Saturday Themeless by Stella Zawistowski
Our self-proclaimed "brawny brain" is back with another Saturday entry. Stella is a Brooklyn-based copywriter at a pharmaceutical advertising agency and a power lifter. In her last puzzle she introduced us to a North African egg dish called SHAKSHUKA which I have yet to try.
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This is what she had to say about this puzzle and her cluing/fill philosophy:
Thank you kindly! Here's a note on the puzzle:
Across:
My seed for this puzzle was TROUSER ROLE, as I am a lover of classical music (although not especially an opera fan). Since the last time I had a themeless published in LAT, I've grown a lot in terms of considering entries for their potential for solvers to realize after the fact what the clue was hinting at, even if they didn't know the term beforehand. I am definitely in the camp of "learning something new from crosswords is good" and not "solving a puzzle should be about figuring out tricky clues for things I already know." But I've moved more to the side of "learn the thing while solving the puzzle," not "see the unfamiliar thing, have to Google it afterward, and THEN learn the thing."
PIANISSIMO was not a seed entry, but now that you know I'm a classical music fan, you can see why I chose that over other possibilities for 14-Across!
Across:
1. On the move: ASTIR.
6. At least four yrs. old, for cognac: VSOP - Very Superior Old Pale
10. TV series for 17 seasons: NCIS - Some cases are solved on the barest of threads that can strain credulity but it's all fun and the bad guys always get caught in an hour
14. Like much of the first movement of the "Moonlight" Sonata: PIANISSIMO - Visual and audio representation of this beautiful piece played PIANISSIMO (quietly)
14. Like much of the first movement of the "Moonlight" Sonata: PIANISSIMO - Visual and audio representation of this beautiful piece played PIANISSIMO (quietly)
17. Cold complication: BRONCHITIS.
18. Goes to court?: WOOS - Gotta love this one Stella! Court is used as a verb ("to court" is an infinitive and not an prepositional phrase) makes this fun. Wait, you put SUES first? Uh, so did I.
20. Weather report word: HIGHS.
21. Trick users, in a way: PHISH.
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23. Most roguish: SLIEST.
25. Brit's Bordeaux: CLARET - What's this all about?
28. Menace, feline-style: HISS AT - Kitty's mad!
29. Duel purpose?: HONOR - Hamilton had been a "second" for 12 of these matters of HONOR before Burr killed him in this one. This plaque in Weehawken, N.J. marks the site
30. Rain gear preservers: BOOT TREES.
33. Latin lamb: AGNUS - AGNUS Dei mean Lamb of God
34. Per ssa.gov, baby name that's far more popular when "a" is added to it: ANN - How 'bout dat?
35. Airy spaces: ATRIA - Beijing lays claim to have the world's tallest ATRIUM at 620'
36. Having two equal-length legs: ISOSCELES - Good putters keep an ISOSCELES triangle shape all through their stroke
38. French darling: CHERI.
39. Like many renewals: YEARLY.
40. Expressed disapproval of: CHIDED.
41. Road hog?: HARLEY - Former students of mine run this hog shop in west Omaha
42. French wood: BOIS - Matisse's famous The Path in the BOIS de Boulogne
43. Humor, e.g.: GENRE - Oscar n
44. Cantina breakfast component: HUEVO - Huevo Rancheros (Rancher's Eggs)
46. Old gum mach. inserts: CTS.
49. Not pizzicato: ARCO - A young girl plucking violin strings (pizzicato) with her bow at the ready to play ARCO
50. Hot flower: MOLTEN LAVA.
52. Spa offering: PEEL.
53. Objection to hustling: DONT RUSH ME.
54. Being of old Rome: ESSE - Another crossword stalwart
55. "__ yes!": I SAY.
56. Tsukiji Market fish offerings: TUNAS - The final TUNA auction at this Tokyo facility before it moved to more modern quarters
Down:
1. Some PD calls: APBS 2. "Hey" assistant: SIRI - "Hey Siri, don't police say BOLO (Be On the LookOUT) instead of APB today?"
3. Sangre de Cristo Mountains resort: TAOS - Not a bad backdrop
4. Comfort, e.g.: INN - or Holiday INN
5. Shaky measurement standard?: RICHTER SCALE - The 1964 Alaska Earthquake was 9.2 on the RICHTER SCALE
6. Churchill trademark: V-SIGN.
7. Jedi nemesis: SITH.
8. They may be intentional: OMISSIONS.
9. Bldgs. with boxes: POS - Crossword constructor Evan Kalish has a website with pictures of over 10,000 Post Offices
10. "Listen up!": NOW HEAR THIS
11. Sheltered from the outside world: CLOISTERED - Fewer and fewer people are choosing the CLOISTERED life
12. Response to a beating: I LOST.
13. Dress uniform part: SASH - George Washington's SASH was lost to history until it was rediscovered at Harvard's Peabody Museum in 2011
15. Loose-fitting dress: SHIFT - A straight, unwaisted dress
22. Male opera character played by a female performer: TROUSER ROLE - A new phrase for me. This is when a male character is played by a female performer to make use of the higher voice. The most famous role is Cherubino (left in picture) in The Marriage of Figaro
24. Amphibious WWII craft: LST.
25. Masala-flavored drink: CHAI - In India, Masala means spice and CHAI means tea. Masala-flavored CHAI is spiced tea
26. Mill input: LOGS - LOGS in, lumber out
27. Travel delays, say: ANNOYANCES - We had one in Minneapolis and almost called C.C.
28. Certain cell contents: HONEY.
30. Hypes: BALLYHOOS - Famous Johnny Mercer song
Hooray for Hollywood
That screwy BALLYHOOEY Hollywood
Where any office boy or young mechanic can be a panic
With just a good looking pan
And any barmaid can be a star maid
If she dances with or without a fan
31. Word on an Irish euro: EIRE - Here and in crosswords
32. Spoken: SAID.
37. "Maid of Athens, __ we part ... ": Byron: ERE.
40. Charge to get in: COVER.
41. Toast portion: HERE'S - The toastee in the scene appears often in cwd's
42. January's "Mad Men" character: BETTY - She should have dumped Don much earlier
43. Hang open: GAPE.
45. It's usually longer than a radius: ULNA.
46. Four-time Oscar-winning lyricist: CAHN - I'll be very impressed if you can know what goes in the two empty cells. Hint: Frank sat this one out. (* Answer below)
47. Rating for a show with lots of oaths: TV MA.
48. MS enclosures: SAES.
50. When Michelangelo began "David": MDI.
51. Sch. on Shaq's résumé: LSU.
48. MS enclosures: SAES.
50. When Michelangelo began "David": MDI.
51. Sch. on Shaq's résumé: LSU.
*Call Me Irresponsible/Papa's Delicate Condition/ Jackie Gleason
