Greek word for "knowledge" / SAT 2-3-24 / Sir Georg who conducted 999 Chicago Symphony concerts / Cannabis with a high level of THC / Pass on a wing and a prayer / Pucker precipitators at a pub / Korean model hitting the scene in 1999 /

Constructor: Carolyn Davies Lynch and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed)

THEME: [What it's not, in a saying]— Two long answers with this same clue cross near the middle of the grid (more a "feature" than a theme—the puzzle is basically themeless)

"Theme" answers:

• ROCKET SCIENCE (31A: What it's not, in a saying)
• BRAIN SURGERY (17D: What it's not, in a saying)

Word of the Day: Sir Georg SOLTI (22A: Sir Georg who conducted 999 Chicago Symphony concerts) —

Sir Georg Solti KBE (/dʒɔːrdʒ ˈʃɒlti/ JORJ SHOL-tee, Hungarian: [ˈʃolti]; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner, and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics, and being of Jewish background, he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House, he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist. [...] In 1969, Solti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. He conducted many recordings and high-profile international tours with the orchestra. Solti relinquished the position in 1991 and became the orchestra's music director laureate, a position he held until his death. During his time as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's eighth music director, he also served as music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1972 until 1975 and principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 until 1983. // Known in his early years for the intensity of his music making, Solti was widely considered to have mellowed as a conductor in later years. He recorded many works two or three times at various stages of his career, and was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The best-known of his recordings is probably Decca's complete set of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, made between 1958 and 1965. Solti's Ring has twice been voted the greatest recording ever made, in polls for Gramophone magazine in 1999 and the BBC's Music Magazine in 2012. Solti was repeatedly honoured by the recording industry with awards throughout his career. From 1963 to 1998, he won 31 Grammy Awards as a recording artist, making him the Grammy Awards' most-awarded artist until Beyoncé surpassed his record in 2023. (wikipedia)

Short write-up today*, as things are a little ... chaotic at my house right now (more on that some other time). I normally don't love, or even like, themes getting in the way of my Friday/Saturday themeless experience, but this little [What it's not] pairing was delightful flourish than obtrusive, half-baked thematic content (the kind of thematic content that shows up late-week—when it shows up, which mercifully is rarely). I like that "It's not ROCKET SCIENCE" and "It's not BRAIN SURGERY" are essentially the same sentiment, phrased slightly differently. Getting one of them definitely helped me get the other. I wasn't sure what to make of START OUT SMALL. Is it also part of the mini-theme? Is "START OUT SMALL" an exhortation to someone who has been told "It's not ROCKET SCIENCE" (or "BRAIN SURGERY") immediately prior? It's like the puzzle is trying to urge someone to do some seemingly difficult task that is actually not so difficult at all if you're methodical and persistent about it. The BRAIN SURGERY / ROCKET SCIENCE intersection is off-center, which is why we have this extra 13-letter phrase cutting across the (near) middle of the grid—to preserve symmetry (the puzzle has 16 rows, which allows it to hold two long answers at its center—in regular 15x15 grids (with regular rotational symmetry), central answers have to come in odd-numbered amounts, typically 1 or 3, in order to preserve symmetry). I can't tell if START OUT SMALL is here solely for technical reasons (i.e. the puzzle needed literally *any* 13-letter answer to make the ROCKET SCIENCE / BRAIN SURGERY crossing doable), or if there's some kind of adjacent thematic content. Either way, START OUT SMALL is a fine phrase. The marquee part of this grid is clever, and it doesn't force surrounding fill into painful contortions. In fact, the grid is remarkably clean, overall. This felt more like a Friday than a Saturday. Certainly easier than yesterday's puzzle. Better to get my bright, whooshy Friday puzzle a day late than not at all.Could've been START OFF SMALL but "UT" seemed more grid-friendly than "FF" so I went with that. I then spun off in all kinds of directions, from HEMP to REAP through REGAN and NEMO (both gimmes) and all the way down and then back up again, once I figured out that the end of 17D: What it's not, in a saying wasn't URGENT ... but SURGERY: