February 29, 2024, Thursday, Margi Stevenson

 

Have it Both Ways

Psych: The Musical is a spinoff from Psych,  

a detective comedy-drama TV series (2006 - 2014).

(currently streaming on Prime)

Today constructor Margi Stevenson presents us with a theme about what is arguably everyone's favorite conjunction: AND [why settle for just OR?].  Here are her themers (no stars, circles, or reveal) --

17A. Tap options?: HOT AND COLD.  There doesn't seem to be a convention for which is on the left and which is on the right.

25A. Poker options?: SHOW AND TELL.  Or an elementary school introduction to public speaking.

37A. Flower options?: CUT AND DRIED.  Teri is very adept at the keeping the former from becoming the latter.  However deliberately drying flowers is also a means of preserving them.

52A. Mouth options?: OPEN AND SHUT.  I need to work on the second option.  😀

61. Boxing options?: DOWN AND OUT.  If you go DOWN you've got until the count of 10 before you're OUT.

This theme explication is now OVER AND OUT. Which could be clued: "CBer communications options?".

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Caught wind of: HEARD.  You can experience this  after the next clue ...

6. Helpless?: SOLO.  As today is Gioachino Rossini's 56th birthday it was a no-brainer to play what is arguably the most famous SOLO of all time.  Here's Ettore Bastianini  singing the aria Largo al factotum from the Barber of Seville ...

10. French friends: AMIS.  AND, if this were tomorrow or the next day it might be clued "Kingsley ___", novelist, poet, and critic.

14. Get along: AGREE.

15. Rotten to the core: EVIL.  Like Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) in John le Carré's The Night Manager

16. Fender flaw: DENT.  AND, if this were tomorrow or the next day it might be clued "Arthur ____, anti-hero of HGTTG" ...

AND that will be all of that.

17. [Theme clue]

19. Disney princess whose gown is adorned with snowflakes: ELSA.  She didn't mean to do it ...

20. "I'm so dumb!": IDIOT.  I resemble that remark!.

21. Lessen, as pressure: EASE UP.

23. Slumber party wear, for short: PJS.

25. [Theme clue]

28. Time-stamp component: DATE.

30. Like oyster shooters: RAW.  Here's a recipe.  I prefer mine neat with a dab of hot sauce and a vodka chaser on the side (a half dozen of these and you'll be floating in the Chesapeake! 😀).

Oyster Shooter

31. 90° from sur: OESTE.  Today's Spanish lesson: "West".  As it's 5 letters, it couldn't be ESTE -- Spanish for "East".

32. Start of many long weekends: FRIDAY.  Also the start of the hard puzzles.

35. Academic figure: DEAN. 

37. [Theme clue]

41. German automaker once owned by General Motors: OPEL.  Opel Automobile GmbH, usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Group prior to its merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to form Stellantis in 2021.

42. Emotional baggage: ISSUES.  A common problem between "ITEMS". 😀

45. Hawk's claw: TALON.

49. __ Speedwagon: REO.  REO Speedwagon, or simply REO, is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. Their best-selling album, Hi Infidelity (1980), contained four US Top 40 hits and sold more than 10 million copies.  Here's Keep On Loving You from that album ...

51. Upgrade a gravel driveway, say: PAVE.
.
52. [Theme clue]

56. SoCal airport: LAX.

57. Big citrus: POMELO.  9 Health Benefits of Pomelos -- but be sure to read the caveat at the end if you take statins for high cholesterol.

Pomelo

58. Lipstick mishap: SMEAR.

60. Luminescence: GLOW.  E.g the GLOW of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).  A celestial event is due to happen this year that may cause them to be seen at much lower latitudes.

Aurora Borealis

61. [Theme clue]

66. Forearm bone: ULNA.  Can also be clued as "Radius partner" ...

Radius and Ulna

67. Field of study: AREA.

68. Huevos rancheros condiment: SALSA.  Here's a recipe.

Huevos Rancheros.

69. Overly inquisitive: NOSY.

70. Baking amt.: TBSP.

71. Fix, as text: EMEND.

Down:

1. Scoffer's laugh: HAH.

2. Psychoanalysis subject: EGO.  Today's Latin lesson: I.

3. Like one who can really draw a crowd?: ARTISTIC. For example ... 

4. Audition (for): READ.

5. "Tree of Smoke" novelist Johnson: DENIS.  Tree of Smoke is a 2007 novel by American author Denis Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) which won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2007 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It is about a man named Skip Sands who joins the CIA in 1965, and begins working in Vietnam during the American involvement there.

Denis Johnson

6. Pie chart slice: SECTOR.

7. Ab __: from the beginning: OVO.  But what came before the OVO?

8. Short, for short: LIL.  E.g. apparently many rappers are height challenged. 😀

9. Of yesteryear: OLDEN.

10. "__ Fideles": ADESTE. More Latin: "Oh come all ye faithful" ...

Lyrics and translation

11. Wild brawls: MELEES.

12. Slight: INSULT.

13. Rice, in some cuisine: STAPLE.

18. "I'm so dumb!": DOH.

22. Mortal lover of Aphrodite and Persephone: ADONIS.  ADONIS was an exceptionally handsome young man. He was so handsome, in fact, that the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone competed for his love. Though they were ultimately forced to share the young man, Adonis favored Aphrodite and was best known as her lover. 

Adonis

23. Common email attachment: PDF.  Portable Document Format, a de facto standard developed by the Adobe, Inc.

24. Preserves preserver: JAR.

26. Imitates a penguin: WADDLES.  A PSA from our Antarctic friends ...

 Stay safe on ice - walk like a penguin!

27. Wowed: AWED.

29. Part of a 35-Across's address: EDU.

33. Lacking a musical key: ATONAL.  This does not appear to be a well-defined term.  While it is associated more with music of the 20th century, atonality was used as early as 1885 in Franz Liszt's Bagatelle sans tonalité, S.216a, here played by Yulianna Avdeeva ...

34. Terrier's bark: YAP.

36. "Midsommar" filmmaker Aster: ARI.  Sorry, even the trailer is rated R.

38. Unhip type: NERD.  DWEEBS, but not GEEKS.

39. Uncanny ability, for short: ESP.  Extra Sensory Perception, a scientifically unhip thing to believe in. 😀

40. Job for an actor playing identical twins, say: DUAL ROLE.

43. "Hadestown" Tony nominee Noblezada: EVA. Hadestown is a 2010 sung-through  musical (i.e. an opera -- but it's probably best not to call it that 😀) with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to attempt to rescue her.  Here's a recent review in the Guardian of the London staging.

Eva Noblezada

44. Possible reason for an R rating: SEX.  This film was rated R for SEX and nudity but this trailer is rated PG.  Emma Stone won a BAFTA for Best Actress for her performance ...

45. 1986 movie partly filmed at San Diego's Air Station Miramar: TOP GUN.  TOP GUN is a 1986 American action drama film inspired by an article titled "Top Guns", written by Ehud Yonay and published in California magazine three years earlier. It stars Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.  "Top Gun" is the name of the United States Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California.  For some reason this school was moved to the Nevada desert in 1996.

46. "The Trials of __": Rick Riordan series based on Greek myths: APOLLO.  The Trials of Apollo is a pentalogy of fantasy adventure and mythological fiction novels written by American author Rick Riordan that collectively form a sequel to the Heroes of Olympus series.

47. Small citrus: LEMONS.

48. Like freeway ramps: ONE WAY.

50. "Nice burn!": OH SNAP.  OH SNAP is a slang expression of surprise. It is similar to whoa and woah and also used when someone is insulted in an embarrassing manner.

53. Greet silently: NOD AT.

54. Actress Thurman: UMA.  For obvious reasons I've never seen this film ...

55. On edge: TENSE.

59. "Ferrari" actor Driver: ADAM.  Ferrari is a 2023 American biographical sports drama film directed by Michael Mann and written by Troy Kennedy Martin. Based on the 1991 biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine by motorsport journalist Brock Yates, the film follows the personal and professional struggles of Enzo Ferrari, the Italian racer and founder of the car manufacturer Ferrari S.p.A.  What better actor to play the star than ADAM Driver?

62. Scepter top: ORB.

63. Director Anderson: WES.  One of my favorite directors.  Here's a trailer for his most recent film Asteroid City, which can best be described as -- "quirky".  The cast includes Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, and Adrian Brody ...

64. Gp. featured in 45-Down: USN.

65. Skosh: TAD.

Cheers,
Bill

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

waseeley