Saturday August 26 2023 Themeless by Hoang-Kim-Kim Vu
Posted in 2021: Hoang-Kim Vu works on a global malaria research project in Washington, D.C. His crosswords have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. When he's not solving or constructing, Kim enjoys collecting passport stamps, spending too much money on pet nats, and trying his best to raise a one-year-old daughter and a pitbull with bad knees with his wife/co-constructor/forever editor Jess.
Across:
1. Words for private relaxation?: AT EASE 😀 For corporals, et. al.
7. Wallach of "The Magnificent Seven": ELI - Here are some clips of the movie with its wonderful theme in the back ground. BTW, ELI was the bad guy not one of the titular Seven.
10. Swirl of smoke: WISP.
14. Ninth animal in the Chinese zodiac: MONKEY - Guess what letter I used incorrectly when I had _ONKEY.
15. Rock's __ Lobos: LOS - Their version of La Bamba was used as the title track for the bio-pic for Ritchie Valens who also had a big hit with it.
16. Argentine tango figure: OCHO - The figure 8 dance
17. "Can't do it": NO DICE.
18. Recipients of disaster relief: EVACUEES - The Maui tragedy had many
20. "Come on already!": I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY.
22. One who's all thumbs: OAF.
23. "Praising You" singer Rita: ORA.
24. Bacalhau or klippfisk: COD - Bacalhau is Portuguese for COD
25. Big name in pickups: RAM.
27. Allows: LET'S - Fall In Love, a hit for 43. Fitzgerald who also recorded 2-Down: ELLA - 2. Porter classic: TOO DARN HOT.
Birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it LET'S do it, let's fall in love
It's Too Darn Hot It's Too Darn Hot
I'd like to sup with my baby tonight
…but it’s Too Darn Hot
29. Connect with: TIE TO.
33. Poet Sexton: ANNE - A Saturday ANNE
34. Warwick Davis's Wicket, for one: EWOK - Warwick Davis is the actor who played the EWOK Wicket. Yeah, I knew all that 😏
35. Pen: HEM IN - WRITE was a false start.
36. Bit of beach house decor: SHELL.
38. Before, in verse: ERE - I thought I'd class up my Saturday blog. 😀
40. European harbor with an eponymous wine: PORTO.
41. Drops (out): OPTS.
44. Part of the way up?: STAIR 😀
45. Heading on a holiday list: NICE 😀
46. Part of an idiomatic pocketful: RYE and 13. Part of an iconic pocketful: POSY.
47. Born: NEE - As in Diana (NEE Spencer) Mountbatten-Windsor
49. Alternative to the prayer hands emoji: THX - Give prayerful computer thanks
50. Grads, almost: SRS.
52. Source of comfort for those expecting: PREGNANCY PILLOW.
58. Send off: DISPATCH.
59. French star: ETOILE - "Regarde cette ÉTOILE qui brille" ("Look at that brilliant star")
60. Palo __: ALTO - "Tall Stick" in Spanish is the home of Stanford University.
61. Burj Khalifa's fed.: UAE - The Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building and it is located in Dubai which is part of the United Arab Emirates Federation.
62. Rid of suds: RINSED.
63. Ticket choice: SEAT - Other than that, Mr. Rood, how did you like the play?
64. Helpers on set: Abbr.: PA'S - Here are assorted Production AssistantS working on the set of The Big Bang Theory
TSETSE flies carry this which can cause "sleeping sickness"
Down:
1. Midterm exam, familiarly?: AMNIO 😀
3. Closing time?: END OF AN ERA - and beginning of another
4. Similar (to): AKIN.
5. Dissenting body: SECT.
6. Mask element: EYEHOLE - There are none in this portion of a TV show of my yute.
7. Presentations that are up-and-down?: ELEVATOR PITCHES - Okay, you've got 5 floors. Go!
8. __ language: LOVE.
9. Designer Mizrahi: ISAAC - He did 19. Outfit: CLOTHE many
10. "No need to ask me twice!": WOULD I EVER - "Gary, would you like to go into space?"
11. Latte option: ICED.
12. First stop on the Beatles' second U.S. tour, familiarly: SHEA - No one heard any of the music above the screaming and didn't care. The sound was recorded to be 38 decibels louder than a jumbo jet 100' overhead.
21. "Is this happening?": ARE WE ON - "Yes, John, Paul, George and Ringo, you're playing Shea Stadium on August 23!"
26. Finest of Lovely Lady Liberty's recipes, per a "Schoolhouse Rock" song: MELTING POT - Here's the video
28. Vague: SKETCHY.
30. Fundraising group that supports female political candidates: EMILY'S LIST.
Hillary with Emily's List's president Stephanie Schirock
31. Othello and Hamlet: TITLE ROLES.
32. High class?: ONE-A - A dreaded designation for some young men in the 1960's and 1970's.
33. Once-sacred snakes: ASPS.
37. Hall of Famer Ochoa: LORENA.
42. Dan Savage, notably: SEXPERT.
48. Devour: EAT UP.
51. Alicia Vikander, e.g.: SWEDE - An actress born in Gothenburg, Västra Götaland, Sweden. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2016.
52. Blackberries, e.g.: PDA'S - I read that these Personal Data Assistants are now officially unsupported and not usable
53. Bug: RILE.
54. Spanish pronoun: ESTA.
55. Org. with conferences: NCAA - The Big Ten Conference will soon have 18 members
56. Terse confirmation: IT IS - "Is this the next to last clue?"
This marks the 12th appearance on the Corner for constructor
Hoang-Kim Vu. For a bio-bit on Vu I refer you to Husker's
March 18th 2023 review. His collaborator Jasper Davidoff is making his LAT debut but
he has had at least one other puzzle published in
Universal Crosswords
on June 25, 2021.
Today they invite us to
three different types of celebrations and they've eavesdropped on the
types of conversations we're likely to hear at each, as revealed by
...
59A. Political platforms, and an apt title for this puzzle?:
PARTY LINES.
... the clue"political platforms" has nothing to do with politics, --
rather it's a metaphor for the theme clues, each of which describe 2
snippets of conversation, which are then filled by a typeof PARTY and typical LINES that you might hear at each:
17A. "Pour the tea!" and "Let's pick a new topic of conversation!"?:
SOCIAL CUES. An informal gathering, with the first snippet being slang
for "let's gossip!" and a second snippet perhaps resulting from getting
"too much information" in response to the first!
27A. "Would you pin on my corsage?" and "May I have this dance?":
FORMAL REQUESTS. Two requests made nervously at a prom or a high school
dance. Satisfying the first requires a steady hand!
46A. "They're going to make such good parents!" and "What a cute onesie!"?:
SHOWER THOUGHTS. Comments one is likely to hear at a wedding or baby shower.
This
topic also suggests the celebrations that we Cornerites participate in
immediately following each puzzle review, beginning early in the morning and
often lasting until late at night. We call these comment fests the
AFTER PARTY and we hear strange snippets like
"FIR", "FIW", "DNF" and "GRR ...!" -- kudos to
the constructor, kudos to the reviewer, (grumbles about the editor!), how we
did, what went wrong, what we liked, and what we didn't like.
On a personal note: I've been involved with social media, both as a
participant and as
an implementer, since the early 1980's, and I find the fact that
this celebration of words has been going onfor over 15 years to be truly remarkable! In my experience most social media experiments come and go, lasting at
most a few years. I attribute the longevity of this particular celebration to
the good will of all our word lovers: the solvers, the constructors, (the
editor!), the reviewers, but most especially to our kind and fearless leader
C.C. Burnikel!
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ... Across:
1. Emails discreetly: BCCS.
5. __ Villa: Premier League team: ASTON.
Aston Villa Football Club, commonly referred to as Villa, is a professional football club based
in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the
Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system.
Here's their website.
10. Phenomena in "Mars Attacks!" and "Arrival," briefly:
UFOS.
UFOS are very much in the news these days. Mars Attacks!
is a 1996 American comic science fiction film directed by
Tim Burton. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of
Jack Nicholson (in a dual role), Glenn Close,
Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito,
Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, and
lots and lots of little green men.
Arrival OTOH, is a more serious 2016American science fiction drama film directed by
Denis Villeneuve (of Dune fame). The film stars Amy Adams as
Louise Banks, a linguist enlisted by the United States Army to discover how to
communicate with the very different kinds of extra-terrestrials who have arrived on
Earth before tensions lead to war.
14. MLB family name: ALOU. The
Rojas family, more commonly known in English-speaking America by their matronym,
ALOU, is a prominent Major League Baseball family from the
Dominican Republic.
21. Dresses up for a fan convention, say: COSPLAYS.
COSPLAY, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which
participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to
represent a specific character.
Cosplayers at Yukicon 2014, a fan convention in Finland
26. Asia's vanishing __ Sea: ARAL.
It's still vanishing. I wonder if constructors will still clue it after it's completely
gone?
27. [Theme clue]
32. Willie who broke the NHL's color barrier: OREE.
Willie O’Ree
(William O’Ree), (born October 15, 1935, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada),
the first Black hockey player to play in a National Hockey League (NHL)
game. He debuted with the Boston Bruins against the
Montreal Canadiens at the Montreal Forum on January 18, 1958.
37. Groovetastic: RAD. Last week it was "Cool, man". Now
which is it!?
38. "__ a trap!": ITS.
40. Country where Etihad Airways is HQ'd: UAE.
Etihad Airways
is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates and one of the
country's two major airlines (the other being Emirates). Its head office
is in Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi, near Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Etihad commenced operations in November 2003. It is the second-largest airline
in the UAE after Emirates. The name Etihad is Arabic for 'Union'.
41. Quick way to Excel?: MACRO. Here's a quick start to
creating macros in Excel. Begin Rant: Excel is a very powerful tool. It can be used to create very complex information systems, upon which organizations can become very dependent.
Professional developers document the requirements, designs, and
detailed specifications for the systems they write, order to make them
maintainable by others when they leave. In my experience Excel
developers rarely do this (their systems are "one man shows"). When
they leave the organization, the system leaves with them. Here's a link suggesting some ways to document spreadsheets. :End Rant.
51. Andrew Miller novel about an Italian adventurer:
CASANOVA. Casanova the novel is based on the memoir Histoire de Ma Vie (History of My Life) written by the Italian adventurer Giacomo Girolamo Casanova
(2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798). As the manuscript of the latter was
about 3700 pages long, it's likely that the novel leaves out quite a few
of the juicy bits.
Giacomo Casanova by his brother Francesco Casanova circa 1750–1755
54. App for pix: INSTA. INSTAGRAM. Precisely tailored to the attention span of its users.
58. Oodles: A LOT. The opposite of 60D.
59. [Theme reveal]
62. Stuff to stick with?: GLUE.
63. "Enigma Variations" composer: ELGAR. The Enigma Variations put ELGAR
on the map, establishing him as the greatest English composer of the
19th Century. It consists of 14 variations on an original theme
(although there has been much speculation that the germ for it might be a
well-hidden popular theme). Here is Variation IX, the most often played, entitled Nimrod ...
64. Many a fan mag: ZINE.
65. Grub: EATS.
66. Ingredients in garden "bombs": SEEDS. New to me. SEED bombs, also known as earth balls or seed balls,
have roots in classical Egyptian agricultural practices. The method
may have been widespread in the ancient world as an efficient way to sow
large amounts of seed quickly, with minimal tools, especially after
floods and other disruptions.
67. Jazz great James: ETTA. Here she is with Something's Got a Hold on Me ... Down:
1. Hit hard: BASH.
2. Be overly sweet: CLOY.
3. __-Cola: COCA.
4. "That works!": SUITS ME.
5. Ga. airport: ATL. A CSO to ATLGranny! I'm writing this just after I read your 6/22 announcement of your successful cataract surgery. Congratulations!
6. "Just a __": SEC.
7. Cab driver?: TRUCKER. The TRUCKER sits in the CAB of the TRACTOR that pulls the TRAILER (aka the SEMI) ...
8. Nabisco cookie: OREO. A constructor's delight, with three delicious vowels and a letter to end a comparative adjective!
9. Long Island county: NASSAU. NASSAU County is an affluent inner suburban county located on Long Island, immediately to the east of New York City.
As of the 2020 United States census, Nassau County's population was
1,395,774, making it the sixth-most populous county in New York State.
Nassau County
10. Open, as a necklace: UNCLASP.
11. Last bit of decoration: FINAL TOUCH.
12. "__-dokey!": OKEY.
13. Tennis units: SETS.
18. Naan flour: ATTA. You can buy ATTA flour at your local Indian grocery or from Amazon and make your own Naan:
Naan
22. Juice extractor: PRESS.
24. Merediz of "In the Heights": OLGA. In the Heights is a 2008 Broadway musical with concept, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Dominican American neighborhood of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, New York City. OLGA Merediz
originated the role "Abuela" Claudia (“abuela" means "grandmother" in
Spanish), the loving matriarch of the barrio who is like a grandmother
to all. Here she sings "Paciencia y Fe" ("Patience and Faith") ...
25. More rough: CRUDER.
27. Latte topper: FOAM.
28. Marine predators: ORCAS. The OREOS of the oceans.
60. Skosh: TAD. From the Japanese word Sukoshi, meaning "a little" ...
61. Century divs.: YRS.
Cheers, Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
Notes from C.C.:
Happy
57th birthday to Barry G, a regular on our blog in the earlier days.
Barry, we miss you and your comments. Here's a picture of Barry, his son Joshua and his wife, who's from Tianjin, China. I clearly need an updated picture, Barry!
Posted in 2021: Hoang-Kim Vu works on a global malaria research project in Washington, D.C. His crosswords have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. When he's not solving or constructing, Kim enjoys collecting passport stamps, spending too much money on pet nats, and trying his best to raise a one-year-old daughter and a pitbull with bad knees with his wife/co-constructor/forever editor Jess.
