Despite my attempts to make Jess's fun puzzle difficult, I did mange to finish in a nice time for a Saturday and had a pleasant experience along the way.
I loved this picture of Jess and our circus trainer/constructor Carly Schuna when their paths crossed in Madison, WI. recently, Be sure to see the picture at the bottom of the write-up where Carly is showing Jess how to manipulate the Giant German Wheel.
Jess is originally from Minnesota but now lives in Colorado Springs where her husband is in the Space Force. Jess has held several interesting jobs including serving as an Urdu linguist for the Air Force. She now is a counselor and loves working with and advocating for kids.
"I hope you enjoyed Jess's puzzle" or in Urdu:
مجھے امید ہے کہ آپ نے جیس کی پہیلی کا لطف اٹھایا ہوگا۔
Across:
1. Red aperitif: CAMPARI - I have no idea why this leapt to my mind very quickly.
8. Defib experts: EMTS.
An EMT with an external defibrillation device
12. Really clean up: MAKE A MINT - Bit coin, pet rocks, etc.
14. Love or life follower: BOAT - It wasn't the Love BOAT but the Titanic only had enough Life BOATS for half the passengers.
15. "Let me try again ... ": I MEAN TO SAY.
17. Morsel: BITE.
18. Old Irish: CELTS - Kelts or Selts? It can go either way but most say it is Kelts unless you're referring to sports teams in Boston, MA or Glasgow, Scotland
19. Mireille of "Big Love": ENOS - I know nothing about Ms. ENOS but I have caught on to the fact that she has displaced a biblical character and an old MLB baseball player in this venue. Her IMDB
21. Street cred: REP(utation) - Richie doesn't have any (3:48)
22. Crush a 23-Across performance, perhaps: SLAY and 23. Nothing to fret about?: 😀 AIR GUITAR.
26. Expand: ADD TO.
27. Up from Spain?: NORTE - España está al NORTE de Marruecos (Spain is north of Morocco)
29. Hero with a weak spot: ACHILLES.
33. Inuk of film whose real name was Allakariallak: NANOOK - I knew nothing about Inuk or Allakariallak but those names reminded me of NANOOK which was in the deep recesses of my memory.
34. Breezy farewell: TOODLES.
35. Try again?: RETASTE - Editorial comment: "Nope, that's liver and it still tastes horrible!" 😝
36. Proceed unsteadily: TOTTER.
37. Intrepid: FEARLESS.
38. Promising spot?: ALTAR 😀
39. Crown: TIARA.
40. Ones to "watch out for," per an Amazon Prime reality series: BIG GRRRLS - A seed entry for Jess.
42. Nearly all: MOST.
46. Jiff: SEC.
47. Throw away in disgust, slangily: YEET - Every teenager I asked knew this.
48. 13-Down, for one: DANCE and 13. Habanera kin: TANGO. As soon as I realized the habanera was a dance and not a pepper (habanero) I did a lot of research. Habanero and the Tango. Since it is both a dance and a type of music, this famous habanera will give you the rhythm.
49. Wakeboarding spot: LAKE.
51. Cantina rounds: MARGARITAS.
54. 100 sawbucks: ONE G - A sawbuck is ten dollar bill and 100 of them makes ONE-G (one grand or one thousand)
55. Minor celebrities?: TEEN IDOLS - I'll balance the Bizet opera above with this 60's rock and roll song.
56. Spanish pronoun: ESTO - ¡ESTO es divertido! (This is fun!)
57. Ticked by: ELAPSED - Hitters and pitchers now have time constraints and it greatly improves my viewing experience.
Down:
1. Animal with three sets of eyelids and two sets of eyelashes: CAMEL.
2. Wolf voiced by Giancarlo Esposito in "The Jungle Book": AKELA - I remember him as the ruthless Gus Fring in Breaking Bad.
3. Like Bolognese: MEATY - Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce in Italian cuisine, typical of the city of Bologna.
Gnocchi Bolognese
4. Chef's collection: PANS.
5. Receipt fig.: AMT.
6. Code name on "Money Heist": RIO.
7. Paper fatteners: INSERTS - Our paper has almost abandoned all of them in favor or online ads.
8. Go out on the beach?: EBB 😀
9. "Schitt's Creek" character who says, "What you did was impulsive, capricious, and melodramatic, but it was also wrong": MOIRA ROSE.
10. Hot-dish topping: TATER TOTS - They make anything better!
11. Blended family prefix: STEP.
12. Feedback providers?: MICS 😀
16. Second person: YOU - In counseling training, we were told to avoid "YOU" sentences in favor of "I" sentences. "YOU are" vs. "I feel".
31. All the rage and hard to come by: HOT TICKET - To get one of these, requires either incredible good luck, big bucks or being named Travis Kelce. 😚
32. Entry need, maybe: ID TAG.
33. Comes close: NEARS.
35. Word in many Spanish team names: REAL.
37. Figure on the Oregon license plate: FIR TREE - That is true but check out the basketball court used by Oregon University.
39. Word that may make a dog sit up: TREAT.
41. "Everybody Hurts" band: REM.
42. Part of the inn crowd: MAIDS - MAIDS : Housekeepers :: Stewardesses : Flight Attendants
43. With heels up: ON TOE 😀
44. Get into hot water?: SCALD.
45. "The Last of Us" survivor played by Anna Torv: TESS - I would have known Melanie Griffith's role in Working Girl or Julia Roberts' role in Ocean's 11.
46. Plum kin: SLOE - Last Saturday, we had SLOW LORIS
48. French press alternative: DRIP.
50. __ surf: EGO - I did an EGO surf on google for me and I came up with this picture taken during my last day at one of my old schools.
Leader of the Puns?
Lead-off Punner?
Pun with Leaders?
Attila the Pun!
Robin delivers a Fabulous Friday. The theme is tight with leaders' titles used homophonically in the fill. If you like silly word-play like I do, you're in for a treat. Let's play.
17a. Official portraitist for a Mongolian leader?: KHAN ARTIST. Con Artist.
25a. Condiment for an Ottoman leader?: SULTAN PEPPER. Salt and Pepper. A couple of us from the office walked to The Galleria for lunch Wednesday and guess what I saw...
ConstructorJeff Stillman
is back with a puzzle that is so holy that I fear it might violate the
Corner prohibition on religion. But in this case most people are indeed
quite religious about the subject of today's theme, so I don't think
we'll have any problem with the censors (although AnonymousDNLC may have a fit 😁). Here are the theme clues ...
18A. Propaganda technique that attempts to appeal to average Joes: PLAIN FOLKS.
American Gothic Grant Wood
26A. Accessory for early U.S. presidents: POWDERED WIG.
George Washington
44A. Candy-coated caramels in a yellow package: SUGAR BABIES.
In researching this clue I came across some alternate connotations for the fill, of which Margaret definitely wouldn't approve (solvers so inclined can do their own research).
59A. Like the eyes of a person who hasn't gotten enough sleep: GLAZED OVER.
And what do they have in common ...
52D. Treat whose varieties appear at the starts of four long answers and are represented a dozen times in this puzzle: DONUT.
And these varieties are ...
PLAIN
POWDERED
SUGAR
GLAZED
And in case you didn't notice all the donut holes, here's the grid ...
My only complaint about this puzzle is that Jeff didn't include my favorite: French Crullers. For those of you who agree, here's a recipe.
10. Vellani who plays Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel: IMAN. IMAN Vellani (born 3 September, 2002) is a Canadian actress and comic book writer. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Vellani moved to Canada when she was a year old, and was raised as a Shia Ismaili Muslim. Before being cast in Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel at the end of her last year of high school, Vellani had planned to attend the Ontario College of Art & Design University. Here's the season 1 trailer ....
14. European auto: OPEL. OPEL Automobile GmbH is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Group, a predecessor of Stellantis, from 2017 until 2021.
16. On guard: WARY. The poster child for the adverb WARY is of course the Geococcyx Californianus ...
17. Curly cabbage: KALE.
18. [Theme clue]
20. Vaping device: ECIG.
21. Family room: DEN.
22. Gary of "13 Reasons Why": SINISE. 13 Reasons Why is an American teen television series, which revolves around high school student Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) and his grief over the suicide of high school student Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford).
Before her death, she leaves behind a box of cassette tapes in which
she details the reasons why she chose to end her life as well as the
people she believes are responsible for her death. Gary Sinise plays Clay Jensen's therapist.
23. "Who else would I be talking about?": YES YOU.
41. Cuisine with green and red curry: THAI. THAIcurries
are dishes in Thai cuisine made from curry paste, coconut milk or
water, meat, seafood, vegetables or fruit, and herbs. Curries in Thailand mainly differ from the curries in India in their use of ingredients such as herbs and aromatic leaves over a mix of spices. Here's a recipe for Thai red curry with vegetables ...
Thai red curry
42. Suit to __: A TEE.
43. Troubled: ATE AT.
44. [Theme clue]
47. Western Asia native: KURD.
48. Engaged, as gears: MESHED.
53. Home for una familia: LA CASA. Today's Spanish lesson: "La CASA de C.C. es nuestra CASA."
61. Volunteer's phrase: IM IN. I've got to stop saying that!
62. Chase and Citi rival, popularly: BOFA. I have BOFEM.
63. "Dallas" surname: EWING. J.R. EWING is the EARL of America's Downton Abbey. Here's the cast. Hand up if you can name them all, and bonus points if you can tell us Who shot J.R.? (I never actually saw the show, but I did hear that he was shot 😀).
5. Hall and Oates, e.g.: POP DUO. Daryl Hall and John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, are an American POP ROCK DUO formed in Philadelphia
in 1970. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist; John Oates
primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two
write most of the songs they perform, separately or in collaboration.
They achieved their greatest fame from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s
with a fusion of rock and roll, soul music, and rhythm and blues. The
one I'm most familiar with is She's Gone from 1973 ...
6. Tropical getaway: ISLE.
7. Bread brushed with ghee: NAAN.
8. __ Fridays: TGI. "Thank God It's Friday!"
9. Like some overload: SENSORY.
10. "You can't make me!": I WON'T DO IT. The final words of many martyrs, even to this day I'm afraid.
12. Torah storers: ARKS. A Torah ark
(also known as the hekhal, Hebrew: היכל, or aron qodesh, אֲרוֹן קׄדֶש)
refers to an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah
scrolls.
Torah Ark Dohány Street Synagogue Budapest, Hungary
13. Nasdaq rival: NYSE.
19. Military flute: FIFE.
24. Chooses: OPTS.
25. Composer Prokofiev: SERGEI. SERGEI Prokofiev (27 April 1891 – 5 March 1953)
is my favorite Russian composer. His compositions are quite diverse
ranging from symphonic works, virtuosic piano pieces, chamber music, and
ballets. Probably his most popular work is the story of Peter and the Wolf, a kind of young person's guide to the orchestra. Here the Philadelphia Orchestra is conducted by Eugene Ormandy with narration by David Bowie ...
27. Opening lines?: WANT AD. As in "We have an opening for a cruciverbalist".
28. Dorky sort: DWEEB.
29. Bring around: WAKE.
30. Swedish superstore with a yellow-and-blue logo: IKEA. Let's see: "four letter Swedish superstore?" A CSO to SwenglishMom.
31. Ibsen's "Peer __": GYNT. Playwright Henrik Ibsen (20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was born in Skien, Denmark (about 4 hours West of the Swedish border BTW). He was one of the founders of modernism
in theatre; is often referred to as "the father of realism"; and was
one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His major works
include Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, A Doll's House, and Hedda Gabler. One of the people he influenced was composer Edvard Grieg, who wrote incidental music for Peer Gynt. Here is the In the Hall of the Mountain King from a suite of that music (you may recognize this as the tune played by Van Johnson in the 1957 film The Pied Piper of Hamlin) ...
32. Trawling equipment: NETS.
33. Ko'olau Mountains locale: OAHU. Koʻolau Range is a name given to the dormant fragmented remnant of the eastern or windward shield volcano of the Hawaiian island of OAHU. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1972.
Ko'olau Mountains
34. Show off: BRAG.
35. "On the Waterfront" director: ELIA KAZAN. ELIA KAZAN, born Elias Kazantzoglou
(Greek: Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003)
was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and
actor, described by The New York Times as "one of the most honored and
influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Here's a
trailer from his star studded masterpiece ...
40. Cut with a light: LASE. Laser cutting
is a technology that uses a laser to vaporize materials, resulting in a
cut edge. While typically used for industrial manufacturing
applications, it is now used by schools, small businesses, architecture,
and hobbyists.
Diagram of a Laser Cutter
42. Wears down: ABRADES.
45. Chicanery: RUSE.
46. Come forth: EMERGE.
49. Circus prop: STILT.
50. Bro: HOMIE.
51. Native New Yorkers: ERIES. The ERIES were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group,
they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania,
and northern Ohio before 1658. Their nation was decimated in the
mid-17th century by five years of prolonged warfare with the powerful
neighboring Iroquois for helping the Huron in the Beaver Wars for control of the fur trade.
Erie Nation pre 1650
52. [Theme reveal]
53. Pride Month initials: LGBT. Today's crosswordese. Pride Month is every JUNE ...
