Today's construction from RG was not a great one for me - I find the theme answers to be vaguely tied to the reveal at best, and we had a handful of names again, one of which was an 'ingredient' in the recipe for my disaster. 20 TLWs and 24 four-letter words, but we get a reprieve from circles, at least. Sadly, I 49A. "flubbed" the middle left of the grid today, so I have to admit to cheating; though in hindsight, I shoulda known - maybe that's why I am not a fan of this puzzle. The Themers;
16. Fruit given to Snow White by the Evil Queen: POISON APPLE
21. Rabble-rouser: BAD EGG
He's been "sEGGregated"
26. Youthful rebelliousness: WILD OATS - I missed my error here - I had Wild Rats, the "R" from DRS, which didn't jibe, and then a Wild Cats "C", which made no sense at all in the Down
45. Unrefined petroleum: CRUDE OIL
I cave in and put gas in my Prius once every six weeks
50. With 58-Across, conditions likely to lead to catastrophe, or what 16-, 21-, 26-, and 45-Across are ingredients for?: RECIPE - AND - 58A. See 50-Across: FOR DISASTER - with these "four" ingredients, I think you end up with a McDonald's Apple Pie
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. Rapid transit vehicles?: RAFTS - Rapid(s) as in white water, and "rafting" upon them
6. "Dancing Queen" quartet: ABBA - CrossWord Staple, still a name - #1
10. Weep loudly: SOB
13. Introverted, maybe: ALOOF - I am definitely introverted
14. Watering can part: SPOUT
15. Actress Thurman: UMA - CWS, still a name - #2
18. Write: PEN
19. Bombard, as with snowballs: PELT
20. Cribside coos: AWS - Meh. I would have preferred "Amazon Web Services" for this clue; plus, it's usually AWW in crosswords
23. Tosses in: ADDS - AND - 34A. Much of magazines: ADS - meh on the semi-dupe
25. Turkish dough: LIRAS
$1 US = 34.31 Lira
30. __ party: sudsy celebration: FOAM - I am not familiar with this "type" of party, but it makes sense - I stopped drinking 20yrs ago, and essentially stopped partying the same time as well. . . . Sigh
31. Literature Nobel laureate Bashevis Singer: ISAAC - No clue, waited on perps, and that didn't help either - note my little black triangles in the cel corners in the grid below; I just could not be bothered to think about finding the answers - just cheat and reveal the letters. . . . AND name - #3
32. Off-balance: ATILT
AWW, cute
37. Put down: DISS - Meh. Usually has just one "S", as in DISrespect
38. Comrade: CRONY
39. First Nations people of Canada: CREE - had the last "E", but it's not OTOE - CWS and name #4
40. Rough no.: ESTimate
41. Hits upon the answer: HAS IT
42. Relaxed: CHILL
43. Look to be: SEEM
47. Gush with naches: KVELL - All I can say about seeing this in a Wednesday crossword is "What?!?" 21st century-speak for spewing pride. P.S. naches is also the rump of a cow, and one might say I am leaning towards that definition in context. . . .
49. Flubs: ERRS
52. Prefix with -logue: EPI - epilogue, the wrapping up, "last chapter", in a novel - this does SEEM to be trying too hard to avoid being the 'usual' crossword clue/answer. e.g. Epi Pen
53. Fries or tots: SIDE
57. Latin for "I": EGO
61. End of many superhero names: MAN - let me count the ways. . . .
62. Reversed: UNDID - I am truly grateful for the "UNDO" button on several pieces of software, including the Blogger
63. Home of the Kaaba: MECCA - no clue, but I had M_C_A, so...name #5
64. Come to a close: END
65. Future AG's exam: LSAT
66. Oldest of the Three Musketeers: ATHOS - name #6
DOWN:
1. Reneé of "Mean Girls": RAPP - no clue, name - #7 - her IMDb
2. Succulent genus: ALOE - A shout-out to Hahtoolah
3. Wrap for leftovers: FOIL - SARAN didn't fit
4. Open-faced dishes with crispy tortillas: TOSTADAS - my last fill, and I toyed with the last vowel - "A" or "O"~? even tho I knew it was an A
5. Hub across the Bay from OAK: SFO - San Francisco airport code; my closest airport code is BDL
6. Starters, casually: APPS - APPetizerS, trying again to NOT be typical, but it just doesn't work on Wed, IMHO
7. Danceable song: BOP - we (I) just learned this last Friday
8. Glowing object on a marquee: BULB - Meh. IN a marquee seems better
9. Went back for thirds, maybe: ATE A LOT - Ugh. I don't care for ALOT in puzzles to begin with
10. Nintendo platform game series: SUPER MARIO
11. Seamaster watchmaker: OMEGA - it was either this or ROLEX, as Audemars Piguet doesn't fit - I was a CAD designer for their Southampton store, which required bullet-proof glass - their most expensive piece is $430K, almost twice the cost of my house
NOTE: the website selling this watch is
offering $100 off your first order - ooh, good deal~!
12. Fringe on some foreheads: BANGS - A shout-out to our host C.C.
She likes the BANGS in this picture
14. Reacted to something striking?: SAW STARS
17. Absolutely nothing: NADA
22. San José day: DIA - Spanish lesson
24. OB or GYN: DOCtor - I knew DRS (plural) didn't match with the "or" in the clue
26. Broad: WIDE
27. Egyptian goddess: ISIS - name, #7
28. Stressful time for a procrastinator: LAST SECOND
29. Showing no fear, maybe: STOIC
30. Wing it?: FLY
33. Boldly brave: INTREPID - and then we have great fill like this
35. Market with a pickle barrel: DELI - Um, OK - when I did an internet search, I expected to find A LOT of B&W images, but no
36. Move merchandise: SELL
38. Laptop lens: CAMera - I have one at work for Teams meetings
39. Drawing board?: CHESS SET - a "draw" in chess is rare, but not unheard of; I plan to make a table for my living room with a chess board in the center
41. Advantageous: HELPFUL
42. Sr. officer: CDR - commander; I happen to know it's the abbr. for these, too
44. Nickname that drops -jah: ELI - again, trying to NOT be the typical "Yale" clue/answer
46. Novelist Leon: URIS - name #8
47. Krispy __: KREME - Mmmm, Donuts. . . .
48. Plant-based: VEGAN - Do donuts count~? I mean, the sugar comes from a plant, right~?
54. Burning desire: ITCH - I have a "burning desire" in the form of poison ivy (oak, sumac) all over my arms from the yard work I did two weeks ago. Yay.
55. Miami Beach style: DECO - Had something similar yesterday
56. Distinct periods: ERAS - is it going to be ERAS or AGES~?
59. Dietary amt.: RDA - Recommended Daily Allowance - my Daily Allowance these days is totally UN-recommended; I need to stop eating and start exercising - this is my New Year's Resolution
60. 24-Down's org.: AMA - American Medical Association
Splynter
Notes from C.C.
1)
Happy Birthday to dear Dave (CrossEyedDave), the best birthday cake
maker in the world. Your posts always brighten up our day, Dave!
CrossEyedDave
2) Happy Birthday also to Blue Hen. Hope all's well!
Rebecca Goldstein's theme features don't exactly jump out at you ...
She uses 4 cross references to another clue to identify the theme clues, a feature unpopular with some solvers, some of whom might even call it 49D 😀.
She uses mixed Across (1) and Down (3) clues ...
... here are the themers ...
49A. 58-Across of a social crafting event: QUILTING BEE. Here are two quilts made by Teri's sister Rose. Rose was formerly the seamstress for the Maryland Ballet Company ...
3D. 58-Across of some jeans: BUTTON FLY. I thought these went out of fashion after the publication of Erica Jong's novel Fear of Flying(link rated PG13 😀).
Button Fly Jeans
7D. 58-Across of the German auto industry: VW BEETLE. Over the years we had 5 of these -- 3 bugs and 2 vans. VW stopped making them after awhile, but they're back -- you just can't kill 'em ...
2024 VW Beetle
11D. 58-Across of 1990s rock: PAPA ROACH. Papa Roach is an American rock band from Vacaville, California, formed in 1993. The original lineup consisted of lead vocalist Jacoby Shaddix, guitarist Jerry Horton, drummer Dave Buckner, bassist Will James, and trombonist Ben Luther. I think the term ROACH in this instance refers not to an insect, but the stub of a funny cigarette.😀 It took me a while to find it, but here's their G rated version of Last Resort ....
Rebecca's clever reveal suggests that she might have done a stint in IT at some point in the past ...
58A. Seeming flaw that's intentional: A FEATURE NOT A BUG. I.e. the second word of each theme fill is part of an in-the-language term (a "feature") not an "insect" ...
... the reveal reminds me of the old programmer's excuse -- "That's not a bug, that's a feature!" to justify an attempt to fix a bug that unintentionally introduces a new and bigger one. A good example of such a claim might be one of the improvements recently made to the Blogger comments section -- the new feature of always returning to the top whenever you refresh the screen gives you multiple opportunities to read each commenter's bon mots, insuring that you'll have them all memorized by the end of the day. 😀
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. From downtown, maybe: URBAN. The etymology of the word URBAN.
6. Dream team member?: MVP. Most Valuable Player. We are blessed to have C.C. as our MVP.
9. Mammal with a prehensile snout: TAPIR. Elephant wouldn't fit, but this mammal did ...
15. Avian Tootsie Pop mascot: OWL. The mascot for Tootsie Roll Pops is known for asking "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" and then saying "One, two, three..." before biting down on the pop.
18. Jazz org.: NBA. The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Here's their noted logo ...
19. Like some comic-con attendees: CAPED. Here's an attendee from the 2023 Comic Con held in Cape Town, South Africa ...
Any guesses on who she's cosplaying? I haven't a clue.
20. QB's throw: ATT. Short for ATTEMPT. QB's get a stat just for trying!
42. Parisian palace: ELYSEE. The Élysée Palace (French: Palais de l'Élysée) is the official residence of the President of the French Republic in Paris. It was originally built in 1722 and is located on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, near the Champs-Élysées. The name Élysée derives from the Elysian Fields, the place of the blessed dead in Greek mythology.
Élysée Palace
44. Big name in competitive eating?: NATHAN. I drew this clue a few puzzles back and quite frankly I'm fed up with it! 😀
46. "Welp, what can you do?": ALAS. ALAS, the very last thing I thought of.
48. Solemn vow: OATH. Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon āþ, also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise intended as a sign of that the speaker is telling the truth. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to give an affirmation instead. Nowadays, even when there is no notion of sanctity involved, certain promises said out loud in ceremonial or juridical purpose are referred to as oaths. OTOH in certain contexts it implies profanity ...
49. [Theme clue]
52. Unit of magnetic induction: GAUSS. Definitely not a Thursday clue. GAUSS is a unit of magnetic flux density named for the physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss, whose researches helped define it. To make matters worse the unit is obsolete and has been superseded by the Tesla, an SI unit equal to10,000 Gauss. My links having exceeded 1000 words, I am forced to resort to this picture ...
54. Poetic preposition: ERE. Also the middle of a famous palindrome that has sometimes been credited to one J.T.R., a resident of Baltimore.
55. Color-blending technique: OMBRE. Ombré (literally "shaded" in French) is the blending of one color hue to another, usually moving tints and shades from light to dark. It has become a popular feature for hair coloring, nail art, and even baking, in addition to its uses in home decorating and graphic design.
58. [Theme reveal]
61. "Succession" cousin: GREG. Succession is an American satirical black comedy-drama television series that aired for four seasons on HBO from June 3, 2018, to May 28, 2023. The series centers on the Roy family, the owners of global media and entertainment conglomerate Waystar RoyCo, and their fight for control of the company amidst uncertainty about the health of the family's patriarch. Gregory John "Greg" Hirsch, played by Nicholas Braun is great-nephew of Logan Roy, played by the great Brian Cox, the patriarch that everybody's trying to succeed. This following trailer is rated PG13 (profanity and dramatic music 😀) ...
62. Coop up, say: PEN IN.
63. Rowlands of "The Notebook": GENA. Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands (June 19, 1930 – August 14, 2024) was an American actress, whose career in film, stage, and television spanned nearly seven decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she collaborated with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, including A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), both of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She appeared in Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988), and her son Nick Cassavetes's film, The Notebook (2004). In 2021, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said, "The most important and original movie actor of the past half century-plus is Gena Rowlands." In November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances. Here's the trailer for The Notebook ... 64. Feeling yesterday's workout: SORE.
65. Briquettes: COALS.
66. Tagged, say: IDED.
Down:
1. Campus near Sunset Blvd.: UCLA. The University of California, Los Angeles. The new UCLA campus in 1929 had four buildings: Royce Hall and Haines Hall on the north, and Powell Library and Kinsey Hall (now called Renee And David Kaplan Hall) on the south. Today, the campus includes 163 buildings across 419 acres (1.7 km2) in the western part of Los Angeles, north of the Westwood shopping district and just south of Sunset Boulevard. In terms of acreage, it is the second-smallest of the ten UC campuses.
2. Endodontic therapy: ROOT CANAL. Everybody's favorite dental procedure.😀 A root canal is treatment for infections in tooth pulp, the innermost layer of your teeth. Endodontists and dentists do about 15 million root canals in the United States every year. Typically, root canals are painless treatments. You can avoid needing a root canal by brushing your teeth after meals, flossing daily and having regular dental checkups.
See, it's simple! 😀
3. [Theme clue]
4. Spot-on: APT.
5. In the neighborhood: NEAR.
6. City named for the hill it surrounds: MONTREAL. Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the tenth-largest in North America. Founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked mountain around which the early settlement was built.
Mount Royal view from av. du Parc in Montreal.
7. [Theme clue]
8. Organ that nourishes a fetus: PLACENTA. The Cleveland Clinic addresses this description to expectant mothers -- "The placenta is a temporary organ that connects your baby to your uterus during pregnancy. The placenta develops shortly after conception and attaches to the wall of your uterus. Your baby is connected to the placenta by the umbilical cord. Together, the placenta and umbilical cord act as your baby's lifeline while in the uterus."
10. Therapy for some individuals with autism, for short: ABA. This one is a real toughie. The articles on ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) are heavily peppered with psychological jargon -- a language in which I am reasonably fluent, as my BA is in Psych -- yet I still wasn't able to come up with a succinct explanation for how this "therapy" works. However one of the characteristics of persons with autism is that they are often very visually oriented, so I've decided to start with a trailer for a biopic about a real individual with autism named Temple Grandin, who has managed to succeed in a world of "normal" people ... And here's Temple Grandin speaking for herself... Now I'll leave it to you to go back to the first link and see if you can make any sense of ABA.
11. [Theme clue]
12. Cold, chocolaty cafe order: ICED MOCHA.
13. Frees (of): RIDS.
22. __ glance: AT A.
23. MA and PA home: USA.
26. Hardly huge: WEE.
28. Blunder: ERR.
29. Supine winter sport: LUGE. Luge racing is a competitive sport that's included in the Winter Olympics, and "to luge" means to speed down a snowy hill on a luge. The word luge comes from the Latin sludia, or "sled." This is another clue that can only be described visually. Here's the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea with Chris Mazdzer taking the silver medal run in men's singles luge ...
36. Customer service agent unlikely to pass a captcha test: CHATBOT. CAPTCHA is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart". It usually takes little effort to convince a customer service CHATBOT that I need to talk to a human -- they're not as smart as they think they are. 😀
43. McMuffin option: SAUSAGE. “Laws are like sausages. It is best not to see them being made.” -- origin disputed.
45. Crèche trio: THE MAGI. The MAGI go all the way back to the infancy narratives of Jesus Christ (Matthew 2:1-13), but the Crèche ("Nativity Scene") didn't appear in modern Europe until 1223, when St. Francis of Assisi staged a living Crèche complete with an ox and an ass in the Italian town of Greccio.
48. Result of achieving a goal?: ONE NIL. The score after the first goal in games like soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse would be ONE NIL. In American football a six point touchdown would have to be scored before a single extra point could be scored.
49. Part of LGBTQ: QUEER.
50. Humanitarian Sendler recognized by Yad Vashem: IRENA. Irena Stanisława Sendler (née Krzyżanowska; 15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008), was a Polish Catholic social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw. She was eventually captured and tortured, but refused to reveal the identities of a list of potential Holocaust victims. She was scheduled for execution, but escaped when her compatriots bribed the guards who were to take her to the firing squad -- corruption has a way of corrupting itself.
Irena Sendler 1942
Sendler was recognized as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and received her award at the Israeli embassy in Warsaw in 1965.
51. Receded: EBBED.
52. Funny bits: GAGS. Last week we had funny bits from Monte Python. Today we hear from Beyond the Fringe. A friend of mine from High School could intone this whole monologue from memory ... 53. Natural style: AFRO.
56. Ancient character: RUNE. A RUNE is a letter in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before those peoples adopted the Latin alphabet. In addition to representing a sound value (a phoneme), runes can be used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographs). Here are the Anglo-Saxon runes, also known as the futhorc ...
59. Checkout lines?: UPC. The Universal Product Code (UPC or UPC code) is a barcode symbology that is used worldwide for tracking trade items in stores. Here is the UPC for this clue ...
60. Word with come or carry: ONS. And with that I'm signing OFF.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
Theme from the Sting (The Entertainer) on Vibraphone
Hump Day~! Another Rebecca Goldstein puzzle - this time she's partnered with Rafael Musa, whose latest LA Times constructions were themeless Saturdays blogged by HuskerG. A 'normal' 15 x15 grid, and what is becoming a "normal" ( for me ) Wednesday occurrence, circles. Today's circles are in a pattern reminiscent of the way a chess knight moves, but skewed 45°, and all four examples use the letters V, I, B & E - The result; a CHECK mark, and a graphic representation of the theme of the puzzle;
57. "How's everybody feeling?," e.g., and an apt description of this puzzle's circled letters: VIBE CHECK - ✔
I have not heard or used this phrase; I guess I am just "OLD". It does sound Millennial, or GenZ, so I'm not surprised. On the flip side, we did have three other solid, nine-letter fills, so I am going to add those at the top of the write-up here, for Cornerites who care to "cheat" ( I used to 'peek' at the Saturday write-up for a little "assistance ). I did not get my "ta-DA~!" after the puzzle was filled; turns out I had a "U" in the cell where the "I" is, highlighted in the solution above, and it was the theme that helped me see my mistake....
16A. "That's my cue to leave": "I BETTER GO." - reminds me of the closing scene from Pulp Fiction - ✔
Vincent and Jules, dressed in T-shirts and shorts, "think they should be leaving now"
3D. Story connectors: ELEVATORS - Dah~! I got caught up thinking story as in tales, novels, movies, etc.
32D. Smarts: INTELLECT
And Away We Go~! ACROSS:
1. Swerve: VEER
5. Person in a toque: CHEF
9. Explicit content warning letters: NSFW - Not Suitable For Work
13. Vogue rival: ELLE
14. Short video on Instagram: REEL - new clue for this answer; I don't Instagram - filled via perps
15. "Cloud Atlas" star Berry: HALLE - never saw this movie - sounds intriguing, so I borrowed the book and started reading it this week - name #1
22. Go all in, maybe: BET - meh. It's not really a bet so much as a bluff, or desperation call
23. Help: AID
24. Person who doesn't sugarcoat things: REALIST - I consider myself a realist
26. Envelope abbr.: ATTN - ATTENTION - see 35A.
28. Fed a friend's iguana, say: PET SAT - I found another picture of my iguana Zeus - ✔
29. Heckles a performance: BOOS
30. Cranberry farm: BOG
31. Finale: ENDING
35. Microwave aluminum foil, say: ERR - I actually made this error a week ago - I just wanted to take the chill off a protein bar, never noticing the foil package - but the sparks in the zapper got my ATTENTION - ✔
36. Endearing: LOVABLE
38. Word between last names: NÉE - Frawnche
39. "__ learned!": LESSON - I had to learn how to solder a windline joint last week - we are installing the windlines for the new pipe organ at St. Peter's Harwich, MA, this week. Here's a picture of a reed rank laid out so we can modify its wind chest for the Washington National Cathedral - ✔
42. __-Alt-Del: CTRL - and this is how you FIX PCs
43. Endorses digitally: eSIGNS - Living in CT, I did a lot of eSigning for documents related to NY accounts - I wonder about the legality sometimes, when you take into consideration hackers
45. Weight: HEFT
46. Takes a nosedive: CRATERS - There have been numerous episodes of Air Disasters where a mechanical failure led to a plane taking a nosedive, resulting in a crater.
48. Khan Academy founder Khan: SAL - name #2, no clue, filled via perps - his Wiki
49. Election Day mo.: NOVember, and fast approaching
50. Jockey item with straps?: BRA - Jockey, the brand name
51. Prophets: ORACLES
55. Cravalho who voices Moana: AULI'I - name #3, did not see the movie, had no clue; her IMDb
59. Plug protrusion: PRONG
The orange snake from hell
60. Actor Bana: ERIC - name #4
61. Hurt: ACHE
62. Jazz legend James: ETTA - name #5, crossword staple
63. Allows: LETS
64. Stash, as a carry-on: STOW
DOWN:
1. Accessory for some brides: VEIL - I was "today years old" when I saw this video - NOT Weird Al's version....
The Greg Kihn Band - Jeopardy
2. Brazilian singer-songwriter Ramalho: ELBA - name #6, no clue, filled via perps
12. "__ Coast best coast": WEST - WAG for the rhyme
15. Freeway section marked with diamonds: HOV LANE
Not effective, in my experience on Long Island - a Zipper lane would be the way to go
17. "More info soon": TBD
21. Studio supports: EASELS - Artist's studios, that is
25. "__ be amazing if ... ": IT'D - meh, but necessary
26. Cain's brother: ABEL - name #7
27. Ripped: TORE
A tragedy - ✔
28. Perspective, for short: POV - Point of View - there's a GUN for that; doesn't work on women
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - ✔
30. Less meaty: BONIER - like most fashion models
33. Make less powerful, in gamer slang: NERF - filled via perps, but it sorta makes sense
34. Coins in a game of dreidel: GELT
36. Got blown out: LOST BIG - especially if you went 'All In'
37. Code for the busiest airport in Massachusetts: BOS - Boston Airport didn't sound right, until I recalled that it's called "Logan" Airport
Looks confusing
40. Black __: SEA - I threw in "TIE"
42. Does a fast-paced Latin dance: CHA-CHAs
44. Colorful stones at the bottom of an aquarium: GRAVEL - uh, well, I guess it is gravel; I had more than one aquarium as a kid - I am thinking about doing another - I can be on the road without worrying about my fish.
46. Pickleball venue: COURT
47. Airstream stopover, for short: RV LOT - meh. RV Park is a more common 'phrase', and based on a website during my search, an RV LOT is a permanent (so to speak) rental spot to park your RV - not really a "stopover"
48. Cul-de-__: SAC - Frawnche
49. Back of the neck: NAPE
51. Notice in passing?: OBITuary
52. Suggestions, for short: RECS - meh. I am guessing "recommendations", but this is something I do not typically use, or hear, in my daily travels
53. Reverberation: ECHO
54. Distort: SKEW - Dah~! Not WARP
56. Cookbook writer Garten: INA - Dah~! I filled in UTA - the "other" three-letter name I always get wrong; Uta is the German actress who frequently appears in crossword puzzles, too
