Thursday July 22, 2021 David Poole

The Case of the Missing Themers

Today's outing is by frequent  contributor David Poole, a mathematician who last appeared on the Corner on July 1 of this year.  Here he was interviewed by C.C. just last September. 

I have to admit that I was initially very perplexed by this puzzle's theme: there is a reveal clue, but no actual theme clues for it to reveal (probably old hat for veteran solvers, but not for this relative newbie).  Here it is:

37A. Place to find a date ... and any one of four in this puzzle (circled letters are hints): CORNER STONE.

Obviously you often "find a date" on CORNERSTONES and they're usually expressed in Roman numerals.  So Bill was off and running, looking for Roman numerals in the corners, and of course found what he was looking for, as  letters like M, L, I, and V are very common in Crosswords.  But pretty soon I was down in the weeds, then began to have the sinking feeling that they were actually "seaweeds".  So I issued a distress call to the blogging team, and before you could say "splash", who bobbed to the surface but my Thursday alter-ego, and our favorite Marine Mammal,  Malodorous Manatee.  He gently explained that (1) my parsing  of CORNERSTONES was incorrect (the fill comes from the factory unparsed and bloggers first have to put spaces between any multi-word entries), and (2) that the reveal answer was really two words: CORNER STONES. With a resounding "DOH", I saw that for the want of a SPACE,  our devious constructor David had thrown me off the scent.   Each circle was the start of the given name of an entertainer, wrapped around a CORNER and the surname of each was STONE.  The grid should make sense of all the above:

Just to round things off, you can find Roman numeral dates in each corner, but they are really misdirections - I'll leave them for you to locate if you  wish.  And here are the STONES in each CORNER, clockwise from the Northwest:

EMMA STONE.  Emily Jean "Emma" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress.  Stone appeared in my last blog on the cover of ELLE.  This coverage had been part of the hype in the run up to the 2017 OSCARS.  LA LA Land, the 2016 film favored to win Best Picture, didn't get the nod, but Stone landed the Oscar for Best Actress, the first of what are sure to be many more.  Here are capsule reviews, of all of her movies and here is the "Audition (the fools who dream)" scene from LA LA Land:

OLIVER STONE. William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.  I don't think that Stone makes uncontroversial films.  I'm absolutely certain that most of us, of a certain age, remember these events:

SLY STONE.  Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone.  He is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone and played a critical role in the development of Funk Music, with his pioneering fusion of soul, rock, psychedelia and gospel in the 1960s and 1970s.  And now for a little change of pace ...

SHARON STONE.  Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and former fashion model.  Noted for playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became a popular sex symbol throughout the 1990s. She is the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as having received nominations for an Academy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.  And to top it off, she's pretty funny.  Here she is opening up for SNL:

Oh yes, and there were other clues:

Across:

1. Sprayed in defense: MACED.  Or whacked with one of these. Ouch!

6. "Your point being?": AND.

9. With 65-Down, toon sister of Castor: OLIVE.  Here are the OYL sibs:

14. Biscayne Bay city: MIAMI.   A bit of misdirection for me, as the Bay of Biscay between France and Spain immediately came to mind.  This is the bay David wanted:

15. Zen garden swimmer: KOI.  Double-click this pic to enlarge it.  I feel more relaxed already ...

16. Richard Parker in "Life of Pi," e.g.: TIGER.  A philosophical novel by Canadian Yann Martel (Hi CanadianEh!) and an award winning film directed by Ang Lee. 

It's too late in life for me to read the novel, but the film is definitely on my bucket list.

17. Critical care MD: ER DOC.

18. Tall or dark: Abbr.: ADJ.  Or perhaps both, and handsome too.

19. Composer who, as it happens, died in March (1932): SOUSA.  John Philip Sousa  (November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known primarily for American military marches.  This is a CSO to our Anonymous T ...

20. Browser list: SITES.

22. Luke, to Anakin: SON.  Luke and Anakin (before the latter went over to the Dark Side)

24. Drops off: NAPS.

25. Short jackets worn open in front: BOLEROS.  Also a theme and orchestral variations by Maurice Ravel.  Also used in the movie "10" starring Dudley More and Bo Derek.  As this is a family blog I can only share a clip of the former (15 min):

Bolero is one of the most frequently performed works in the repertoire, but Ravel was not particularly fond of it: "My masterpiece? Boléro? What next?  Sadly there is nothing musical in it!".

27. Oscar night VIP: NOMINEE.  E.g. our three theatrical STONES.

29. Actor Brynner: YUL.  A remarkable and versatile actor who starred in just about every film genre.   If you want the whole scoop, here's a book on Amazon.  The blurb for it sums him up pretty well:

30. Poor, as odds: SLIM.

32. Offer, as a guess: HAZARD.

33. And others, in Lat.: ET AL. Short for ET ALII (plural) and ET ALIA (singular)

35. Broccoli rabe: RAPINI.  In case you wondered.  Also the tender leaves sprouting from the sides of young broccoli plants can be trimmed and substituted for RAPINI.

41. Co-star of Meryl in "Death Becomes Her": GOLDIE.   In this 1992 black comedy, Streep and Hawn are rivals who fight for the affections of the same man.  Kurt Russell may be Goldie's life-long significant other, but she  is still America's sweetheart:

42. Raise, as crops: GROW.  GROW is something crops do all by themselves.  RAISE is something gardeners (and farmers - Hi PK!) do, helping the crops to grow.  And this gardener is not having a good season this year.  But like I always say, I'll do things differently next year.

45. Executor's charge: ESTATE.  My Mother died last December at age 95 and I was named the executor of her estate in her Will.  But as she left no estate, and prepaid all of her burial expenses, there was little for me to do.  Except, that is, for deciding what was correct among all of the conflicting advice that I was getting from various experts.

48. "__ said!": NUFF. 

51. Sculpture medium: ICE.  We tend to think of ICE as a short-lived medium for sculpture.  But in the North of China, where my adopted 17 year old grandson hails from, the winters are long and very cold.  His home city of Harbin, China has for many years hosted an Ice Festival during January and February:

52. Author Elmore __: LEONARD.  Elmore Leonard (October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures:

Here's his official website.  Leonard's works were known around the world, and his homepage starts with an article translated from Italian, comparing him to Honoré de Balzac.

54. Calls the shots: DIRECTS.  Like my 6 year old grandson!

56. Brand at Petco: IAMS.

57. Clue suspect count: SIX.  The game's six characters are Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs Peacock, the Reverend Green, Colonel Mustard and the new Dr Orchid.  Memorize that list, as I'm sure one of them will show up in a puzzle soon.

59. Saint __, one of the only two sovereign nations named for women: LUCIA. A CSO from David to our Lucina (Spanish for Lucia I'm sure)!  Saint Lucia is an island state in the Caribbean Sea. It is the second largest of the Windward group in the Lesser Antilles and is located about 24 miles (39 km) south of Martinique and some 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Saint Vincent. 

Any guesses on the second sovereign nation named for a woman? It's IRELAND, named after the Celtic goddess of fertility EIRE.  The latter appears often in Cwds as a clue for Ireland or vice versa.

60. Intimidating look: STARE. A gender neutral look I suppose.

62. Civil War prez: ABE.

64. "Heaven forbid!": GOD NO.

66. Hopping mad: HET UP.  Let's see if our hopping Thesaurus has any synonyms ...

67. "ASAP!": NOW.  Over at 17A they say STAT!

68. Strike zone?: ALLEY.  Whoops! David really dropped the ball on this one.  He's going to have  some 'splainin to do to Boomer about this answer.

69. Pasta product suffix: ARONI.

70. Pink-slip: AXE.  CAMI was too long.

71. Eldest von Trapp child, in the musical: LIESL.  LIESL is presumably the young lady top-center in this number:

Down:

1. Tussaud title: Abbr.: MME.  Marie Tussaud, the original founder of the Wax Museum in Central London: 

2. Ventilates: AIRS OUT.

3. Detroit founder: CADILLAC.  That is Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.  Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park in Maine is named for him.  Gee, I wonder if those expensive luxury cars from Detroit are named for him? 

4. Ham it up: EMOTE.  Moi?  I would never do that!

5. Chefs, at times: DICERS.  But I do have a great recipe for DICED HAM, noodles, peas and cream.

6. Alias letters: AKA.  Also Known As.

7. Auction actions: NODS.  I never go to auctions, as I am liable to NOD off during the bidding and end up in debt for a lot of stuff I'd have to haul home.

8. City where Grey Poupon originated: DIJON.  Dijon is capital of Côte d’Or département and of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté région, east-central France

:9. NHL tiebreakers: OTS.

10. Putting on a pedestal: LIONIZING.

11. Exotic pet: IGUANA.  These lizards are kind of scary looking, but apparently they are quite docile.  Here's what the Galapagos Conservancy has to say about them and other lizards of the island:

12. "Casino Royale" Bond girl __ Lynd: VESPER.  Played by French actress Eva Green, not your garden variety Bond babe:

13. Undid: ERASED.

21. Costa del __: SOL.

23. Like seven Nolan Ryan games: NO HIT.  He still holds the record for NO HIT games:

25. Tournament edge: BYE.  In sports, BYE refers to a team automatically advancing to the next round of tournament play without competing, and "bye week" refers to a scheduled off week for a given team.

26. Fathered: SIRED.

28. Hand for Julio Iglesias?: MANO.  According to the Wiki "Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful continental European singer in the world and one of the top record sellers in music history, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide in 14 languages.  And here he is giving someone una mano:

31. Bay Area county: MARIN.  Also the name of the departing conductor of the Baltimore Symphony, Marin Alsop.  Here's the county:

34. 1976 Michael York/Jenny Agutter sci-fi film: LOGANS RUN.  American Cinematographer described Logan's Run as "one of the most technically intricate films ever made.  Here are York and Agutter:

Here is Michael York's website where he discusses his affliction with Amyloidosis, a blood plasma disorder.  Jenny Agutter currently plays Sister Julienne in the popular Brit series "Call the Midwife".  My genealogist sister tells me that I have a distant cousin who writes for the series, but I've never met him.

36. Ersatz intellectual: PSEUD.

38. Membership list: ROTA.  An early 17th century term: from Latin, literally ‘wheel’.  Did they have Rolodex's back then?

39. Phils and Nats: NLERS.

40. "Spamalot" co-creator: ERIC IDLE.  Here's an ear worm for you ...

43. Pump numbers: OCTANES. A rating of scale for gasoline.  OCTANE is also a chain of 8 carbon atoms, classed as a hydrocarbon:

44. Jazz guitarist Montgomery: WES.  (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. One of the most influential guitarists of the twentieth century, Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a distinctive sound. Here's his riff on Eleanor Rigby:

45. Inventor Otis: ELISHA.  Otis didn't invent elevators, he just made them safe.

46. Two-__: SEATER.

47. Part of BLT: TOMATO.  Ours are coming  in dribs and drabs.  In August we won't know what to do them all!

49. Chick-__-A: fast-food chain: FIL.

50. Not at all spendthrifty: FRUGAL.

53. Greece : Artemis :: Rome : __: DIANA.   In Roman mythology, Diana was, among other things, the goddess of the hunt, mythologically similar to the Greek goddess Artemis. The daughter of Jupiter and Latona, Diana was born with her twin brother Apollo on the island of Delos.  Here she is depicted with one of her hunting dogs:

55. Food recall trigger: ECOLI.  However certain strains of ECOLI reside in our stomachs and are essential for digestion.   Here's the difference.

58. Console with a "360" second generation: XBOX.

61. Prefix with gram or graph: EPI.  An EPIGRAM is a short, pithy saying, usually in verse, often with a quick, satirical twist at the end.  A CSO to OwenKL for an example!  

An EPIGRAPH is a short statement (a sentence, a paragraph, a poem) that comes at the beginning of a literary text, but the words belong to a different author. Example of an Epigraph: ... At the beginning of The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway quotes Gertrude Stein: "You are all a lost generation."

The prefix can also connote "above", "on", or "beyond", et alii, as in Epidermis, Epitaph, Epigenetics or Epiousios. Here's a cross section of the skin showing the Epidermis:

63. Flock female: EWE.

65. See 9-Across: OYL.

waseeley with special thanks to Malodorous Manatee

Cheers,

Bill