancake) topped with Crème Fraîche,  smoked salmon and Hackleback CAVIAR

44. Common brunch hr.: TEN AM.

46. Simple: BASIC - Also "Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". My first programming language

47. University town near Bangor: ORONO.

48. Heroic 1920s sled dog: BALTO - BALTO got the most credit because he arrived in Nome with the serum but the real hero was the lead dog Togo who ran much further in much worse conditions.

49. Potter's perch: STOOL.

51. Word before or after "who": SAYS - or SEZ

53. Geometric solid: CONE - We math teachers taught about CONES and Conic sections

56. Untested: NEW.