Theme: Bear Necessities?
Bare Necessities
G'Day Cornerites!
Today, Ginny front loads the theme answers with a type of BEAR on the LEFT.
18. "Dream a Little Dream" singer: MAMA CASS. Papa bear, MAMA BEAR, Baby bear.
24. Symbol on a difficult ski run: BLACK DIAMOND. Black Bear.
40. Daily paper in the Windy City: CHICAGO SUN TIMES. Tribune didn't quite fit. The Sun Times is a daily nonprofit newspaper and the former home of Roger Ebert. Last Thursday NaomiZ illustrated a SUN BEAR (and SUN isn't far enough left) so...
 |
| Da Bears |
52. Fast-casual Chinese restaurant chain: PANDA EXPRESS.
 |
| Good for a lunch at the airport |
63. One option at a fork in the road, and an apt description of 18-, 24-, 40-, and 52-Across: BEAR LEFT.
 |
| Yogi is another BEAR on the LEFT |
Due to the government shutdown, we didn't have:
Stubb's BBQ sauce flavor: SMOKEY MESQUITE [14] nor
"Being With You" Artist: SMOKEY ROBINSON [14]
We at The Corner hope SMOKEY BEAR resumes his National Parks duties soon.
Across:
1. Get plenty of sleep before a big event: REST UP.7. Quick and nimble: SPRY.
11. __ Lock: PC key: NUM.
14. Starting squads: A-TEAMS.
15. French peak: ALPE.
16. CBS forensic franchise: CSI.
17. Hip-hop dance move: NAE NAE.
In case you need a refresher before rehearsal ;-)
18. [See: Theme]
20. Home project initials: DIY. Do It Yourself instead of hiring a contractor.
21. Thumb drive ports: USBS. Universal Serial Bus(es).
 |
| Quantum States of USB Connectors |
23. Asian grocery chain: H-MART. The H is for Han Ah Reum (한아름), which means "an armful" in Korea [cite: WikiP]. We have two in Houston.
24. [See: Theme]
28. __ beer float: ROOT.
 |
| The Root Beer Bear |
29. Pep talk target: MORALE.
33. House of Lords title: BARON.
36. Part of a superhero costume: CAPE.
 |
| Edna on why "No Capes" |
39. Soccer great Hamm: MIA. Not only a soccer superstar but now a marrow & cord blood transplant awareness.
40. [See: Theme]
44. Nashville awards org.: CMA. Country Music Association.
45. Clock toggle: AM/PM.
46. Home: ABODE.
47. Dojo instructor: SENSEI.
50. Where to find "Campbell's Soup Cans" in NYC: MOMA. Museum of Modern Art.
52. [See: Theme]
58. ICU hookup: IV BAG.
61. Wet and squirmy: EELY.
62. Genetic messenger molecule: RNA. Ribonucleic acid.
63. [See: Theme]
65. French cake: GATEAU. In France it's just cake, in English there's a difference.
 |
| "Yummers, gateau," said no one I know. |
68. Sports doc's scan: MRI. Magnetic resonance imaging -- difference from a CT scan.
69. __-steven: EVEN. Squared-up.
70. Draw out: ELICIT.
71. Plopped down: SAT.
72. Skating commentator Lipinski: TARA. Youngest (15yro) Gold Medalist.
73. Stinging weed: NETTLE.
Down:
1. Mary J. Blige's music genre: R AND B. Rhythm AND Blues (and SMOKEY's genre too!).2. Etsy business: E-TAIL.
3. "Bye now": SEE YA.
4. Sun shade?: TAN.
5. Actress Thurman: UMA. I know her from Brooks' 2005 The Producers.
6. Bogus: PSEUDO.
7. Lively Afro-Brazilian dance: SAMBA.
8. Suffix with proto-: PLASM.
9. Turntable letters: RPM. Revolutions Per Minute.
10. "You'd think so, but ... ": YEAH, NO.
11. Org. covered by ESPNU: NCAA. ESPN (known as Entertainment and Sports Programming Network until 1985) Universities covers the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
12. Cold War initials: USSR. The CCCP (Союз Советских Социалистических Республик) is Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to English speakers.
13. Fine spray: MIST.
19. Nav. rank: CMDR. Commander.
22. "Friends" or "Girlfriends": SITCOM. A portmanteau of SITuation and COMedy.
25. Lightweight clog: CROC.
 |
| A croc with a CROC? What a crock! |
26. Hawaiian coffee district: KONA.
27. Harbinger: OMEN.
30. Snowball pile, say: AMMO.
31. Stretched the truth: LIED.
32. Soften: EASE.
33. Emails discreetly: BCCS. Blind Carbon Copy.
34. [Sigh]: AH ME.
35. "Glass Onion" director Johnson: RIAN.
37. Egyptian cobra: ASP.
38. Beat with one's fists: PUMMEL.
41. Make a profit: GAIN.
42. Pack (down): TAMP.
43. Vowel-shaped beam: I-BAR, U-bar, We-bar :-)
48. Practice in the boxing ring: SPAR.
49. Young bird of prey: EAGLET.
51. Gas with the symbol O: OXYGEN.
53. Put off: DEFER.
54. Health insurance giant: AETNA. Not to be confused with the Italian giant Etna.
55. Put up: ERECT.
56. Mollusk that's a symbol of slowness: SNAIL.
57. Pan fry: SAUTE.
58. Some early PCs: IBMS.
59. "Up in the Air" Oscar nominee Farmiga: VERA. Costars include George Clooney and Anna Kendrick.
 |
| Vera Farmiga |
60. Fly, in fly-fishing: BAIT.
64. Actress Longoria: EVA. I only know her from Only Murders in the Building.
 |
| Eva Longoria |
66. Blonde brew: ALE.
67. __ for tat: TIT. I'll leave this one to our Corner limerickists.
The Grid:
 |
| The Grid |
WOs: cap -> NUM Lock, lure -> BAIT
ESPs: NAE NAE, RIAN, VERA, RARA
Fav: SNAIL next to SAUTE - escargot anyone?
Cheers, -T
23 comments:
Once again, I call this Monday puzzle a “walk in the park.” Let me know if you disagree.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Once again, d-o missed the reveal and forgot to look for the theme. [Sigh] Yes, I fell into that CAP lock trap; my keyboard has no NUM lock. NAENAE was a mystery, but somehow filled. Minor nit -- the correct military abbreviation for Commander is CDR, no M. Thanx for the exercise, Ginny. And thanx for subbing today, Dash-T.
FIR, but hand up for cap->NUM and owning a laptop without a numeric keypad. What was I thinking when I bought this thing? Got my WAG @ YEAHNO x HMART; otherwise a WITP.
I thought that Blige was a rap artist, not that it matters.
If there's a BEAR on the left, I'm goin' to the right!
My (crossword-favorite) ELHI was on a college campus. The college athletes were EAGLEs, we were the EAGLETs.
There was an article in today's Virginian Pilot about the effects that reduced federal subsidies are having on Medicare Advantage plans. My insurer dropped theirs, so I have to select another one. AETNA offers those plans here, so I'll give them a look.
Thanks to Ginny for the easy-ish Monday puzzle, and to Bayou Tony for explaining it all.
FIR. I found today's puzzle to have a little bite to it. A few of the answers seemed a bit contrived, for example "yeah no" in order to fill "Hmart" (?).
And did anyone else automatically fill in cap instead of num?
I needed the reveal to get the theme, but the theme was quite clever. I saw all the bears.
So overall this was a so-so puzzle, not too hard but not totally easy either.
Benevolent perps helped fill the unknowns NAENAE, HMART, RIAN, VERA, and GATEAU, so I would agree with SubG’s assessment of a WITP for this one, though I didn’t see the theme until the reveal. FIR in 10:28. Thanks to Ginny for the pleasant start to the CW week, and to T for taking over in sumdaze’s absence.
Across: NUM, CSI, DIY, USBS, CMA, AM/PM, MOMA, IV BAG, RNA, MRI, Down: R AND B, E-TAIL, RPM, NCAA, USSR, CMDR, SITCOM, AMMO, BCCS, IBMS. CrossWORDS?
Very amusing, Mr. Anonymous
And good point
-SubG
Took 4:44 today to do the polar plunge.
I agree with YooperPhil's agreement with SubG that the perps kept this one in "the park", as I did not know the Korean store (Htown), the French cake (gateau), or the French peak (Alpe). Fortunately, I did know both of the Actresses of the Day (Uma & Eva).
I also thought of Edna Mode's "no capes!".
Good Morning:
This theme brought a smile to this Bear (Teddy) enthusiast. I was unaware of the theme until the reveal and was not only surprised, but delighted. Said delight erased the minor nits of Nae Nae, Yeah No, and Ah Me. Props for the solid, in the language themers and some above average Monday fill.
Thanks, Ginny, and thanks, Anon T, for the fun and factual review and commentary, and especially for the nostalgic reminder of Mama Cass. I also enjoyed the Phil Harris video. Thanks for pinch hitting, once again.
Have a great day.
A cute and clever theme.
Too many annoying abbreviations as pointed out by anonymous at 9:13. That is annoying and the northeast corner was not a “crossword” but rather a fill in the abbreviations.
Thanks for recap T.
DNF. I didn’t enter the H of H MART. The down didn’t look like anything to me. I should have spent a little more time with it.
A fun theme, well executed. The few unknowns like NAE NAE and RIAN filled with perps. I knew UMA and EVA and of course MAMA CASS.
I have had my painful share of NETTLE encounters as a child.
Thank you A-t for that nice review, especially the Dream a Little Dream audio.
That was Monkey above.
You have a point
Musings
-DIY warning
-Most everyone I knew as a teenager had A&W mugs at home that never got put back on the tray
-My uncles were big Hank Williams fans and would hate what passes for country music
-After every NFL weekend, MRI’s are busy examining injuries that may be very serious
-The SITCOMs like Modern Family were/are better because they did not use a laugh track
-Without O your life expectancy is 0
-No BEAR problem for her!
-I guess we are so inured to abbreviations that Anonymous’s comment @9:13 was real revelation.
Yeah, and the Four Freshmen would hate what passes for pop music. Even Hank Jr sang that he was proud of his heritage, but: "I am very proud of my daddy's name, although his kind of music and mine ain't exactly the same."
A tad crunchier than the normal Monday fare, but the perps were Monday fair. Did not care at all for the abbreviations and initials. Please can we go back to actual crossWORD puzzles? With real WORDS? Nice job on the recap, -T!
MAMA CASS: “Monday Monday,
Can’t trust that day”
Guess I’m rusty but I sweated this one out to an eventual FIR.
The theme? Da Bears
Inkovers: able/SPRY, mambo/SAMBA
I expected a fuel company starting with O. Needed CMA as a perp for RIAN. I forgot about the NUM “lock key” off to the side.
YEAH NO, SEE YAH (these should be labeled PSEUDO answers). Never heard of HMART
PETA won’t “put off” its campaign against ____ … DEFER
Third First Son … BARON
Must… GÂTEAU
Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat brioche” (even that is apparently a myth)
Happy Columbus Day and what we can no longer call Indigenous Peoples Day
When my daughter was around 6 she pointed to a statue on our Memorial Parkway in Utica and asked who it was. I said Christopher Columbus.
“Wow! He’s buried right there!!”
Hmm,
I did not care for this puzzle. Unknown names crossing hip hop is just too much for me to bear...
Much too obscure for a Monday.
But I do have questi9ns,
HG, that lady with the pet bear, some comments said it was A.I. generated?
I don't know, but I would like to know more about that video. If it was real, there is an untold story I would love to hear. Where can I find out more?
And for some reason, I was struck by an ear worm, that to this day, I cannot identify. Something in the puzzle set it off, and now I can't get it out of my head. If some one could pls help me I.D. It, I would be grateful. The lyrics include an ending line, "and nobody's getting fat, xcept' Mama's Cat..."
And yet, I was always horrified that I might be mishearing the lyrics as
"No one's getting, fat, except Mama Cass?" Does anyone remember this?
A little tough for a monday I thought but it all came together in the end. Mainly knew HMART from the memoir "Crying in H-Mart" by the wonderfully talented musician Michelle Zauner, aka Japanese Breakfast.
Creeque Alley by the Mamas & the Papas. Two lines “ And no one’s gettin’ fat except Mama Cass”. “And everybody’s gettin’ fat EXCEPT Mama Cass”.
Ginny has left us to fend for ourselves with bears. It ain't right!
Nice job, Mr. T.
It’s actually their origin story. A song how they came to be “The Mamas and the Papas”
Post a Comment