Thursday, April 17, 2025, Emma Oxford

 

Theme:  Hey, where'd you find the neat horns?

Constructor Emma Oxford has favored us with her creations a few times already, and was published on this exact date last year!  This time, she is looking for a few good horns.

The theme clues and answers, symmetrically arranged in rows Across, are:

17. Place to find a pointy horn: RHINOCEROS.

23. Place to find many horns: FULL ORCHESTRA.

53. Place to find a loud horn: STEERING WHEEL.

63. Place to find a geographical horn: EAST AFRICA.

I'm impressed that each of the four horns is a completely different type:  animal horn, musical horn, vehicle horn, and geographical horn.  The Horn of Africa is the fourth largest peninsula in the world.

Let's grab the rest of the puzzle by the horns ...

Across:

1. 1975 thriller filmed largely on Martha's Vineyard: JAWS.  No horns, but big teeth!

5. Comedian Black: LEWIS.  No horns, but steam coming out of his ears!

Lewis Black

10. Store: MART.

14. Smoothie berry: ACAI.

15. Balderdash: TRIPE.  Rubbish, nonsense, baloney, hogwash ...

16. __ vera: ALOE.

17. [Theme clue]

19. Sizable barrels: KEGS.

20. Ready: SET.

21. Zip: NONE.

22. "__ the thing ... ": HERE'S.  Uh oh!  Some of our solvers hate conversational prompts.

23. [Theme clue]

27. Budget prefix: ECONO.

... as an example.

29. "The __ and I": song from "Wicked": WIZARD.  I am going to have to watch Wicked.  It is becoming a cultural touchstone.

30. Carey known as the "Queen of Christmas": MARIAH.  Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" is a holiday staple.  In 2021, Carey filed a petition to trademark the title "Queen of Christmas," meaning that no one else would be able to use it.  Other Christmas minded music makers filed opposing motions, and in 2022, the Trial Trademark and Appeal Board ruled against Carey.  Old news, but news to me.

32. __ de mer: MAL.  Adopted into English, meaning "seasickness," the original French is "illness of the sea."

33. "Klutzy me!": OOPS.  D'oh is too short.

37. Diagnostic scan: Abbr.: MRI.  Magnetic Resonance Imaging uses a magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues in your body.

38. Composer Rorem: NED.  Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer.

Ned Rorem

40. Symbol of Aries: RAM.  Astrology.

42. "The Jungle Book" python: KAA.  A character from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, adapted various times for the silver screen.

43. Italian wine region: ASTI.  Asti is in Piedmont, a region of Italy surrounded on three sides by the Alps. Asti is the source of sparkling Asti wine, also called Asti Spumante. The wine is sweet and low in alcohol, and is made solely from the moscato bianco (white muscat) grape.

45. Rapper Lil __ X: NAS.  Lil Nas X, born Montero Lamar Hill, is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter who became famous for his 2018 song "Old Town Road."  The song became the longest-running number-one song in the history of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.  Lil Nas X has won multiple awards, including two Grammys, five Billboard Music Awards, and five MTV Video Music Awards. 

Lil Nas X
(My grandchildren *loved* Old Town Road.)

47. Lines at a karaoke bar: LYRICS. The lines you sing.

49. __ crab: HERMIT.

52. Ones always underfoot?: SOLES.

53. [Theme clue]

57. Some campus buildings: HALLS.

58. Carol: NOEL.

59. Gp. with badges: BSA.  Boy Scouts of America.  

62. Chain that sells Mexican Tres Leches Pancakes: IHOP.  The first International House of Pancakes opened in Burbank, California, in 1958.  The *third* one opened on Stocker Street in the Baldwin Hills of Los Angeles, near my neighborhood, and is still in operation.  IHOP Corporation purchased Applebee's restaurants in 2007.  Clearly their cuisine is selling like hotcakes.

63. [Theme clue]

66. Bishop of Rome: POPE.

67. Rose: STOOD.  To rise is to stand *up*.  He rose = he stood.  Of course, stood could also be the past tense of stand.  He just stood there.

68. Provo's state: UTAH.

69. Plant-to-be: SEED.

70. Rescuee in "The Rescuers": PENNY.  I loved the 1959 novel The Rescuers written by Margery Sharp and illustrated by Garth Williams.  Penny is a character in Disney's 1977 animated adaptation.

71. Beauts: GEMS.  Beaut is an informal word meaning something beautiful, remarkable, or amazing.  That horn is a beaut!  Oh yes, it's a gem.

Down:

1. Canning array: JARS.  Preservation of foods in airtight containers started with glass CANisters, and  was called canning.  Later, factories introduced tin cans.  Today, when folks preserve foods at home using glass jars, they still call it canning.

2. Feel yesterday's workout: ACHE.

3. "Keep watching ... ": WAIT FOR IT.

4. Do bad: SIN.

5. Rank for Sen. Tammy Duckworth: LT COL.  Tammy Duckworth is an American politician, retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, and combat veteran of the Iraq War.  She has served as a United States senator from Illinois since 2017. 

Senator Tammy Duckworth

6. Heretofore: ERE NOW.

7. Feature of some glasses: WIRE RIM.

8. Wall St. debut: IPO.  An Initial Public Offering is when a private company offers its shares for sale to the public for the first time.

9. French possessive: SES.  Plural his/her/its.  "Ses amis" means his/her/its friends.  It is plural to match the modified noun, amis (friends).  "Son ami" means his/her/its friend, singular.

10. Gets by: MAKES DO.

11. On edge: ALERT.  I've been gathering photos and videos from the neighbors following a burglary on the block, and sharing the evidence with the Sheriff.

12. "Man Fire Food" host Mooking: ROGER.  Roger Mooking is a Trinidadian-Canadian chef, musician, and television host. He has hosted the television series Man Fire Food since 2012, and is also the host of Everyday Exotic on the Cooking Channel and Food Network Canada.  

Check out his featured recipes at rogermooking.com

13. Thompson of "Thor: Ragnarok": TESSA.  Tessa Thompson began her professional acting career with the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company while studying at Santa Monica College.  Since 2005, she's appeared in many TV series and movies, including Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).

Tessa Thompson in "Thor: Ragnarok"

18. Like some exhibition pieces: ON LOAN.  My brother's wife manages private art collections, and sometimes travels internationally with paintings to be displayed in exhibitions overseas.

Amazing S-I-L, NaomiZ, and DH

22. "That woman?": HER.

24. College abroad?: UNI.  In England, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, "uni" is commonly used as a shorthand for "university."

25. Policy setter: CZAR.

26. Kosher : Judaism :: __ : Islam: HALAL.  Dietary rules.  Jews eat kosher food; Muslims eat halal food.  The rules have to do with what foods may be eaten, but also how they must be prepared.  

27. Stone with two Oscars: EMMA.  Emma Stone won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her roles as an aspiring actress in the romantic musical La La Land (2016) and as a resurrected suicide victim in the comic fantasy Poor Things (2023).

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in "La La Land."
DH watched this movie dozens of times.

28. Train units: CARS.

31. Painter Matisse: HENRI.

34. "Fine, tell me": OK, I'LL BITE.

35. Trot or gallop: PACE.

36. Fresh answers: SASS.

39. Curse: DAMN.  Verbs:  to condemn to a punishment or fate.

41. "If I do say so __": MYSELF.

44. "Give me some credit!": I HELPED.

46. Joins the team: SIGNS ON.

48. Fish-to-be: ROE.

50. Hosp. areas: ERs.  Emergency Rooms.

51. Weighing 4,000 pounds: TWO TON.

53. Roots for romantically, in slang: SHIPS.   In the context of transporting goods, "ship" means to send something from one place to another. In the context of fan culture, "ship" means to hope that two people will become romantically involved. When we watched The Office, we were all shipping for Jim and Pam.  Thank you, Emma Oxford, for teaching me this through today's puzzle!

Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski as Pam and Jim in "The Office"

54. Chevy SUV since 1994: TAHOE.

55. Skip the wedding planning: ELOPE.

56. Intoxicating: HEADY.

60. Offer that seems too good to be true, probably: SCAM.

61. Oohs and __: AAHS.  How the crowd reacts to fireworks.

63. Clairvoyance, e.g.: ESP.  Extrasensory perception.

64. Broke a fast: ATE.  Speaking of kosher and halal dietary restrictions, sometimes we cannot eat at all!

65. Throw __: RUG.

Here's the grid:

If you Finished It Right (FIR), you can toot your own HORN in the comments!

Otherwise, please horn in with your objections.

NaomiZ

Sunday, November 3, 2024, Emma Oxford

Theme:  "Cold Shoulders"

The circled "shoulders" (or edges) of each theme answer spell out something icy cold.

My search of the L.A.Times Crossword Corner archives suggests that Emma Oxford has published six crossword puzzles in the L.A. Times during the last two years, the last of which also had circles in the grid.  Today's puzzle is her first Sunday offering.

The theme clues and answers (all Across) are:

23. *Summertime activity that may precede piemaking: BERRY PICKING.  The circles spell out BERG.

36. *Fictional space force satirized in John Scalzi's "Redshirts": STARFLEET.  Redshirts is a 2012 novel by John Scalzi that satirizes Star Trek.  The circles spell out SLEET.

43. *Casper, for one: FRIENDLY GHOST.  The circles spell out FROST.

62. *Span needed for a system to return to equilibrium: RELAXATION TIME.  The circles spell out RIME.  Rime is a type of ice that forms when the moisture in fog freezes suddenly on an object.

69. *Nickname for a hotel in the middle of Lake Pichola: FLOATING PALACE.  Lake Palace (AKA Floating Palace) is a former royal residence, now turned into a hotel, on an island in Lake Pichola, Udaipur, India.  Popularly described as the Venice of the East, Lake Palace is made out of white marble.  The circles spell out FLOE, a sheet of floating ice.

90. *Charming rogue: HANDSOME DEVIL.  The circles spell out HAIL.

98. *"Take it slow": STEADY NOW.  The circles spell out SNOW.

111. Starts a conversation, or what the answer to each starred clue does to its circled letters: BREAKS THE ICE.

Having broken the ice, let's skate through the rest of the clues and answers.

Across:

1. Reveal: UNVEIL.

7. Antagonist of Rocky and Bullwinkle: BORIS.

Boris Badenov, from the cartoon TV series, "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show"

12. Check in point?: ATM.  You can deposit checks at an Automated Teller Machine.

15. 43,560 square feet: ACRE.

19. "Angel" singer Jon: SECADA.  Jon Secada is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter and record producer. He has won two Grammy Awards and sold 15 million records, and recorded "Angel" in both English and Spanish.  Beautiful song!

20. See 56-Down: A-RONI.  Rice-A-Roni is a boxed mix that includes rice, pasta, and seasonings.  Those of us who watched television in the 1960s have "The San Franciso Treat" jingle burned into our brains.

21. Cons: SWINDLES.

23. [Theme clue]

25. Emerges: COMES OUT.

26. Expressionless: BLANK.

27. Reigning: IN POWER.

29. Federal loan agcy.: SBA.  The Small Business Administration is an agency of the United States government that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses.

30. Coily hairstyle: AFRO.

33. Letters with a green check mark at the airport: TSA PRE.  The TSA PreCheck program expedites traveler screening through airport security checkpoints. 

36. [Theme clue]

38. Tilts: LEANS.

40. Missouri River Native: OTOE.

41. "Piece of cake!": EASY.

42. Eclectic online digest: UTNE.

43. [Theme clue]

46. "Spider-Man: __ the Spider-Verse": ACROSS.  A 2023 animated film.

48. __ Arbor, Michigan: ANN.

49. Vicinity: AREA.

50. Fermi paradox subjs.: ETs.  The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced ExtraTerrestrial life and the high likelihood of its existence.

51. "No probs!": ALL OK.

53. Corp. money managers: CFOs.  Chief Financial Officers.

54. Word said when pointing to a map: HERE.

55. Impetuous: RASH.

56. Grenadine: RED.  Grenadine syrup was originally prepared from pomegranate juice, sugar, and water, but today it's made from all kinds of drek.  It's also become a color name:  "Grenadine is a deep, muted, candy apple red with a ruby undertone."

59. Revolt: RISE UP.

62. [Theme clue]

65. Scent: ODOR.

66. Battery size: AAA.

67. Free (of): RID.

68. High point: ACME.  We always need perpendicular entries to know if it will be ACME or APEX.

69. [Theme clue]

75. Wail: SCREAM.

77. Permit: LET.

78. Kitchen extension?: ETTE.  As in kitchenette, a very small cooking area.

79. Woven silk projects: WEBS.  Spiders produce silk and use it to make webs to trap prey, and to build cocoons for their offspring, among other uses.

80. Ventimiglia of "Gilmore Girls": MILO.  While Milo Ventimiglia has had a successful acting career for almost 30 years, many of us here in the Corner sat up and took notice when, beginning in 2016, he starred opposite Mandy Moore in the NBC drama series "This Is Us," playing Jack Pearson, the patriarch of a middle-class family in late 1980s/early 1990s America.

Milo Ventimiglia

81. Like $2 bills, compared to most bills: RARER.

82. [I'm a cow!]: MOO.

83. One on a quest: HERO.  The hero's quest is a common template of stories involving a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.   A classic example is Odysseus in The Odyssey.  The same story structure is used in modern novels and films.

84. "Waterfalls" trio: TLC.  "Waterfalls" is a song by American hip-hop trio TLC, released in 1995.  The song was an international hit, and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.  I'm more into "rock en español," but even I recognize this song!

87. Wages: SALARY.

90. [Theme clue]

93. Pub offerings: ALES.

94. Country where Farsi is spoken: IRAN.

96. Prefix with -plasm: ECTO.  Ectoplasm is the thin, watery outer layer of a cell.  Unless you're into ghosts, in which case, ectoplasm is a substance that comes from the body of someone communicating with the spirit of a dead person, allowing the spirit to have a form.  In the Ghostbusters movies, it's called slime.

97. Brazilian dance: SAMBA.

98. [Theme clue]

101. If nothing changes: AS IT IS.

103. Sign of shock: GASP.

104. Bros: HEs.  Bros are hes as in male persons?  Sisters are shes?

105. One who asks too much: IMPOSER.

107. Helvetica alternative: ARIAL.  Fonts.

109. Biometric security measure: IRIS SCAN.  We had TSA PreCheck at 33 Across.  Another expedited screening program at airports is the CLEAR program, which uses iris-scanning, fingerprint-checking, and facial recognition.

111. [Theme clue]

117. Government health program: MEDICARE.

118. Carried: BORNE.

119. Acela operator: AMTRAK.  Crossword favorite Acela is Amtrak's passenger train service between Washington, DC and Boston, via 13 intermediate stops, including Baltimore, New York City and Philadelphia. 

120. Inkling: IDEA.

121. Sow's spot: STY.

122. Brings around: SWAYS.

123. Used bookstore transaction: RESALE.

Down:

1. Computer connection letters: USB.  Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard which allows data exchange and delivery of power between many types of electronics.

How do I connect thee?  Let me count the ways.

2. Formerly known as: NÉE.  The French word née is a feminine adjective that means "born" and is used to indicate a woman's maiden name.

3. Old tape player: VCR.

4. Hammer or anvil: EAR BONE.

5. Pastoral poem: IDYL.

6. Drink like a cat: LAP AT.

7. Slangy term of agreement: BACK AT YA.

8. Mork's home: ORK.  "Mork & Mindy" was a television sitcom that aired on ABC from 1978 to 1982. It starred Robin Williams as Mork, an extraterrestrial from the planet Ork, and Pam Dawber as Mindy, his human friend.

9. King of France: ROI.

10. Belly button type: INNIE.

11. Catcher's gesture to a pitcher: SIGN.

12. Broad ties: ASCOTS.

13. Bidirectional: TWO WAY.

14. One acting out?: MIMER.

15. Vlogger's revenue source: ADS.  A vlog is a blog in video format.  Both formats can be supported by advertising.

16. Not far from: CLOSE TO.

17. Corned beef sandwiches: REUBENS.

18. Pemberley and Mansfield Park: ESTATES.  Pemberley is the fictional estate of Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."  Mansfield Park is an estate in Jane Austen's novel of the same name.

22. Brand for indoor sports: NERF.

24. Shoe pads: INSOLES.

28. Hurdle for college-bound sophs: PSAT. Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test -- a trial run for the SAT that high school seniors take.

30. The "A" of NATO?: ALFA.

31. "Charlotte's Web" girl: FERN.  Fern is a little girl in the novel "Charlotte's Web" by E. B. White.  She pleads for the life of the runt of a litter of piglets, whom she names Wilbur.  When Wilbur grows, he is destined for slaughter until a spider named Charlotte spells out praises of the pig in her web above his pen.

32. Beach bummer: RAIN.

34. 1990s fad item: POG.  My daughter played with pogs (flat cardboard milk bottle caps) in the '90s.  The game involved stacking the discs face-down, and dropping a heavier object onto the pile.  The player would keep face-up caps, and restack the face-down caps.  Taking turns, eventually one player had more caps and would win.

35. Do a cobbler's job: RE-HEEL.

37. Read but never post: LURK.  Welcome, lurkers!  We are here for you.

39. Major mess-up: SNAFU.  "Situation Normal: All Fouled Up," or stronger language to that effect.

41. Thames Estuary county: ESSEX.

44. Release, as new music: DROP.

45. Spanish "other": OTRA.  Otra modifies feminine nouns.  And another thing ... !  ¡Y otra cosa...!  The masculine form is Otro.

46. "Another thing ... ": ALSO.  Hey, I just said that.

47. ESPN anchor Linda: COHN.  Linda Cohn is an American sportscaster who has anchored ESPN's SportsCenter since 1992.  That's a long run!

Linda Cohn

51. Saul Rubinek's "Warehouse 13" role: ARTIE.  "Warehouse 13" was a science fiction TV series that ran from 2009 to 2014 on the Syfy network.  Saul Rubinek as Artie Nielsen was the Special Agent in Charge at Warehouse 13, a storehouse for artifacts that have become charged with energy that can give them dangerous powers if misused.  Seems quite obscure!  Any fans here?

52. Set, as a table: LAID.  Brits are more likely to say "lay the table."  Americans usually say "set the table."

53. Michael of "Sacramento": CERA.  "Sacramento" is a 2024 comedy film starring Michael Angarano, Michael Cera, Kristen Stewart and Maya Erskine.  It's about a couple of guys who take an impromtu road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento.  Has it even hit the theaters yet?

54. Pile: HEAP.

56. With 20-Across, "The San Francisco Treat": RICE.  See 20 Across.

57. Actress Thompson: EMMA.

58. Believe: DEEM.

59. "Ur 2 funny!": ROFL.  Texting abbreviation for Rolling On Floor Laughing.

Emoticon for ROFL

60. Not doing much: IDLE.

61. Flue dust: SOOT.

62. Killer party: RAGER.

63. Rainbows, e.g.: ARCS.

64. Staple in the Pacific Islands: TARO.  Taro is a root vegetable, and is a food staple in African, Oceanic, East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian cultures.

66. Penny-__: ANTE.

70. Little rip: TEAR.

71. "All in a day's work": I TRY.

72. "That's disappointing!": AW MAN.

73. R&B singer Bridges: LEON.  Todd Michael "Leon" Bridges is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.  His work has been nominated for four Grammy awards, and he won the most recent in 2019 for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the song "Bet Ain't Worth the Hand."

Leon Bridges

74. Domiciles: ABODES.

75. King's address: SIRE.

76. Lumps of earth: CLODS.

80. Personal accounts: MEMOIRS.

81. Tabula __: RASA.  Latin phrase that means "blank slate" or "smooth or erased tablet."

83. Thrown-together bits of commentary: HOT TAKES.

84. "Better Call Saul" rating: TV-MA.  Mature Audience; may be unsuitable for children under 17.

85. Ad __: improvises: LIBS.

86. Thunder sound: CLAP.

87. Sushi kin: SASHIMI.  Sashimi is raw fish or meat sliced into thin pieces.  By contrast, sushi is made with seasoned rice, either shaped into mounds and topped with items such as raw or cooked seafood, or rolled in sheets of seaweed called nori around fillings of seafood, vegetables and other items. The essential difference is that sushi always includes rice, whereas sashimi is simply animal flesh.

Sashimi vs Sushi

88. Changed: ALTERED.

89. Sheltered place: LEE SIDE.

90. Hems and __: HAWS.

91. Physics dept.: SCI.

92. Aerie hatchlings: EAGLETS.  Aerie (a variant of eyrie) is the nest of an eagle, falcon, hawk, or other bird of prey.

I photographed this osprey on its huge nest atop a post in the middle of a Minnesota highway in 2023.

94. Sort of: IN PART.

95. "Normal People" author Sally: ROONEY.  Sally Rooney is an Irish author who has published four novels: Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021), and Intermezzo (2024). The first two were adapted into television miniseries.

99. 34-Down, for one: DISC.  Ah, yes, pogs.

100. Some workout spots: YMCAs.

101. Turn-only lane symbol: ARROW.

102. Indian lute: SITAR.

106. Falls back: EBBS.

108. Wistful sigh: AH ME.

110. "Breathe Me" singer: SIA.  "Breathe Me" is a 2004 song by Australian singer Sia featured on the album "Colour the Small One."  All I can say is, thank goodness for perpendicular entries.

112. Regency, for "Bridgerton": ERA.  Any Bridgerton fans here?  I prefer my historical dramas to be a little more historical.  

113. "__ luck?": ANY.

114. 401(k) kin: IRA.

115. Ripken of baseball: CAL.

116. __ out a victory: EKE.

Here's the grid:

Did you love it?  Or did you give it the Cold Shoulder?

NaomiZ

Thursday, May 30, 2024, Emma Oxford

 

The Stuff of Genius*

... and the staff of life.  People literally "broke" bread for their meals for thousands of years.  But all that changed in 1928 when Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the bread slicer.  And constructor Emma Oxford has come up with the best invention since then -- sliced crosswords!  Well maybe not 😀.  But she does present us with the following fill for four pairs of theme clues, each with some of the letters circled (shown in RED below), sliced by a black square, and when sandwiched back together give us  four kinds of bread ...

17A. Radio City, for one: MUSIC HALL and  19A. In the lead: AHEAD -- CHALLAH BREAD.  Here's a recipe.

Challah Bread

32A. Arizona people: HOPI. and 34A. Drink mix made popular by NASA: TANG -- PITA BREAD.  It's not widely known that Otto also invented the bread stacker 😀.  Michelle tells you how to make your own stack without a machine.

46A. Dynamic start?: AERO. and 49A. Neat as a pin: TIDY-- ROTI BREAD.  And it's even less widely known that Otto also invented the bread peeler 😀.  Here's Karen's recipe.

Roti Bread

62A. Saint __: Caribbean island: LUCIA and 64A. Army unit: BATTALION -- which when sandwiched back together we get CIABATTA.  Looks like Otto's back in the slicer business.  Here's Gemma's recipe.

Ciabatta Bread

And slicing the puzzle right across the middle we have Emma's reveal ...

39. Basis of comparison for many innovations that's depicted four times in this puzzle: SLICED BREAD.  But who actually coined the phrase "That's the best thing since sliced bread?"

While the circles made the theme pretty obvious from the get go , the results were pretty nourishing (albeit some people's tastes may vary😀).

I noticed that there were no guys represented in the recipes, so I'm tossing in James Beard's Brown Bread (one of our favorites).  We just use a bread knife to slice it ...

Brown Bread

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:
 

1. Elbows: JABS.

5. Tibetan monk: LAMA.  LAMA is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru, meaning "heavy one", endowed with qualities the student will eventually embody. The Tibetan word "lama" means "highest principle", and less literally "highest mother" or "highest father" to show the close relationship between teacher and student.  Among the Tibetan lamas, the highest ranked is the 14th Dalai Lama.

Dalai Lama

9. Brand paired with devil horns for a Halloween costume: PRADA. Must be a very exclusive party.  A reference to this film perhaps?

14. "Yeah, sure": I BET.

15. Hertz rival: AVIS. ... and a Rara AVIS, is a rare bird.  Here are some recent sightings of rare birds by the American Birding Association, including this one ...

Blue Rock-Thrush
sighted by Jason Talbott
25 Apr 2024
San Francisco, CA

16. Like highways and running tracks: LANED.  And let us not forget BOWLING VENUES!

17. [Theme clue]
19. [Theme clue]

20. Gait between a walk and a canter: TROT.

21. Held on to: KEPT.

23. Verizon acquisition of 2006: MCI.  MCI, Inc. (formerly WorldCom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company before Verizon bought them in 2006.   For a time, it was the second-largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T.   Teri did some consulting for them back in the day.

24. Stop on a crawl: PUB.  Some of my English cousins took me on a PUB crawl one night, but that's all I can remember. 😀

26. "__ the season ... ": TIS.

28. Beach problem: EROSION.

30. Accord, perhaps: TRUCE.  There are two places in the world that need a TRUCE right now.

32. [Theme clue]
34. [Theme clue]

35. Cooper of CNN: ANDERSON.  Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator currently anchoring the CNN news broadcast show Anderson Cooper 360°.  His mother was socialite Gloria Vanderbilt and  his great, great grandfather was business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded the prominent Vanderbilt shipping and railroad fortune.

Anderson Cooper

37. Poetic tribute: ODE.  ODES comprise 90% of the poetry in crosswords, the other 10% consisting of SONNETS, ELEGIES, IDYLLS, and a MOEKU or two every other Friday. 😀

39. [Theme reveal]

42. Sign of summer: LEO.  Has anyone heard from LEO III lately?

43. Petroleum jelly brand: VASELINE.  As distinguished from VICKS VapoRub.  Whatever you do, don't put the latter on sunburned skin. Ouch!

46. [Theme clue]
49. [Theme clue]

51. Pre-univ. warmup exams: PSATS.  Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Tests.  What the PSAT is and what to know about the exam (if you are a High School Junior or the helicopter parent of one).

52. Dressed for work, perhaps: IN A SUIT.  Or being SUED?

54. Fam member: SIS.  I have four.

56. Psychoactive constituent of cannabis: THC.  Shouldn't this clue have had some indication that this was short for Tetrahydrocannabinol?

Tetrahydrocannabinol

57. OB-GYNs, e.g.: MDS.

58. Like some Fr. nouns: MASC.  Today's French lesson -- but not a short one.  All French nouns are either MASCULINE or FEMININE (none being NEUTER, e.g. as in German).  The corresponding definite articles for these are LE and LA and the indefinite articles are UN and UNE.  In most cases, which of these articles to use for a given noun is a matter of memorization.  While that's easy for la jeune fille ("the young girl") and  le garcon ("the boy"), they must be memorized for nouns that don't have any associated real gender, e.g. HAT ("le chapeau") and DAY ("la jour").  But there are some general rules (and lots of exceptions) for figuring out the gender of a French noun ...

60. Warm, so to speak: NEAR.. Used a lot in party games -- "You're getting warmer", "You're getting colder", "You're freezing!". 

62. [Theme clue] .
64. [Theme clue]

68. Exams often given by committee: ORALS.

69. Way, way off: AFAR.  E.g. "You're in the next county!"

70. Up to the task: ABLE.  E.g. "Napoleon WAS ABLE to conquer Europe (and lose it) ERE he SAW ELBA".

71. "The War of the Worlds" writer: WELLS.   H. G. WELLS visited the Corner a week or so back in his Time Machine.  His War of the Worlds was made famous by an hour long radio broadcast on Halloween of 1938 by dramatist Orson Wells (no relation to the novelist) using a script derived from the novel.  The scale of the panic Wells created is disputed.  Here is a clip from that broadcast ...

72. Product preview: DEMO.

73. Absolutely must have: NEED.  Air? Water? Food?

Down:

1. Parsons of "Hidden Figures": JIM.  Jim Parsons is best known for playing Sheldon in the sitcom  The Big Bang Theory.  In Hidden Figures he played Paul Stafford, head engineer in the Space Task Group. In this interview he talks about the hard time he had accepting his role in the new movie and what a contrast it was to the part he played in TBBT ...

2. __ Dhabi: ABU.

3. Chums: BEST BUDS.  They say that Apple AirPods are the best, but they're expensive and I'm afraid I'd lose them. 😀

4. Step in a sauce recipe: STIR.  We've used cream sauce for years to serve over asparagus on toast, pastas, etc.  The only problem with it is the need to constantly STIR the mixture of flour, butter, and whole milk until it thickens to keep the milk from scorching.  Much easier to make, and just as tasty, is velouté sauce, which uses  chicken or vegetable stock instead of milk. Here's a recipe.  After the roux has thickened Teri stirs in a 1/2 cup of cream to per cup of sauce.

Velouté sauce

5. Actress Christine: LAHTI.  Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and filmmaker. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film Swing Shift. Her other film roles include ...And Justice for All (1979), Housekeeping (1987), Running on Empty (1988), Leaving Normal (1992), and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). For her directorial debut with the 1995 short film Lieberman in Love, she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Christine Lahti

6. Janelle's "Abbott Elementary" role: AVA.  Not the Janelle in Hidden Figures, but rather comedian Janelle James as Ava Coleman, in the mockumentary Abbott Elementary.  She plays the tone-deaf principal, who got her job by blackmailing the superintendent. 

Janelle James

7. Latte ingredient: MILK. 

8. Out like a light: ASLEEP.

9. "Allegory of the cave" philosopher: PLATO.  The "Allegory of the cave" is recounted in PLATO's Republic in a dialogue between his brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates, and is narrated by the latter.  In the allegory, Plato describes people that have spent their lives chained in a cave facing a blank wall. They watch shadows projected onto the wall by objects passing in front of a fire behind them, and they give names to these shadows. The shadows are the prisoners' reality but not accurate representations of the real world. The shadows represent the fragment of reality that we can normally perceive through our senses, while the objects outside the cave represent the true forms of objects that we can only perceive through reason. Three higher levels exist: natural science; deductive mathematics, geometry, and logic; and the theory of forms. 
 
10. Stadium cheer: RAH.

11. Iron deficiency: ANEMIA.

12. Church minister: DEACON.  A DEACON is a Christian official generally associated with services of some kind, such as preaching and performing specific rites such as baptisms and marriages.  These services vary among theological and denominational traditions, such as the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Lutheranism, Methodism, Anglicanism, and Mormonism.  The office was created very early in the history of the Church, as is described in the Acts of the Apostles 6:1-5.  The intent of the office was to offload some of the work of the Presbyters (priests) and Bishops.  Among the first seven deacons was St. Stephen.  If we follow the above citation from Acts a little further, we find that he was also the first Christian martyr -- from the Greek word for "witness".

The Stoning of St. Stephen
Luigi Garzi (1638–1721)

13. __ machine: ADDING.

18. Clique: COTERIE. "An intimate and often exclusive group of persons with a unifying common interest or purpose".  Merriam-Websters.  If they cluster around a personality like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, the inner circle is called a POSSE.  They seem to have an affinity for the mononymous.

22. Monastic leaders: PRIORS.

24. School org.: PTA.  Parent Teacher Associations are not just a USA thing.

25. Self-serve dispenser: URN.

27. Steve Madden creation: SHOE. As I think product ads should be kept to a minimum in reviews, I decided on a Jeff McNally creation instead.  Here's a recent one from his rag, tag band of avian journalists ...

29. Moves without a sound: STEALS.  -- STEALTHILY.

31. Large strings: CELLOS.  Here a large group of large strings (a CELLO choir) from The Young Artists Orchestra of Las Vegas plays Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola's Libertango ...

33. Like some movie rentals: ON DVD.  You can't rent them from Netflix anymore, but here are still some other sources.

36. Nova __: SCOTIA.  One of Canada's Maritime provinces, and a CSO to CanadianEh!

38. Bathysphere realm: DEEP SEA.  The Bathysphere (from Ancient Greek βαθύς (bathús) 'deep', and σφαῖρα (sphaîra) 'sphere') was a unique spherical deep-sea submersible which was unpowered and lowered into the ocean on a cable, and was used to conduct a series of dives off the coast of Bermuda from 1930 to 1934. These dives were chronicled by explorer William Beebe in his book Half Mile Down.  

The Bathysphere
The National Geographic museum in 2009

We saw a friend recently, who mentioned that her son-in-law is a deep water geologist, and that these days all of this type of work is done by tethered drones.

40. Dark horses: BAYS.

41. Rant: DIATRIBE.  Notice how deftly I avoid one in 50D below.  😀

44. Advanced degree?: NTH.  And the NTH time we've seen NTH!.

45. Key above ~: ESC.  A CSO to Splynter ~ is his favorite separator.  And just above it, perennially on the lam is

46. Temper expectations: AIM LOW.  A guaranteed way to succeed!

47. Put up with: ENDURE.

48. Rogue: RASCAL. Here are two shots of my son's cat RASCAL, which he titled Royal Rascal and Roaring Rascal, respectively ...

I believe these were taken when Rascal was young -- he's much bigger now.  He'll be 13 this year and spends most of his time in the woods hunting -- it also gets him away from all the riffraff kitties that my granddaughters keep adopting.

50. "Things don't look good": ITS BAD.  As there are no discussions of politics on the Corner, we'll move on to the next clue ...

53. Amherst campus, familiarly: U MASS. A college in Amherst, Mass.  And  it is also the approximate atomic weight of  Uranium (U  MASS = 238.03).  It's not an integer because U is actually a mixture of 3 isotopes ...

55. Overture: INTRO.  There are basically two kinds of overtures: opera overtures and standalone concert overtures.  Brahms' Academic  Festival Overture  is of the latter type and was composed on the occasion of him receiving an honorary degree from the University of Breslau.  The university administration didn't take too kindly to it, but the students loved it, as it is essentially a pastiche of student drinking songs popular at the time.😀  Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi does the honors ...

59. Bistro: CAFE.

61. Actor Ruck: ALAN. Alan Douglas Ruck (born July 1, 1956) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Cameron Frye in John Hughes' film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), as well as television roles as Stuart Bondek on the ABC sitcom Spin City (1996–2002) and Connor Roy on the HBO series Succession (2018–2023.

Alan Ruck

63. Under the weather: ILL. I worked in ILLINOIS for a year and a half and I don't recall ever being under the weather, although it did rain sometimes. 💧💧💧

65. Hat that may match a kilt: TAM.  Here ya go ...

66. Part of a World Cup chant: OLE.

67. "Game of Thrones" patriarch Stark: NED.  NED  (né Eddard)  was played by Sean Bean, who among many other roles played Boromir in the  movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.  He is best remembered for his heroic death defending the other members of the Fellowship of the Ring from Orcs. In the Game of Thrones, it appears that Sean went over to the Dark Side ...

Ned Stark

Cheers,
Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley

* "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" - Thomas Edison