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.

 

 

Thursday, November 21, 2024, Owen Bergstein & Shannon Rapp

  Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Today's constructors are Owen Bergstein and Shannon Rapp. Shannon is a veteran and Owen is taking his opening bow on the Corner.  Their theme was a little unusual today as it is ROW based rather than CLUE based.  To make that a little clearer I'll start with the reveal ...

62A. Tune that can soothe an aching heart, and a feature of rows 3, 5, 8, and 11 in this puzzle: BREAKUP SONG.  To try to make that a bit clearer I've snipped the aforementioned 4 rows out of the grid to make them easier to annotate (don't worry I'll put them back in a bit).  Also I've left the original clues and fill in their original locations below.

Here's ROW 3:
 

The first thing we observe is that our constructors' "break up songs" are not necessarily sad songs (a la maestro Neil Sedaka in our opening number).  They are merely "broken up" by a BLACK space.  The second thing is that they are genres of songs, not specific songs.  This is the a cappella group Pentatonix with a Christmas CAROL ...

Here's ROW 5:
 

Our genre is the DIRGE, a lament often sung at funerals.  Here's Buffy Sainte-Marie's rendition of the haunting Lyke Wake Dirge ...

Lyrics and explanation

Here's ROW 8:

An ANTHEM is a rousing or uplifting song identified with a particular group, body, or cause.  Here is a famous one by Canadian Leonard Cohen called simply Anthem.  He is one of my favorite poet/songwriters, but as he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, here is a cover of the song by fellow Canadian singer Eleuthera (and a CSO to CanadianEh!) ... 

Here's ROW 11:
 

Our final genre is one of the oldest musical forms, the BALLAD, a song that tells a story.  Here's a modern one by Bobbie Gentry -- her 1967 hit Ode to Billy Joe MacAllister ...

Here's the grid ...
 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Volleyball official: REF.

4. Nirvana genre: GRUNGE.  And right out of the gate we have an Easter Egg.   Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture which emerged during the mid-1980s in the U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal.  While Nirvana was the most commercially successful grunge group, there were many others, including several all female bands, e.g. L7.  Here's their Pretend We're Dead ...

10. Style alternative to MLA: APA. -- Modern Language Association vs American Psychological Association -- what's the difference?

13. "It's __ good": ALL.

14. Service provider based in Tehran: IRAN AIR.  Iran Air, officially known as The Airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the flag carrier of Iran, which is headquartered at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran. As of 2024, it operates scheduled services to 72 destinations in Asia and Europe.  No service to the US as yet.

15. Gentle touch: PAT.

16. Transportation for those who are plugged in?: ELECTRIC CAR. [Half of a clue song]

18. World Cup cheer: OLE.  [The other half]

19. Former union members?: EXES.  All of George Strait's EXES live in Texas ...

20. Fix, as a sock: DARN.  Hand up if you still DARN socks?

21. Earnest request: PLEA.

22. Low point: NADIR.  [Half of a clue song]  The opposite of ZENITH.

24. "Take it elsewhere, lovebirds!": GET A ROOM.  [The other half]

26. Sequenced sequence: GENOME.  A GENOME consists of the sequence of all of the GENES in the DNA of a species, determined by a process called DNA sequencing.  A  massive 13 year multi-disciplinary project to sequence the entire human genome began in 1990 and gave rise to a new science -- GENOMICS.  Here is a brief overview of the project ...

28. __/her pronouns: SHE.

29. GLAAD, for one: NGO. GLAAD is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since expanded to queer, bisexual, and transgender people.

31. Lends a hand: AIDS.

33. Actress Tracee __ Ross: ELLIS.  Tracee Joy Silberstein (born October 29, 1972), known professionally as Tracee Ellis Ross, is an American actress. She is known for her lead roles in the television series Girlfriends (2000–2008) and Black-ish (2014–2022) receiving nominations for five Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the latter.  Ross is a daughter of actress and Motown recording artist Diana Ross and Robert Ellis Silberstein.

Tracee Ellis Ross

37. Cake decorator's substance: FONDANT.  [Half of a clue song]  Fondant icing, is an icing used to decorate or sculpt cakes and pastries. It is made from sugar, water, gelatin, vegetable oil or shortening, and glycerol. It does not have the texture of most icings; rolled fondant is akin to modelling clay, while poured fondant is a thick liquid. 

Wedding cake covered
and decorated with fondant

40. Toxic plant in the carrot family: HEMLOCK.  [The other half]  Conium maculatum, known as poison hemlock is a highly poisonous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. It is herbaceous without woody parts and has a biennial lifecycle.   It is a hardy plant capable of living in a variety of environments.  It is purported to have been used as the method for the execution for the philosopher Socrates, who was accused of the corruption of youth.

Poison Hemlock

42. Last one to cross the finish line: LOSER.  And all the others following the WINNER.

43. TikTok mashup, e.g.: EDIT.  TikTok allows users to create short videos, from 15 seconds up to a minute and which often feature music in the background and can be sped up, slowed down, or edited with a filter. They can also add their own sound on top of the background music. To create a music video with the app, users can choose background music from a wide variety of music genres, edit with a filter and record a 15-second video with speed adjustments before uploading it to share with others on TikTok or other social platforms. 

45. Non opposite: OUI.  Today's French Lesson: "Yes".

46. Short time out?: NAP.  I try to get a "short time out" every day.

48. Focused while working: ON TASK.

51. Game also known as table soccer: FOOSBALL. [Half of a clue song]  Today's German lesson: "table soccer" =  "tischfußball"  The funny letter than looks like a B is actually a double S in German and so it was transliterated to English as Foosball,  a tabletop game loosely based on football (soccer on the other side of the Pond).  Its object is to move the ball into the opponent's goal by manipulating rods which have figures attached resembling football players of two opposing teams. Although its rules often vary by country and region when the game is played casually, competitive-level table football is played according to a unified code. Here's a brief clip from a competition ...

55. Pueblo material: ADOBE.  [The other half]  Adobe is a building material made from earth and organic materials.  Adobe is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of earthen construction, or various architectural styles like Pueblo Revival or Territorial Revival.  We tend to associate adobe with the American Southwest, but similar construction techniques are used throughout the world, e.g. in the Citadel of Bam in Kerman Province, Iran: the world's largest adobe structure, dating to at least 500 BC ...

Citadel of Bam, Iran

57. Woodwind commonly made of grenadilla wood: OBOE.  Let's see -- a 4 letter word for a woodwind. I wonder what that could be?  And a CSO to sumdaze for  reminding me that it's called an EKTORP.  Oh yes -- grenadilla wood?

Grenadilla wood cross section

58. Marketer's introduction?: TELE.  Classic misdirection -- TELE goes on the front end. 😀

60. Laundry pile emanation: ODOR.

61. Track unit: LAP.

62. [Theme reveal]

65. Private online convos: DMS.  Direct Messages -- A DM is a private mode of communication between social media users.

66. Lawn sign phrase: FOR RENT.

67. Korean automaker: KIA.  Kia Corporation was founded in May 1944 and is Korea’s oldest manufacturer of motor vehicles. 

Kia Headquarters
Seoul, South Korea

68. "Gee ... ": SAY.

69. Thomas of the WNBA or Thompson of the NWSL: ALYSSA.  Alyssa Thomas of the Women's National Basketball Association ...

Alyssa Thomas

Alyssa Thompson of the National Women's Soccer League.

Alyssa Thompson

70. Equinox mo.: SEP.

Down:

 1. Issa of "Insecure": RAE.

2. Actress Pompeo: ELLEN.  Ellen Kathleen Pompeo (born November 10, 1969) is an American actress. One of the world's highest-paid actors since 2017, she has made multiple appearances on Forbes' year-end lists. Her accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination.  She is best known for starring as the title character Dr. Meredith Grey in the long running ABC medical drama series Grey's Anatomy.

Ellen Pompeo

3. Geometric paper toys: FLEXAGONS.  In geometry, flexagons are flat models discovered by the British mathematician Arthur H. Stone in 1939 and were made popular by mathematician Martin Gardner in his Scientific American articles on mathematical games.  Flexagons are usually constructed by folding strips of paper, that can be flexed or folded in certain ways to reveal faces besides the two that were originally on the back and front.  They are usually square or rectangular (tetraflexagons) or hexagonal (hexaflexagons).  

Hexaflexagon

The geometry of flexagons can be extended to the folding of 3 dimensional surfaces studied in a branch of mathematics called knot theory.  The simplest example of such a fold is the trefoil knot ...
 

4. [I'm mad!]: GRR.

5. Brand with anti-ant products: RAID.

6. Free: UNCAGED.

7. Shiny shell material: NACRE.  Also known as mother-of-pearl --  this is how it gives birth.

8. Titans: GIANTS.

9. Make a blunder: ERR.

10. Olympian Ohno: APOLO.  Apolo Anton Ohno (born May 22, 1982) is an American retired short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist (two gold, two silver, four bronze) in the Winter Olympics. Ohno is the most decorated American at the Winter Olympics and was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019.   Here he wins 1,500-Meter Gold In 2002 ...

11. Diet inspired by hunter-gatherers: PALEO.  What is it and why is it so popular?  I'm sorry, but as writing hadn't been invented yet, I can't give you any recipes. 😀

12. Starters: A TEAM.

14. "Score!": ITS IN.

17. Give up: CEDE.

21. Green shampoo brand: PRELL.

23. Speckled horse: ROAN.  There are many breeds of ROAN horses.  This one is an Appaloosa ...

Appaloosa horse

25. "Beg pardon": AHEM.

27. Plant pest: MITE.  Of the many species of mites spider mites are the ones who are most damaging to plants.  They are members of the family Tetranychidae, which includes about 1,200 species. Spider mites generally live on the undersides of leaves of plants, where they may spin protective silk webs, and can cause damage by puncturing the plant cells as they feed.  Spider mites are known to feed on several hundred species of plants.  They look like this close up ...

Spider mite

29. Gp. with Lions and Bears: NFL.  National Football League.

30. Gunk: GOO.

32. __ guard: SHIN.

34. Compilations for fashion influencers: LOOK BOOKS.  In the over 50 men that Elaine Benes dated in the Seinfeld series, one of the most fashionable was J. Peterson, purveyor of his own eponymous LOOK BOOK ...

35. Critical hosp. area: ICU.  Intensive Care Unit -- the hospital destination for those with life threatening injuries transferred from the ER, or those recovering from serious surgeries.

36. Enjoy the slopes: SKI.

38. Thick: DENSE.

39. Many an Egyptian: ARAB.

41. Jazz legend James: ETTA. Here her Somethings Got a Hold On Me ...

44. Hong Kong currency: DOLLARS.  Here's how many Hong Kong Dollars you can get for one US Dollar.

47. Keep the beat?: PATROL.  A policeman making the rounds of the neighborhood -- from the idiom "pounding the beat".

49. Add to the family: ADOPT.

50. Rolls up to the front door?: SODS.  Up to the front porch, maybe. 😀 Also insulting British slang ...

51. Plays with 3-Down, e.g.: FOLDS.  Folds and unfolds a FLEXAGON.

52. "The Light We Carry" writer Michelle: OBAMA.  The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times is a nonfiction book written by Michelle Obama and published on November 15, 2022.  According to the Associated Press, the author "shares the contents of her 'personal toolbox' - the habits and practices, attitudes and beliefs, and even physical objects that she uses to overcome her feelings of fear, helplessness and self-doubt." 

53. "My bad!": OOPSY.

54. Untrusting: LEERY.

56. Bert's buddy: ERNIE.   Ernie gets Bert to exercise ... 

 59. __ out a living: EKES.

62. Deg. for creatives: BFA.  Bachelor of Fine Arts.

63. Spanish article: UNA.  Today's Spanish lesson: "One".

64. Space: GAP.

Cheers,

Bill

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

waseeley