STRANGE DAYS
1995 Movie starring Ralph Fiennes - the Wiki
I was attempting to find another movie/TV show with seconds, days, weeks or months in the title, and some obvious ones came to mind - e.g., 9-1/2 weeks, Gone in Sixty Seconds, but I wanted to keep with the "half of the theme answer" concept. I liked Strange Days, saw it when it came out 30 years ago. Mr. Vu is a prolific constructor with several LA Times puzzles alone. Today we have no circles, 24 4LWs, and very few names, but I still got done in by one - see the red square in the solution at the bottom - all in a standard 15 x 15 grid. The themers;
20. Olsen twins teen comedy set in the Big Apple: NEW YORK MINUTE - The reveal is "half" of the themer, and New York is "one" thing, but it is "two" words, IMHO. Just sayin'.
35. Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker buddy cop film with two sequels: RUSH HOUR - I have sat through a couple of these movies; Jackie Chan is just amazing, did most of his own stunts; Chris Tucker is just annoying.
42. Amy Adams rom-com about a February 29 tradition: LEAP YEAR - I know nothing about this one, so here's the IMDb
58. Highlights of many bowl games, and an apt description of 20-, 35-, and 42-Across?: HALF-TIME SHOWS - Here is the Wiki on all the halftime performances at the Super Bowl; none of these artists made me want to sit through what was most likely a lip-sync show; I DO know that C.C. was probably most pleased 10 years ago when Bruno Mars was the headliner; and let us not forget the "wardrobe malfunction" 20 years ago . . . .half-time is a rhythmic feel with the beat on 2 and 4; if you want to be more confused, check this drummer's YouTube video. Here's a song with the half-time feel at the end of the chorus;
The Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive - twice in one week~!
ACROSS:
1. Random __ of kindness: ACTS
5. Range for a yodeler: ALPS - not fooled by the mountain range vs. pitch range
9. Instrument in Hindi cinema: SITAR - I like the "sitar-style" solo in the song below - there's a less "sitar-ish" solo in the live performance on YouTube; the only reason I bring it up is that the show aired on my 2nd Birthday - 52 years and three days ago
Steely Dan - Do It Again
My short-lived marriage started with a Medieval Wedding
16. Start with a clean slate?: ERASE
17. Omnia vincit __: AMOR - Love Conquers All - Latin
18. Morose: DOUR
19. Solemn recitations: OATHS
23. Wrath: IRE - AND - 10D. Apoplectic: IRATE - FLW: Lucina, I cashed in my "trial" IRA that I never actually funded - its net worth dropped since it was opened, down to a mere $696. The one I have with the Pipe Organ company has a 5% match, so that's rocking right now. And I feel your pain - my mother's bank accounts are proving to be a nightmare to close because they, too, changed ownership right when she died, and NYS is now requiring I "prove" how I distributed the money - why~? What if I said I built a deck with the money~? Will they deny me this last account~? Feel my IRE, I am IRATE
25. Some phone notifications: ALERTS
28. Common part of a lunch combo: SALAD - I usually get the SOUP
30. Inca Trail to Machu Picchu locale: PERU - I did not see the word "locale" when I was solving the puzzle, so I thought we were looking for the NAME of the trail|
South America - I could go for a tour of the place
32. Cal. column: THUrsday
33. Grab a chair: SIT
38. Ice hockey gear: SKATES
41. Absolute gems: BEAUTS
44. Syst. in which "A" is a closed fist: ASL - American Sign Language
46. Has a debt: OWES
48. Hard __ to break: HABIT - Also the title of this Chicago song
Smoking, drinking and sexual overtones; ah, the 80's
55. Attention to detail: CARE
57. Single: ONE
61. Animal also called the zebra giraffe: OKAPI
63. Resting on: ATOP
64. Word said while pointing: THAT 👈
65. Concur: AGREE
66. Astronauts' org.: NASA
67. Additional: MORE
68. "Fun, Fun, Fun" car: T-BIRD - The Beach Boys are not normally my musical thing, but I listened and it's "Chuck Berry blues" - the link here - and anything guitar I can learn from is a good thing; I like the Ford Thunderbird - I had one just like the picture, ridiculously quick, but had to let it go because it had some bizarre Teves Swedish ABS system that failed, $1400 plus labor to replace 😟
1986 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe; I paid $1200 for it in 1998
Tenerife, Canary Islands, 1977 - most fatal airplane accident - Air Disasters
DOWN:
1. "Jagged Little Pill" singer Morissette: ALANIS - this being her third album, it was a huge success, including the single "You Outta Know" - NSFW
2. Kodak innovation: CAMERA - I was today years old when I learned that Kodak is not Polaroid
3. Garden tool: TROWEL - for those 'heavy makeup days'
4. Agile: SPRY
5. "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" Oscar nominee Day: ANDRA - my last crossing, as one can see in the solution below - I had an "E" for the last letter, not knowing who Andra Day is - the WIki
7. Expert at handling snakes?: PLUMBER - ah, yes, the plumber's snake
9. South Korean capital: SEOUL - twice this week
11. Curly fry alternative: TATER TOT
12. Some barbecue remains: ASH
13. Low-__: RES - we had "Hi _" on Monday
21. Quirky thing: ODDITY
22. Queasy feeling: NAUSEA - Quirky & Queasy - but no Q in the fill . . . .
And now there is~! Star Trek: TNG
27. __ La Table: cookware retailer: SUR - I have never shopped here
29. "Now!" letters: ASAP - here we go; NOW means STAT, not "as soon as possible"
31. Massage: RUB
34. Begin a round of golf: TEE OFF - also the polite way to say one is "irate"
36. Figures (out): HASHES - I tried SUSSES - that's 50% correct
37. Polynesian dance: HULA
38. MacFarlane of "Family Guy": SETH - I happen to like his creations, not just Family Guy and American Dad~!, but his Star Trek homage "The Orville" was a great show, too
39. Desert that covers much of Botswana: KALAHARI
42. Murphy's __: LAW - rhyming sequential answers
43. Solo performance: RECITAL
47. Appetizer before a curry, maybe: SAMOSA - filled via perps; a recipe here
49. "Cry me a river!": "BOO-HOO~!"
50. To the middle: INWARD
51. Proctor's charge: TESTEE - 😝 a test taker
53. Dwindle (down): TAPER
54. "OK, that was untrue": "I LIED."
56. Settle a debt: REPAY
59. Basks in the sun: TANS - does an iguana "tan"~?
60. Webpage medium: HTML - filled via perps; HyperText Markup Language
61. Muesli morsel: OAT
62. Old CIA foe: KGB - The new Russian intelligence agencies are here
Thank you all for the B-day comments~!
Splynter
21 comments:
In some ways, this was not an easy puzzle. (I never heard of “LARP,” for instance.) But the themers were easy to figure out, even if you had never heard of the films (“Rush Hour” was the only one that immediately came to mind.) Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good rainy morning!
Good thing I didn't notice LARP -- would've felt obligated to change something. Hand up for suSsES, too (Hi, Splynter). No, today wasn't a Wite-Out-free exercise. I agree that NEW YORK MINUTE is an outlier -- 7-letters vs 6 -- not exactly half. Enjoyed it, though. Thanx, Vu (is that your first name?) and Splynter. (Methinks Otto-correct changed your "oughta" to "outta.")
Otto-correct got me, too, changing "obliged" to "obligated."
FIR, but erased tue for THU and also for MORE. Guessed correctly at OKAPI x KALAHARI. Had to be A, I or O, thought I. I knew the critter, just not how to spel it.
I also thought of the Chicago classic Hard Habit to Break.
I've heard of SLAY for a comedian's successful appearance, but not a model's.
I always thought that a urologist was in charge of TESTEES, not a proctologist. Oh, proctor - never mind.
Funny how PAY and REPAY mean the same thing.
Is HTML a medium? Isn't that like saying that COBOL is a medium? What say you, Corner softheads?
Thanks (I think) to Vu for the easy-enough midweek puzzle. I'm not into movies or celebrities, which dampened the fun a bit. And thanks to Splynter for another fine review.
FIR. Except for larp (?), which I'd never ever heard of, and Andra Day, another unknown, this was a mostly easy puzzle for a Wednesday.
The theme seems a bit of a stretch, but it fortunately wasn't needed for the solve.
So overall a mostly enjoyable puzzle.
Took 4 minutes and 54 seconds today.
I didn't know today's actress (Andra), larp, or today's Latin lesson.
I agree with the prior comments in that this seemed too easy for a Wednesday and the theme was ... meh, which is generally how I feel about themed puzzles.
Good Morning:
Other than Larp and Andra, this was an easy and quick solve. The fill-in-the-blank clues and the conversational phrases tend too interrupt the flow of a smooth solve, IMO, but both seem ingrained in current construction trends. The theme was easy to see and the reveal was timely, if not surprising.
Thanks, Hoang-Kim or Vu, whichever is correct, and thanks, Splynter, for the concise and informative review. Any updates on the canine quest?
Have a great day.
To, not too. Autocorrect is on a tear this morning!
I as an easy-peasy fill today, but I wasn't familiar with any of the SHOWS. I saw part of this years HALF TIME SHOW and to say it was bad would be a compliment.
LARP- another word from outer space that isn't known by many people.
ANDRA, SUR, SETH- other unknowns filled by perps.
Quick and easy, except for the trouble spots already noted. I missed the D in ANDRA and the L in LARP and ALANIS.
"Model slays on the runway" means a model delivers an exceptionally confident and visually striking performance while walking the runway. I knew this one.
Although LARP was new to me, it is not uncommon. "Today, LARP is a widespread activity internationally. Games with thousands of participants are run by for-profit companies, and a small industry exists to sell costume, armor and foam weapons intended primarily for LARP."
I agree with KS that these days ASAP actually means STAT. Ask my principal. Also, her "suggestions" were orders.
Brief delay in the SE but easily fix’d otherwise a friendly challenge.
Great 2021 film “Don’t LOOK UP” Leo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett
Think of a TROWEL as more of a masons’ “tool”
LARP?
“Now!” vrs As Soon As Possible not the same. (Here you go again)
“Murphy’s” sign : pain from pressure applied by the examiner over the right upper abdomen that may indicate an acutely infected gallbladder
Inkover: Mother load is laundry, it’s spelt LODE!
Mr and Mrs Potato Heads’ offspring …TATERTOTS
Who’s arguing? …. WHATIF
Reluctance to leave the convent…. Hard ___ to break…. HABIT
Give the morose bride stuff … DOUR
I was a “Proctor’s charge”, my HS “Thomas R. Proctor” still going strong. Like to point out to DW that her GS, HS, and kollidge, are closed, mine are all still open 😌
Jump over the hump
This puzzle didn’t take me forever and a day to FIR like some do, a Monday time of 9:45. Unknowns were ANDRA, SUR, and of course LARP, which I thought was a weird word till I saw it is an acronym. Thank you H-K V for the morning fun, and to Splynter for the recap. The opening riff of Fun Fun Fun sounds just like Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode for sure.
This was a pretty straightforward puzzle by Hoang-Kim Vu, well-designed and not overloaded with proper names and obscurities. The cluing was fair, and included some amusing misdirections.
The one clue that needed some work was the Reveal itself, at 58 Across. First, bowl games are unique to college football, going back well over 100 years. Teams that have had a successful season are invited to bowl games, and there are over thirty college bowl games every year. Second, the Super Bowl is an NFL game, not a college game. It owes its name to the Wham-O toy company, inventor of things like the Frisbee and something called the Super Ball. When the first championship games were held between the NFL and the fledgling AFL, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar Hunt, suggested to Commissioner Pete Rozelle that the name of the NFL-AFL championship game be shortened to just "Super Bowl," because his kids had a Super Ball, and that name was fresh on his mind.
So the clue for 58A should have read "Highlights of many Super Bowl games...." because it is that game's half time that has become identified with big-name, splashy spectacles. Including the occasional wardrobe malfunction.
Back to the puzzle, I noted that "dour" made an appearance. Poor dour. It's pronouced like "sour" (or "dower") in the States, but pronounced like "door" by the Brits. It's an old word, going back centuries before Shakespeare. I checked my Shakespeare Lexicon, and he never used it. I like to think that he and his players could never agree on dour's pronunciation, and Will just gave up on it: "Oh fie, merely say sullen or gloomy instead!"
Thanks, Splynter, for your usual amusing intro and review; and thanks, Hoang-Kim, for an enjoyable Wednesday-appropriate puzzle.
Musings
-The meta gimmick took a while for me to see. Yes, D-O, literal me would say MINUTE is not half of that fill.
-This year’s half time show was loved and hated by me and the kids at school. I am in the latter camp as indecipherable rapid recitation isn’t singing to me.
-Although, Harold Hill’s and Professor Higgins’ soliloquies have no real melody but are clever and understandable. Any others?
-BJ Thomas’ Hooked On A Feeling featured an electric SITAR intro
-I have my iPhone set for an ALERT every Tuesday night at 9:00 am to set out the garbage
-George Eastman invented the hand-held camera and also made up the name KODAK
-Our “snow event” has TAPERED down to fluffy flurries. The 4-6” predicted is only about 2” and all schools were declared closed last night. Hmmm...
-Yeah, Jinx, is the alphabet the medium for books?
This one felt like another Monday-ish puzzle. I enjoyed it. As others have said some clever clueing, very few names, and one obscure one, for me, LARP. I didn’t know ANDRA but perps fixed that.
Although I don’t remember our constructor’s name, it’s obvious he knows how to create CWs.
Thank you Splynter. Nice videos.
I meant I don’t remember seeing our constructor’s name before today.
I enjoyed Hoang-Kim's puzzle and FIR. I saw the sped-up measures of time, but didn't think of them as being strictly half of each theme answer (just hasty), so I didn't run into the nit with 20 across that some of you sharper solvers did. Thanks to Splynter for pointing out that detail, and for explaining unknown LARP.
obligatory silly theme link...
Hola! Wednesday walk in the park today. Thank you, Hoang-Kim Vu. I did it early thing morning and as is becoming a HABIT, I returned to bed. LARP is the only fill I didn't recognize so thank you, Splynter, for the reveal. I don't watch sports so have no idea what the HALF TIME SHOW was about.
CSO to Big Easy at NOLA. I hope he shoveled out of the snow.
I hope you are all enjoying a great day!
My computer has lost its sound capability so sadly I can't enjoy any of the music.
Splynter Thank you for the Star Trek Q images. Q always livened the show.
I still feel as if I am not fully understanding the theme. Hand up LARP just seemed wrong. But I was wrong. FIR.
Last year we were touring NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and someone told me to LOOK UP to see this copy of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter.
From Yesterday:
Jinx Wow that is a crazy story about your connection to the Challenger disaster and our Vandenberg SPACE launches. Thanks.
Lucina Thanks, but I am still mystified. In California I am sure there is a regulatory agency that would intervene on your behalf. Probably not in Arizona.
From Monday:
Big Easy Thanks for the reminder about Marilyn Chambers and IVORY SNOW. When I was at MIT it was a tradition to show a porn movie on Registration Day. I remember going with my girlfriend and everyone enjoyed it. Marilyn Chambers was one star I remember well. Too bad the puritans on the Left shut it down a few years later.
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