Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Beth Rubin, Owen Bergstein

 Theme:  FOURced entry.

In today's puzzle by Beth Rubin and Owen Bergstein, the theme entries are arranged symmetrically among the Across answers.  

16. Surfaces for playing board games: TABLETOPS.  As kids, we played board games on the floor, but now that we are old and creaky, we play them on top of the table.  In keeping with today's theme, we give a shout out to the FOUR TOPS, who helped establish the Motown sound in the 1960s.

29. Lateral handsprings: CARTWHEELS.  Harking back to youth again, CARTWHEELS were popular with the girls, but this blogger never learned the trick.  But I did see the theme here:  FOUR WHEELS are typical of wheeled vehicles.

34. Collections of episodes overseen by showrunners: TV SEASONS.  IMDb says: "Showrunner is the unofficial title given to the top-level creative decision maker and manager overseeing all episodes of an individual season of a television/episodic series."  I didn't know that a showrunner typcially controls an entire season, but I did know the FOUR SEASONS.

Artist Diane Getty made this quilt called "Green's View" featuring one scene in four seasons. 

45. Triangular snack chips from PepsiCo: POPCORNERS.  Have you seen or heard of PopCorners?  Although this snack has only three corners, a typical room in a house has FOUR CORNERS.  Four Corners is also the place where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet.

My kiddos at the Four Corners Monument in 1990.

58. Round after the Elite Eight, and what the ends of 16-, 29-, 34-, and 45-Across are?: FINAL FOUR.  In the NCAA men's Division I basketball championship or the NCAA women's Division I basketball championship, the "Elite Eight" comprises the final eight teams, representing the regional finals, or national quarterfinals. The winners advance to the Final Four.  There are further distinctions made for the various Divisions.  For purposes of today's puzzle, the FINAL part of each theme answer can be paired with the word FOUR to form a common phrase:  FOUR TOPS, FOUR WHEELS, FOUR SEASONS, and FOUR CORNERS.  

Let us now go FOURth to solve the rest of the puzzle:

Across:

1. Misses: GALS.

5. Taj Mahal city: AGRA.

9. In addition: PLUS.  Not "also" this time.

13. "The Reader" actress Lena: OLIN.  In "The Reader," Swedish actress Lena Olin played a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz death march at a trial in the 1960s, and as the woman's daughter twenty years later.

Lena Olin in "The Reader"

14. Pedicure targets: TOES.

15. Tuscan city: SIENA.  Since darling daughter married a Tuscan man, we have had the opportunity to visit a few Tuscan cities.  I wouldn't know the towns of other regions in Italy off the top of my head.

The Ex, the Daughter, her F-I-L, NaomiZ, and the Groom in Siena before the wedding.

P.S.  I am not short!  These people are tall.

16. [Theme clue]

18. Disconnected: APART.

19. Actor Vigoda: ABE.  Abe Vigoda (1921-2016) was an American actor known for his roles in The Godfather and Barney Miller. 

Abe Vigoda

20. "Super cool": RAD.

21. Homeric journey: ODYSSEY.

23. Zeroes out for container weight, say: TARES.  To TARE is to adjust a scale on which an empty container has been placed so as to reduce the displayed weight to zero.  I do this with the kitchen scale to weigh what I'm going to put into a container without having to subtract the weight of the container.  Until this moment, I didn't realize TARE could be used as a verb.  

25. One that might get turned into stone?: SCREW.  Really?  To screw into stone, you generally have to drill a hole and sink an anchor in there for the screw.  A little forced, if you ask me!

27. That girl: HER.

28. Big name in cinema: IMAX.  IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio and steep stadium seating.

29. [Theme clue]

31. __ Alto, California: PALO.

32. "__ seen worse": I'VE.

33. Finishes up: ENDS.

34. [Theme clue]

38. Help (out): BAIL.  You can BAIL someone out of jail by providing a security deposit, or BAIL them out of a predicament by lending assistance.  You can also BAIL water out of a boat, and if you are in a boat with a friend, I guess you're bailing them out at the same time.

40. Rap battle VIPs: MCS.  MC, or Master of Ceremonies, is a term used to describe a rapper who is also a performer with a variety of skills, including crowd control, stage presence, and hosting abilities.

41. Collection of Norse poems: EDDA.  EDDA is an Old Norse term that has been applied by modern scholars to two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is known as the Prose Edda and an older collection of poems now known as the Poetic Edda. Both works were recorded in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching back into the Viking Age. The books provide the main sources for Norse mythology.

45. [Theme clue]

48. Greek god of war: ARES.

49. Freezer cubes: ICE.

50. Crystal-lined rock: GEODE.  A hollow, spherical rock that contains masses of minerals, often in the form of crystals.

51. Material: CLOTH.

52. Like futuristic tech: NEXT-GEN.

54. Govt. org. employing ecologists: EPA.  Environmental Protection Agency.

56. Poker prize: POT.

57. Harsh light: GLARE.

58. [Theme reveal]

61. Bull on glue bottles: ELMER.  The brand was introduced by Borden Inc., and Elmer was meant to be the mate of advertising mascot Elsie the Cow.  The original Elmer's glue contained dairy products, but it is now synthetic.

62. Once more: ANEW.

63. Energy field read by a psychic: AURA.

64. Spinal column element: DISK.

65. Little bits: TADS.

66. Marketplace with personalized gifts: ETSY.

Down:

1. "Care to share your expertise?": GOT A TIP?  Right at 1-Down, you are going to annoy some solvers with this conversational prompt.

2. The Crimson Tide of the NCAA: ALABAMA.  DH's cousin's daughter went to 'Bama, so I sorta knew this.  Anyone else with a sports allergy find this difficult?

3. Generous: LIBERAL.  Liberal usually means broad-minded or tolerant, but it can also mean generous.  Perhaps you are liberal with the olive oil, or the salt, or pepper?

4. NBC skit show, for short: SNL.  Saturday Night Live.  

5. "__ baby!": "Way to go!": ATTA.  We've had ATTA boy and ATTA girl in the puzzle before.  I have not heard ATTA baby, but Urban Dictionary says it is "A congratulation for doing something beasty or awesome."  I thought this was forced, but it seems I was just uninformed.

6. "Talked your way out of trouble there!": GOOD SAVE.

7. Gym unit: REP.  Short for repetition.  So commonly used in the gym that there was no prompt for an abbreviation, although I guess "gym" is short for "gymnasium."

Forced reps require a spotter to assist.

8. Arrange by category: ASSORT.  To distribute into groups of a like kind.  "Sort" means the same thing.  Do you use ASSORT as a verb?  Or do you sort things to create an assortment?

9. Gladys Knight & the __: PIPS.  An American R&B, soul, and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early 1950s.

Gladys Knight & the Pips

10. Like a dog in a crowded park, ideally: LEASHED.

11. Lets out, as a fishing line: UNREELS.  Unwinds from a reel.  Fishing with my dad, I performed this motion, but did not know this word.  I thought this answer was forced, but maybe I should have been forced to learn more verbs.

12. Mythical forest folk: SATYRS.  Lustful, drunken woodland gods. In Greek art they were depicted as men with horses' ears and tails, but in Roman art as men with goats' ears, tails, legs, and horns.

Greek Satyr

Roman Satyr

15. Drink pourer's words: SAY WHEN.

17. Hectic hosp. areas: ERS.  Emergency Rooms.  Abbreviated clue calls for abbreviated answer.

22. Morning drops: DEW.

24. Otherworldly: EXOTIC.  From another country; unusual; alien.

26. __ spinach: CREAMED.  How to take a healthy vegetable and make it not that.

29. Lead-in to gender: CIS.  Cisgender describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth, that is, someone who is not transgender.

30. Ratify with a stamp, quaintly: ENSEAL.  Enseal is an obsolete verb that means to impress a document with a seal.  As a teenager, I loved to seal the envelopes of letters I sent to friends with sealing wax, but obvs I was missing this verb.

35. Many a YouTuber: VLOGGER.  Vlogger is a portmanteau of video and blogger. Anyone who posts video updates to an online journal or weblog can be described as a vlogger.

36. Sifted through, as candidates: SCREENED.

37. CIA predecessor: OSS.  The Office of Strategic Services was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II.

38. Italian tenor Andrea: BOCELLI.  Andrea Bocelli was born with congenital glaucoma, and lost his eyesight completely at age 12 after being hit in the eye with a football.  He has had a brilliant singing career in spite of these difficulties.

Andrea Bocelli

39. HS tests taken for college credit: AP EXAMS.  Many colleges offer course credits for High School Advanced Placement tests.

42. Quit school: DROP OUT.

43. Roundabout routes: DETOURS.

44. Container in a smoking lounge: ASHTRAY.

45. Made unwanted sounds, as an engine: PINGED.  An engine can ping (or knock) due to an improper combustion process, because the engine is too hot, or because of improper gasoline octane.

46. Food Network host Drummond: REE.  Anne Marie "Ree" Drummond is an American blogger, food writer, and television personality. Known for her blog, The Pioneer Woman, which documented her life in rural Oklahoma, Drummond has starred in her own television program, also titled The Pioneer Woman, on The Food Network since 2011.

Ree Drummond

47. Like some yogurt: NONFAT.

51. Nev. neighbor: CAL.  Nevada is next door to California.

53. Lengthy hike: TREK.

55. Rabbit's feet: PAWS.

59. Food Network host Garten: INA.  Ina Garten is an American television cook and author. She is host of the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa and is a former staff member of the federal Office of Management and Budget.

Ina Garten

60. Neopronoun sometimes spelled "fey": FAE. Fae/faer/faers are gender-neutral pronouns. Which would be great, as an alternative to using cisgender plurals for singular persons, but there are too many new ones to be practical.  Besides fae/faer/faers, there are ze/zir/zirs, xe/xem/xyrs, ae/aer/aers, ve/ver/vers, ne/nem/nirs, and per/per/pers, among others!

Are we done yet?  I found this to be a tough Tuesday.  It was also:

Here's the grid:

Did you DROP OUT?  Were you CREAMED by this puzzle?

Or did you finish with an ATTA baby?

-- NaomiZ

 

Notes from C.C.:

Happy 81st Birthday to dear JD! Here's a picture of Jill, Garlic Gal, Chickie and JD, all of them used to read our blog regularly.

 

 

Tuesday, July 9, 2024 Rebecca Goldstein and Beth Rubin

Body Double:  The word Body can be placed before each of the two words in the theme answers to give a new concept.  Body Double is also a 1984 Brian De Palma film about young actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby.

17-Across. Intimate conversation in bed: PILLOW TALK.  Body Pillow / Body Talk.  Pillow Talk is a 1959 movie starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day.  A Body Pillow is usually a long, narrow pillow that you cradle while you sleep. The benefit of a body pillow is that it gives extra support to side sleepers, especially those suffering from back issues or sleep apnea.  Body Talk, also known as Body Language, "is the means by which people convey information through physical behaviors rather than words."

25-Across. Laundry apparatus used as a percussion instrument: WASHBOARD.  Body Wash / Body Board.  Body Wash is a liquid soap.  A Body Board is used in the sport of bodyboarding in which the surfer rides a bodyboard on the crest, face, and curl of a wave.  A Washboard is frequently used in Zydeco music.

35-Across. Aerosolized popcorn condiment: SPRAY BUTTER.  Body Spray / Body Butter.  Body Spray is similar to perfume, however, body sprays have a lower level of concentrated oil and more alcohol, while perfume have a higher level of oil and less water or alcohol.  Body Butter is similar to a body lotion, however, body butter is better for rougher skin and is thicker than a lotion.

48-Across. Timepiece innards: CLOCKWORK.  Body Clock / Body Work.  Your Body Clock defines your daily rhythms.  I think of Body Work as something that your car might need after an accident.

And the unifier:

57-Across. Actor's stand-in, or a hint to what can precede both parts of 17-, 25-, 35-, and 48-Across: BODY DOUBLE.  Everything you wanted to know about a Body Double but didn't think to ask.

Brad Pitt and his Body Double.

Across:

1. Gentle touches: PATS.

5. Raise, as morale: BOOST.

10. Harvest: REAP.

14. Baker's appliance: OVEN.

15. One of the Three Musketeers: ATHOS.  The Three Musketeers is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by Alexandre Dumas (1802 ~ 1870).  The novel takes place in the 1620s and recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan (a character based on Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan) after he leaves home to travel to Paris  He had hoped to join the Musketeers of the Guard, but was ineligible.  He was, however, befriended by three musketeers: – Athos, Porthos and Aramis, "the three musketeers".  [Name # 1, fictional.]

16. Penne __ vodka: ALLA.  Yummers!  Penne alla vodka is a pasta dish made with (Surprise!) vodka and penne.  There are a few other ingredients as well, including heavy cream, crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce, onions. The alcohol is said to intensify and accentuate flavors in the dish.

19. "The Rabbit Hutch" National Book Award winner Gunty: TESS.  The Rabbit Hutch is a Tess Gunty's first novel, that was published in 2022.  It is about 4 teenager who recently aged out of the state foster-care system and are now living together in a run-down town in the mid-West.  [Name # 2.]

20. Pizzeria owner in "Do the Right Thing": SAL.  Do the Right Thing is a 1989 film by Spike Lee (b. 1957) about race relations in a Brooklyn.   Salvatore "Sal" Fragione, portrayed by Danny Aiello (1933 ~ 2019), is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in the neighborhood.  [Name # 3, fictional]

21. Prepare ahead of time: PLAN.

22. Make a quick policy change: PIVOT.

23. Coming in handy: UTILE.

28. Funnel-shaped flower: PETUNIA.

30. Apple platform: IOS.  //  Not to be confused with 41-Across: Bit of positivity?: ION.

31. Greek letter before upsilon: TAU.

32. Fellows: MEN.

33. CPR pro: EMT.  An Emergency Medical Technician better be able to perform CardioPulmonary Resuscitation.

34. "Been there, __ that": DONE.

38. Yes votes: AYES.

40. Key __: car remote: FOB.

42. Bad review: PAN.

43. Poivre partner: SEL.  Today's French lesson gives us Pepper and Salt.

44. Ideal: OPTIMUM.

51. Muscat resident: OMANI.

52. "NCIS" protagonist __ Jethro Gibbs: LEROY.  Leroy Jethro Gibbs the main character in NCIS and is portrayed by Mark Harmon (b. 1951).  [Name # 4, fictional.]

53. Lyft competitor: UBER.  What's the difference?

55. Show hosts, for short: MCs.

56. Actress Shawkat: ALIA.  Alia Shawkat (b. 1989) makes occasional appearances in the puzzles.  She portrayed Maeby Fünke on Arrested Development.   [Name # 5]

60. Exams for srs.: SATs.  The Scholastic Aptitude Tests make frequent appearances in the puzzles.

61. Foe: ENEMY.

62. Wax alternative: NAIR.  Hair removal products.

63. Whack: SWAT.

64. Like grainy graphics: LO-RES.  Oh, as in Low Resolution.  I kept looking at LORES and wondered what that meant, then the light bulb went on.

65. Best Female Athlete, e.g.: ESPY.

Down:

1. Comes as a surprise, maybe: POPS UP.

2. Fly a plane: AVIATE.

3. "Preach!": TELL IT!

4. NBC sketch show, familiarly: SNL.  As in Saturday Night Live.

The original Not-Ready-For-Primetime Players

5. Weep loudly: BAWL.

6. Capital of Canada: OTTAWA.  Hi, CanadianEh!

7. Hawaiian word for "family": OHANA.

8. Pine-__: cleaning brand: SOL.  It now comes in all sorts of flavors, er, scents.

9. Disapproving sound: TSK!

10. Math comparison: RATIO.

11. Stairs alternative: ELEVATOR.

12. Concession speech giver: ALSO RAN.

13. Late, as a library book: PAST DUE.  My public library has done away with late fees.

18. First game of the season: OPENER.

22. "All Creatures Great and Small" airer: PBS.  As in Public Broadcasting Service.

24. Sugar cubes: LUMPS.

26. "Atlas" actor Liu: SIMU.  Simu Liu (b. 1989) is a Canadian actor.  He was born in Harban, China, but his family moved to Canada when he was a small child.  In 2022, he was named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world.  ([Name # 6.]

27. Good intel: HOT TIP.

29. Shortly: IN A FEW.

33. Flow out: EBB.

34. Jeans material: DENIM.

35. Miss, in Mexico: SENORITA.  Today's Spanish lesson.

36. "Carpe diem" acronym: YOLO.  You Only Live Once.

37. "My Neighbor __": 1988 Miyazaki film: TOTORO.  This seems to be a bit obscure for a Tuesday.  My Neighbor Totoro is a Japanese animated film that focuses on two young sisters their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan.  I had not heard of this film, nor had I heard of its director Hayao Miyazaki (b. Jan. 5, 1941).  [Name # 7.]

38. Sr.'s course for college credit: AP CLASS.  As in Advanced Placement Class.

39. Sonia Sotomayor's alma mater: YALE LAW.  Sonia Sotomayor (b. 1954) has served on the Supreme Court since August 2009.  I wouldn't want her job.  [Name # 8.]

43. Pie in the __: SKY.

44. "I'm cool with that": OK BY ME.

45. Deadly African snakes: MAMBAS.  Everything you wanted to know about the Mamba but didn't know to ask.

46. Release, as a carabiner: UNCLIP.

47. "__ loves company": MISERY.

49. Seashore: COAST.  Here I am at Diamond Beach, also known as Breiðamerkursandur.  It is a beach located on the south coast of Iceland.  Its name comes from the "diamond" pieces of ice from the nearby glacier.  I didn't go swimming there.

50. More impolite: RUDER.

54. Dreyer's ice cream, east of the Rockies: EDY'S.  This ice cream brand makes frequent guest appearances in the puzzles.

57. "The Fresh Prince of __-Air": BEL.  The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a television show from the 1990s and starred Will Smith (b. 1968).

58. Artist Yoko: ONO.  Yoko Ono (b. Feb. 18, 1933) makes frequent guest appearances in the puzzles.  I can't believe she is 91 years old!  [Name # 9.]

59. French article: UNE.  More of today's French lesson.

Here's the Grid:

חתולה

Many thanks to Anonymous T who filled in for me while Hubby and I explored the Land of the Midnight Sun.

The caption reads: I'm sorry, sir, you're overdrawn.

Notes from C.C.:

1) Welcome back, Susan!

2) Happy 54th birthday to dear Tony (Anon-T), our faithful Tuesday guide the past few weeks. Every time I need a blog sub, Tony is there. Thank you so much for being so generous with your time and help, Tony! 

 

Tony At Wit's End near Carmel on Father's Day 2017