Theme: This puzzle PACKS a punch!
Jay Silverman handles acquisitions and development for media companies, with an emphasis on educational and children's programming. He also writes crossword puzzles. Those of you who hate foreign words in your puzzles got lucky today: Jay studies five languages every day and holds the unofficial 7th place Duolingo streak record for almost 5,000 consecutive days of completing at least one language lesson per day. Jay enjoys words! More about Jay Silverman is at www.jay-silverman.com.
Some crossword solvers love a theme that is easily seen and helps with the solve. Some solvers prefer a theme that is somewhat hidden and comes as a surprise. Today's puzzle will delight the latter group. The surprising reveal occurs way down here:
53-Across. Sets of sculpted abs, and what the ends of 19-, 23-, 24-, 36-, 46-, and 48-Across are altogether: SIX PACKS. Let's look at the *ends* of the listed entries for those SIX PACKS. Oh, but first, let's look at some SIX PACK abs -- for definition!
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| sculpted six pack |
19-Across. Oktoberfest sausage, informally: BEER BRAT. BRAT pack was a nickname for a group of young actors who often appeared together on screen in the 1980s: Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and Judd Nelson.
23-Across. Returned home: GOT BACK. A BACK pack is a fabric bag carried on one's back with the support of two shoulder straps. School children use back packs to carry books and supplies; hikers use them to carry tents and sleeping bags.
24-Across. Raise a false alarm: CRY WOLF. A WOLF pack is a family unit of wolves who travel, hunt, and rear pups together.
36-Across. Soft R&B ballad: SLOW JAM. JAM pack is a transitive verb meaning to pack tightly or to excess. If you jam pack your back pack, the zipper may break.
46-Across. Skating hazard: THIN ICE. An ICE pack is what my 95-year-old mother puts on her knees when she's walked too much. I thought it might also be an accumulation of ice that melts seasonally, like a snowpack, but apparently not.
48-Across. Market research company often cited in car ads: JD POWER. A POWER pack is (1) a portable charger for electronic devices, or (2) an adapter that converts household current for lower voltage appliances, or (3) a generator that powers heavy tools, systems, or refrigerated containers. Yours truly carries the first type on most trips, and adds the second type when traveling to other countries. The third type is not among my supplies.
Across:1. Sarcastic ET of 1980s TV: ALF. Same era, and yet not a member of the BRAT pack.
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| Alien Life Form |
4. School vehicles: BUSES.
9. "That really sticks in my __!": CRAW. Many bird species have a crop or "craw" in the throat, which is a pouch where food can be temporarily stored for later digestion. If something hard winds up there, it can be irritating. When people say, "That really sticks in my craw," they mean something is irritating to them and they find it hard to accept.
13. Laugh syllable: HAR.
14. "Humble" home: ABODE.
15. "Quiet, you!": SHUSH.
16. Blackjack card: ACE. The ace is powerful in blackjack because it can count as 1 or 11. A player's goal is to be dealt cards totaling as close to the number 21 as possible without going over. Since the 10 card and the three face cards all count as 10, if you have an ace in your hand, there are multiple ways to reach 21 with just two or three cards.
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| Aces, baby! |
17. News outlets: MEDIA.
18. Florida city near St. Petersburg: TAMPA.
19. [Theme clue]
21. __ pentameter: IAMBIC. The most common meter in English poetry, introduced by Chaucer, and cemented into the culture by Shakespeare. An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. A line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM. Or, Shakespeare: "When I do count the clock that tells the time."
23. [Theme clue]
24. [Theme clue]
28. Tennis legend Arthur: ASHE.
29. Chest muscles, for short: PECS. Appearing immediately above the six pack abs pictured earlier.
30. Secondary Insta accounts: ALTS. Secondary Instagram accounts, called "alts," let you separate your personal profile from a professional one, or use one account for a niche interest.
32. Dog park sounds: ARFS.
35. Feel crummy: AIL.
36. [Theme clue]
38. Deli bread: RYE.
40. Long part of a guitar or a giraffe: NECK. Or both?
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| the elusive guitaffe |
43. Solange, to Blue Ivy Carter: AUNT. Solange Knowles is Beyoncé's younger sister. Blue Ivy Carter is Beyoncé's daughter and oldest of her three children. I did not know, did not care, and yet spent way too much time researching and illustrating these luminaries of contemporary pop culture.
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| Beyoncé and Blue Ivy Solange |
44. Surrealist Magritte: RENÉ. Belgian, 1898-1967.
.jpg!Large.jpg) |
| "Attempting the Impossible" by Magritte, 1928 |
48. [Theme clue]
51. WSJ competitor: NYT. Wall Street Journal vs New York Times.
52. Mended, as socks: DARNED. Darning is a sewing technique used to repair holes in knit fabrics.
53. [Theme clue]
58. Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie __": AMOUR. Blind since shortly after his birth in 1950, Stevland Judkins was a musical prodigy who signed with Motown records at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder. At the height of his career in R&B, soul, and jazz, he used electronic synthesizers to be a one man band. "My Cherie Amour" reached number 4 on the Billboard pop chart in 1969, and was Wonder's eighth top ten hit.
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| Padma Lakshmi |
60. Santa __, California: ANA.
61. Promotes heavily: TOUTS.
62. Ink mishap: SMEAR.
63. Bar barrel: KEG.
64. Finishes: ENDS.
65. Leavening agent: YEAST.
66. Bighorn's mother: EWE.
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| I love ewe, mom! |
Down:
1. "Moby-Dick" captain: AHAB.
2. Ruth Bader Ginsburg's collar fabric: LACE. Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) was a lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, she argued before the court as an advocate for gender equality and women's rights, and was general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
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| The Notorious RBG, 2016 |
3. Give away instead of throw away: FREECYCLE.
4. Panda's diet: BAMBOO.
5. Ridesharing rival of Lyft: UBER.
6. __ fountain: SODA. In my mother's youth, there were dining establishments called soda fountains. Today, a soda fountain is the machine that dispenses carbonated soft drinks in fast food places.
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| old soda fountain new soda fountain |
7. Amend text: EDIT.
8. Salty body of water: SEA.
9. Room: CHAMBER.
10. Ballroom dance from Cuba: RUMBA.
11. Gelatinous dish: ASPIC. Aspic is a clear, savory gelatin made from meat, poultry, or fish stock.
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| aspic |
15. Jason of "Hobbs & Shaw": STATHAM. Jason Statham is an English actor who plays tough or violent characters in action films. Although he seems to be wildly popular and a bankable star, yours truly has managed to miss all his movies, including the whole Fast & Furious franchise, and the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. However, we will credit him with fitting a mini-theme today:
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| Jason Statham has six pack abs. |
20. Competes on the crew team: ROWS.
21. Apple platform: IOS. Apple’s iOS is the iPhone operating system.
23. Bunsen burner nozzle: GAS JET. We used a Bunsen burner for something-or-other in high school Biology. Typical uses are heating, sterilization, and combustion. I think I would remember combustion.
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| Bunsen burner |
24. Pro who's a master of deduction?: CPA.
25. Harness strap: REIN.
26. Kareem's former team, on scoreboards: LAL. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Los Angeles Lakers. Kareem's former name, on birth certificates: Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.
27. Bloom: FLOWER.
31. Number of players in checkers: TWO.
33. Rich dessert with a long shelf life: FRUITCAKE. Fruitcake is made with candied or dried fruit, nuts, and spices, and usually soaked in liqueurs or brandy, which helps prevent mold.
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| Two years old and still ... good? |
34. Lip-__: mouth the words: SYNC.
36. Barbecue rods: SKEWERS.
37. Campfire residue: ASH.
39. French summer: ÉTÉ.
41. Pastry hybrids: CRONUTS.
43. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA. Just heard Anya being interviewed by crossword favorite Ayesha Rascoe on NPR about her new Apple TV series, Lucky. If you ever get a chance to see Anya Taylor-Joy in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, it's worthwhile. This one? We'll see.
45. "Toy Story 3" voice actor Beatty: NED. Ned Beatty (1937-2021) was an actor (in movies even yours truly has seen!) and voiced Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear in the 2010 Disney/Pixar film Toy Story 3.
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| Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear and Ned Beatty |
47. To some extent: IN PART.
48. Matchmaking platform available in Hebrew: JDATE. How to meet other members of the tribe when Jews are only 2% of the U.S. population, and 0.2% worldwide? Meet Jdate, the app for singles seeking long-term, values-based commitments.
49. Comedian Wayans: DAMON. Damon Wayans performed on Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, on In Living Color (1990-92), and then a series of other TV shows, including the Fox television series Lethal Weapon (2016-2019). His son Damon Wayans Jr. is following in his footsteps.
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| The Damon Wayanses |
50. Self-satisfied: PROUD.
53. "We're on the __ page": SAME.
54. Bit of inspiration: IDEA.
55. Short holiday?: XMAS.
56. Was sure about: KNEW.
57. Fragrant herb: SAGE.
59. College maj. for an aspiring therapist: PSY. An abbreviation in the clue calls for an abbreviation in the answer: that college major is psychology.
Pretty easy puzzle.
ReplyDeleteOne “white-out.” Replaced “gasket” with
“gas jet.” Otherwise, no problem.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Well done, Naomi~!
ReplyDeleteI'd need a ladder to play that guitar, but it's worth trying just to see how it sounds~!
Splynter
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteBack in the day we called a BACK PACK a KNAP SACK. I often wore DARNED socks -- Mom had a darning egg. My first job was clerking in the local drug store. I had visions of being head jerk of the soda fountain. Alas, my first task was to take it apart and replace it with display racks. Thanx, Jay (I thought of Tonto, but that was Jay Silverheels) and NaomiZ.
I never had visions of being a 'head jerk' but I'm sure many of my employees thought that was my real job. Many people can't take constructive criticism.
DeleteThanks, Naomi, for the explanation because I'd filled the puzzle so fast I didn't read the clue for SIX PACKS. Already filled by perps. The few unknowns were easy to guess after a few perps. AUNT, PADMA, FREECYCLE.
ReplyDeleteSTATHAM and his show were complete unknowns and took every perp to fill. So were the Beyonce relatives.
I have to freecycle two Barcaloungers this week. They are great for napping. Getting replaced this week by two La-Z-Boy that DW bought.
FLN- I've been out of town the last two weekends and came home last night to see C.C. had the Sunday puzzle. Congratulations. I knew something was strange about the puzzle when FACELIFT was filled by perps but the clue was a Command to face LEFT. The I BEFORE E switches were easy after that, except the NE. I'd filled FRAGILE for "Easily broken" and couldn't remember ESSIE. It took me a long time to get it right, as FEELS FITTER is a good fill for "Recovers somewhat". I'd never heard of BELL THE CAT. It took a while for BRITTLE, BITTER, and BILL THE CAT to get filled.
I think Jason Statham was at one time als a member of the British National Diving team.
DeleteFIR. I found this to be a little rough for a Monday especially considering all the proper names sprinkled throughout.
ReplyDeleteMy first real summer job was working in a general store at a beach in Maine which included a soda fountain. I earned 55 cents for every two hours but a milk shake was only 25 cents, so I thought I was king of the hill earning that much!
Clever theme witch I got early on.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
KS, that was low pay. My drug store job paid $0.85/hour in the '50s -- $1.25/hour on Sunday mornings when we were open, mainly to sell the Sunday newspapers: Appleton Post Crescent, Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinel, and the Chicago Tribune.
DeleteFor me, JD power and JDate was a nasty cross. Never heard of JDate, and sort of heard of JD Power, and was at a loss for the letter to put in the blank where the J was supposed to go.
ReplyDeleteFIR because I guessed RENE and CRONUT. I was hoping for an definition of cronut here. Weak blog today.
ReplyDeletecronut - croissant +donut pastry
DeleteTook 3:53 to ice this today.
ReplyDeleteSeemed themeless while solving, which is a good thing. I even knew the Actress of the Day (Anya).
Ed M., I disagree with your criticism, but "cronut" is a combo/hybrid of croissant and donut.
Musings
ReplyDelete-Six, count ‘em, six themers
-BEER in the first fill but is not part of the process where the clever gimmick is SIX PACKS? Cool!
-For 23 years, this time of year would find me having 300 kids detasseling in rented school BUSES
-There was a time when MEDIA gave the news without any bias
-Our common clue for RENÉ is for his work This Is Not A Pipe
-FREECYCLE is a fun new word for me
-The teen hangout of my misspent youth had soda dispensers that required a jerk to operate :-)
-We bought a new Mac last week that runs OSX. It took a 45-minute call to a very pleasant and capable Apple representative named Sunny to set it up.
-Big stars lip synched while Marni Nixon famously sang in My Fair Lady, The King And I, etc.
-Odd names were self-solving
-Nice job, Naomi!
What's "detasseling"?
DeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteThe theme was clever and well-hidden but I stumbled over Statham’s spelling and didn’t have the patience for an alphabet run on Got Back, therefore, a shameful Monday DNF. Interesting duo of Ash and Ashe.
I must admit, though, the prevalence of proper names/nouns is beginning to annoy me. Crossword puzzles are supposed to challenge your overall knowledge of various disciplines and your deductive skills, but these goals seem to be getting lost in today’s fixation on pop culture icons and their language, text-speak, influencers, etc. I realize and accept that change is inevitable, but tradition is important, also. That’s why the Beatles and Beethoven will always coexist!
Thanks, Jay, and thanks, Naomi, for your usual in-depth analysis and commentary.
Have a great day.
Sigh, Irish, I'm afraid you and I are ARFING up the wrong tree these days. Like golf, we have to "play it where it lies".
DeleteAmen!!
DeleteFIR, getting my SWAG @ IAMDIC x STATHAM. I am a what? Them's fightin' words.
ReplyDeleteOne of the late Jimmy Buffett's many albums is FRUITCAKEs. Great, funny album.
Out in the boonies again today. Verizon service oscillates between one bar and SOS. Hard to participate here, or even to check email. I'll have to solve this challenge before I come here full-time.
Thanks to Jay and NaomiZ for the fun.
Hola! No time to read comments right now; it's volunteer Monday. Surprisingly, I finished the puzzle in very good time. But it is Monday. ALF, that rascally E.T., keeps showing up in puzzles. And I've never heard of FREE CYCLE but it certainly makes sense.
ReplyDeleteIt all fell into place very nicely. Thank you, Jay Silverman, and thank you NaomiZ. It's nice to see you back on Monday duty. Have a great day, everyone!
A little crunchier than most Mondays but I still FIR. I like FREECYCLE and that other hybrid CRONUT, though I don’t eat the latter but love to give away instead of throwing away.
ReplyDeleteSince I knew JD POWER and DARNED, the unknown JDATE showed up. I had to go somewhere after I finished the puzzle, so I didn’t take the time to look for the theme. A clever one.
Not only did we have ASH and ASHE, as pointed out by Irish Miss ☘️, but we also had ALF and ARFS. I used to frequent SODA fountains and I still have my mother’s DARNing wooden egg.
Great review NaomiZ. I liked the diagram for IAMBIC pentameter.
Jay Silverman gave us a very “ busy” word offering today.
ReplyDeleteI had a love/hate relationship with this puzzle
.
Beerbrat, slowjam, and six packs would all make a laid back Sunday afternoon.
Adate, freecycle, adpower would make my head spin like I was Linda Blair in the “Exorcist”
Thanks Jay for a whirlwind puzzle.
Thank you NaomiZ, I would not have seen the complete theme without you...
ReplyDelete(I don't know what Ed M @ 8:44 is talking about.)
I'll have you know that I copied your format, and end comments when learning how to post a Blog review. I like your style!
my style still needs works though...
TTP! Google was extra helpful in signing in today, as I had cleared my browser history. It seems they are listening, as it was super easy, and I now also have a passkey to sign in with Face ID or thumbprint!
Yay!
Thank you for your kind comments, CE:D at 11:07 AM! I love your style link! Very apropos.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFIR in 11, but 19 names, 6 DNKs. Also DNK "ALTS", "SLOWJAM', or "FREECYCLE". Also, I know "rat pack" but DNK "BRATPACK'. Between that and BEERBRAT, makes me hungry for beerbrats!
ReplyDeleteGenius creation to have six theme answers that are all types of "packs" and the reveal being "sixpacks". Thanx JS, terrific CW. Try to minimize names though in future creations. Here's a challenge: create a CW with zero proper names, place names, or brand names.
I'm so proud of my six-pack abs I carefully protect them behind four inches of fat.
"THINICE" was slow to appear. Living in SOFLO, ice was not the first thing to come to mind.
Thanx NaomiZ for the terrific write-up. I like every one of your choices for illustrations.
Six different packs from Jay today. Fun theme.
ReplyDeleteAs for JD Power, their surveys are meaningless as they poll people immediately after purchase. Everyone loves their new toy during the honeymoon period. Much better to follow-up a year later when little annoyances crop up and things start to break.
Super job Naomi! I need a guitaffe (ask me next year about how well it works).
I was surprised for a Monday to find four answers I had absolutely no clue about (since their clues didn’t help): cronuts, alts, slow jam, aunt - since solange and blue ivy mean nothing to me. And my fault for not recalling JDPowers so that I thought I remembered RD Powers and thusly FIW - in spite of getting the unknowns mentioned above correct. Crunchy Monday.
ReplyDelete