Ella Dershowitz followed in her father's footsteps and constructs crossword puzzles. Wait, that's not right. She's was inspired by her dad to become an actress! Hmm, that's not right either. Well, you can look up Alan Dershowitz, but in the meantime, Ella keeps providing entertainment for us.
11D. Engage in some strength training, or what this puzzle's circled letters do: LIFT WEIGHTS. The revealer sort of tells us that the WEIGHTS will LIFT i.e. spell vertically from the bottom up.
7D. Skeptical remark: YOU'RE NOT SERIOUS. STONE, from the Imperial System used Britain.
9D. Key influencers?: PIANO TEACHERS. TON, from U.S. Customary and Imperial Systems. Also a great clue!
18D. Cartesian concept that questions the reality of waking life: DREAM ARGUMENT. GRAM, from the Metric System. A DREAM ARGUMENT is a philosophical thought experiment that questions whether we can distinguish waking reality from a highly vivid dream.
24D. "Can you believe this scam?": WHAT A RACKET. CARAT, from the Metric System specifically for gemstones.
This puzzle was hard enough with the hidden weights being presented vertically and upside down. It would've been near impossible without the circles. For instance, if you somehow caught the theme, you might confusingly note that 7D also has TON (part of STONE) inside of it.
On the plus side of the scale, I like how these units of mass are typically used to measure different things, from cargo to gems, and they range from very large to very small. I'd have liked her to toss in a DRAM (Apothecary) or GRAIN (Troy weight) to add a variety of measuring systems.
Let's see how the rest balances out:
Across:
1. Jazzy improvisation: RIFF. I wrote SCAT, and was off to a roaring stop!
5. Taylor-Joy of "The Queen's Gambit": ANYA. In the popular mini-series, ANYA played a pawn who was rooked.
9. Whimper: PULE. Unknown, but PULE also refers to a rare Serbian cheese made from donkey milk, and is considered the most expensive cheese in the world. You'll whimper when you see the price tag.
13. Vulgar one: BOOR.
14. Bird on the Canadian dollar coin: LOON. These coins are often called Loonies.
15. Hard to erase, perhaps: IN INK.
17. "Today was rough": I NEED A HUG.
19. High cost for the Super Bowl: AD FEE. And up to $50k for great seats!
20. "... at the very least": OR MORE.
21. Dame introduction?: NOTRE. Have you met Our Lady, Notre Dame?
22. "Parks and Recreation" town: PAWNEE. From the popular TV show that served as a springboard for Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Offerman and Aziz Ansari.
25. Red friend of Cookie Monster: ELMO. Also, Natasha Lance Rogoff, author of Muppets in Moscow.
 |
| Have you also met my Red friend? |
27. Was first: WON.
28. "Close enough": ISH. This clue is okayISH.
29. Yemen port that faces the Somaliland port Berbera: ADEN.
31. "I am in this meme": IT ME. I'll never get used to this.
33. Checkpoint for the terminally on line?: TSA. Fun clue #1. Transportation Security Administration at a terminal security line in an airport.
34. Banh mi spread: MAYO.
35. Fashion week focus: DESIGN. This year, their focus was on the historic 100+ degree heatwave in Paris. Models were misted and given cooling towels, ice packs and folding fans to keep from passing out, especially when showcasing the winter collections.
 |
| "Hot" couture? |
38. Health insurance giant: AETNA.
40. Update from a Lyft driver: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival.
42. Big mad and not hiding it: AGGRO. A slang abbreviation for aggravation or aggression.
43. Floor connectors: STAIRS.
45. Architect's constraint, for short: SPEC. Specifications are important!
47. Feminine pronoun: HER.
48. Meaty sauce: RAGU.
49. Engrave on glass: ETCH.
50. Kilt companion: TAM. They were plentiful on Miami Beach last week. Go USA!
51. HS fundraiser: PTA. A Parent Teacher Association may hold a high school fundraiser, such as a car wash or a bake sale.
53. Very, informally: UBER. This is a very nice taxi, usually.
55. Ocean escapades?: HEISTS. Danny Ocean's gang robbed casinos in the Ocean's Eleven film franchise. Ocean was originally played by Frank Sinatra, and later by George Clooney.
57. Command to attack: SIC 'EM.
59. Middle-distance runners: MILERS.
61. Bracelet spot: ANKLE.
62. Potbelly that needs constant feeding?: COAL STOVE. Ye olde potbelly STOVE...or the family pig from Hooterville.
 |
| Arnold Ziffel on Green Acres |
66. Oktoberfest souvenir: STEIN.
67. Bread for an Italian sandwich?: EURO. Fun clue #2.
68. Boo-boo: OWIE.
69. "Like, yesterday": STAT.
70. "The Pat McAfee Show" network: ESPN. Former NFL punter Pat McAfee highlights the day's top stories in sports.
71. Turow book set at Harvard: ONE L. OK, class. We went over this last Thursday and it'll be on this week's test.
Down:
1. Sac fly result: RBI.
2. Atom with a sign: ION. IONS may be positive or negative, denoted by + and - signs.
 |
| Atom Ant with signs |
3. Adversary: FOE.
4. Refrigerant trademark since the 1930s: FREON. DuPont Freon®. It's a gas, gas, gas!
 |
| The Stones are cool! |
5. Tree-lined walkway: ALAMEDA. The Spanish word ALAMEDA can also mean a public promenade. The city of ALAMEDA, Calif. was the original west coast terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad, which could be thought of as America's first major cross-country promenade.
6. NYC nabe below Union Square: NOHO. The neighborhood North of Houston [Street] in Lower Manhattan, New York City.
7. [theme]
8. Figure in a halo: ANGEL. Figure in Halo: CHIEF, the most popular action figure from the Halo video game.
9. [theme]
10. Go back a step: UNDO. CTRL + Z on a PC keyboard, Command + Z on a Mac.
11. [theme]
12. First page of el calendario: ENERO. January is the first month on a Spanish calendar.
16. Peachy follower: KEEN. Peachy (meaning excellent or fine) and KEEN (meaning enthusiastic or splendid), expressing a highly positive, cheerful state of being.
18. [theme]
22. Deli pockets: PITAS. Watch your pockets in Delhi! Street thieves frequent busy markets and train stations there.
23. Portfolio piece: ASSET.
24. [theme]
26. Prefix with day or way: MID. Like half-day or halfway, but one letter shorter.
30. __ shadow: EYE.
32. Umami enhancer, briefly: MSG. MonoSodium Glutamate has generally been found to be safe and is healthier than table salt. It was stigmatized in 1968 when a doctor wrote a since debunked letter to a medical journal claiming he felt unwell after eating at a Chinese restaurant. I got sick after eating too much Easter chocolate as a kid. My mom thought it was some sort of reaction so she only got me white chocolate bunnies for years afterward while my brothers got the tasty real ones!
 |
| Don't bet on it! |
36. Dane introduction?: GREAT. This clue is clechoISH with 21A. The Great Dane is a massive, gentle German breed renowned as the "Apollo of Dogs." Buster sometimes thinks he's a Greek god.
 |
| It's good to be the king! |
37. Social rules: NORMS.
39. Actress Vardalos: NIA. NIA is a Canadian actress and screenwriter of Greek descent. You may remember her wedding.
41. Fitting: APT.
44. Long sammich: SUB.
46. Level of authority: ECHELON.
51. Spots for education?: PSAS. Fun clue #3. Public Service Announcements.
52. Subtle hair dyes: TINTS.
54. Awards ceremony host: EMCEE.
56. Childish comeback: IS TOO. There are a lot of childish comebacks on the crossword playground.
58. Director Kazan: ELIA. Mr. Kazan was described by the NYT as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history."
60. Take part in an outdoor fantasy game: LARP. Live Action Role-Play ranging from murder mystery dinner parties to massive weekend-long fantasy campaigns with hundreds of participants.
63. Possess: OWN.
64. Contend (for): VIE.
65. Nigiri topper never served raw: EEL. I prefer nigiri, just a slice of fresh fish on a small mound of rice, over rolled sushi.
Have a safe and happy 4th, everyone!
Be good. RB
Wow! That was tough!
ReplyDeleteSo many “?” clues, for one thing. On my first pass I had a sea of blank squares. But, eventually, by “chipping away” at it, I got it.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Enjoyed the puzzle and the expo - thanks to both. Favorite answer was coal stove as being from the South I didn't know such things existed so was delighted to find you can buy a genuine potbellied coal burning caboose (now there's a word that needs to be in a crossword somewhere) stove in any number of places. I loved that the specs online for one stated that the top use was "Heating (Train stations and cabooses)" - yeah, if you're Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Rare and fun to find humor in a product write-up.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteAlmost immediately had to correct my MEWL to PULE. (Thanks, Wite-Out.) I never noticed the circles, nor the theme, for that matter. IT ME made me AGGRO -- didn't like 'em. I didn't care for LARP, either. On the other hand, the long themers were cleverly clued. This one was a challenge, worthy of a Thursday. Thanx, Ella and Rusty.
Pule, it me, aggro and larp all new to me! Liked that weights got heavier from bottom to top “lifting weights” again.
DeleteFIW, missing with sOHO x AsYA. Hand up for scat->RIFF; also mores->NORMS.
ReplyDeleteYemen port blah, blah, blah is going to be ADEN. A guy who sailed with me served on a cruiser, and its job was to guard the oil terminals in the Gulf of ADEN. He said there were big currents they had to deal with.
I went to NOTRE Dame. No I'm not alum, I just drove through the campus when I was in Northern Indiana.
I recently got my EPA 609 certification, which allows me to buy and use FREON and other refrigerants for cars and trucks. I'm working to get my 608 certification which is the same, but for fixed-unit application. Last week I learned that if I get my 608 Type 2, I don't need a 609. Now they tell me.
Thanks to Ella, but IT ME, AGGRO and LARP kept this one from being as fun as most of your offerings. And thanks to Rusty Brain for another fine review. At first, I thought Fuzzy's picture was of an Irish Wolfhound, which, on average, is larger and more even tempered than GREAT Danes.
Ella related to the lawyer? Who'd guessed. A very good puzzle for a Thursday with clues listing unknowns and unknown fills- AGGRO, LARP, PAWNEE, PULE. I know of the Kansas town but the other three, zero knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThe WEIGHTS LIFT bottom to top and left to right was double-duty constructing. But I never noticed them until I had FIR.
My last fill was having to change ANNA to ANYA to compete YOU'RE NOT SERIOUS. I only remember ALAMEDA from the stadium where the Oakland Raiders played before they became a gypsy team in search of a city to extort for money. Build me a $billion stadium or I'll take my ball and leave.
COAL STOVE. My first thought was JABBA HUTT.
Oh, this was Big Easy
DeleteAggro, new to me. I hate these bastardized, made up words.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed
DeleteI surprised myself and FIR. Once I filled the reveal, I found the weights and that helped fill other squares.
ReplyDeleteYes, scat before RIFF, and is it sOHO or NOHO? I figured ANYA made more sense than AsYA.
Too many conversational phrases for my taste, and too many weird slang I’m not used to like AGGRO, IT ME, sammich, and the game of LARP came to me only because we’ve had it in a previous puzzle.
I don’t do my puzzles IN INK because I do a lot of UNDOing. 😜 We had a GREAT Dane many years ago. She was a sweetheart. When she stood at our fence, she was taller than me.
Thank you RB for such a nice review.
FIR. I so hate circles, and we've had a few puzzles this week with them. More importantly they added nothing to what was a typical Thursday hard puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI struggled with this one mostly because of so much slang and lots of unusual phrases. But it's done so there's that.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was a nice Thursday challenge but, IMO, its overall appeal was marred by the inclusion of the infantile It Me and the non-words, Aggro and LARP. I too, went astray at Scat/Riff, and Mewl/Pule, and Dream Argument, Pawnee, and Alameda were unknown and needed perps. Other than the aforementioned criticisms of some fill, there were some fresh and sparkling entries, i.e., Echelon, I Need A Hug, Coal Stove, and the stand-out grid spanner, You’re Not Serious.
Thanks, Ella, and thanks, RB, for the informative review and chatty narrative. Tummy rubs to Buster!
Stay cool, everyone!
FIW - stupid mistake as I didn’t get eye shadow and thought the cross was miso!! But crunchy nevertheless. I never knew alameda definition unfortunately. Had wood stove before changing it to coal. But all the question marks are a pain in the neck and any constructors using LARP (which I saw for the first time in my life within the last week!) and aggro made up words that even my phone doesn’t recognize…Well let’s just say they can’t be serious and they need a hug! Otherwise I would say Sic Em and have a Great Dane lick them till they cried Uncle.
ReplyDelete