Friday, April 19, 2024, Rebecca Goldstein

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE ?

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  It is Friday and it is time for yours truly, Malodorus Manatee, to present a recap of today's puzzle by veteran (and that's an understatement) constructor Rebecca Goldstein.

Today's solve was no walk in the proverbial park as there were several elements in this eclectic mixture that challenged this solver and, perhaps, you, too.

Depending on what one wishes to include, there are roughly fifteen proper nouns in this puzzle.  Proper nouns are great if you know the answer but they can be trouble if you don't.  There are several foreign-language answers in the grid and several answers that, again depending on what one wishes to include, consist of more than one word (e.g. does I-beam count?).  Toss in a couple of references of the wurst kind, two (or three) Greek alphabet references, and some obligatory oblique (Friday) cluing and the head scratching becomes inevitable. . . and that's before we deal with the clever theme.

Upon completing the puzzle, and for some time thereafter, this solver was not able to identify a theme.  A unifying clue/answer would have helped - but there was none.  I saw the "international" two-word clues, each punctuated with a question mark, but failed to put the pieces together.  Perhaps I was a bit word weary from the solve itself or maybe I just could not see the forest for the trees.  In any event, I reached out to the Crossword Corner blog staff and, with their assistance, the fog lifted.  Each themed clue is a common expression in English which includes a country name.  Each themed answer fits the clue but requires that we re-imagine the expression as being defined in terms of  something other than its common meaning.  The theme is not in the answers.  It is to be found in the clues themselves.

Here are the themed clues and their answers:

17 Across:  American cheese?: POTUS.  Not as in what you might have used last Friday on National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day.  As in the idiom the "Big Cheese".  The President Of The United States is a "Big Cheese".

19 Across:  Irish cream?: EUROS.  Not Baileys.  Cream can be used, apparently, as a slang term for money.  Irish money.  See #27 in  100 Slang Words For Money

36 Across:  Spanish inquisition?: COMO ESTAS.  In this case not THE Spanish Inquisition.  As in to inquire, in Spanish, "How are you?"  Well, I guess the answer to that depends:

7 Down:  Australian open?: G'DAY MATE.  Not a tennis tournament reference.  Open as in an opening comment/greeting, I suppose.  

41 Down:  French press?: LE MONDE.  Not a coffee brewing reference.  The French newspaper (press).

43 Down:  English channel?: THE BEEB.  Not as in what we just now crossed to get to Great Britain from 41 Down (the English Channel).  A television channel.  Slang for the BBC.  British Broadcasting Corporation

49 Down: German mark?: UMLAUT.  Not the former German currency that was replaced by the Euro.  A punctuation mark used in the German language.

Let' take a look at the completed grid.  Its symmetry is elegant even without the placement of the themed answers.  With the placement of those answers it is even more impressive:

Here are the rest of the clues and answers:

Across:

1. AMC car known as "The Flying Fishbowl": PACER.  If you knew your American Motor Corporation models then this one was fairly easy.  If not, you had to wait for the perps which is a tough way to start a puzzle especially, in this instance, where the crossing with 1 Down might have formed a Natick.

6. "Saltburn" studio: MGM. As a further sign of the "updating" of our puzzles, a 2023 film was chosen to clue this instead of one of hundreds of classic MGM flicks.

9. Office characters: STAFF.  Because of the obligatory leading "cap", the clue might have been thought to refer to the cast of the TV show.  The answer did not require that degree of specificity.

14. Meaty flavor: UMAMI.  One of the five so-called basic tastes (together with Salty, Bitter, Sweet and Sour), UMAMI has been defined as "savory - characteristic of broths and cooked meats".

15. Nev. neighbor: IDA.  IDAho  What did Ida Ho?  She hoed her Mary Land while wearing her brand New Jersey.

16. Undefeated Ali: LAILA.  A frequent visitor.

18. Goldin of "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed": NAN.  A reference to the subject of a 2022 documentary about the activist named in the clue (and who's first name is the answer).

20. Uncertain syllables: UMS.  The topic of the inclusion of these sounds-people-might-make answers has previously, and extensively, been debated on The Corner.

21. Long-horned grasshopper: KATYDID.  A funny word and a funny-looking insect.

24. Captcha capture: BOT.

25. Slip through the cracks: SEEP.  The clue might have been taken as the idiom but that would have thrown one off the scent.

27. Ramblin' man, maybe: NOMAD.  Well, Rebecca and Patti did tee it up:

Allman Brothers Band - 1972

28. Root vegetable with purple-flecked flesh: TARO.  A starchy vegetable frequently served up in our puzzles.

29. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA.  Although a winner of both a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe, this actress' name was unknown to this solver.  Perps to the rescue.

30. Spoken exams: ORALS.  My son recently took a battery of ORAL exams in hopes of qualifying to become a pirate.  His grades were okay, but not great.  He got high C's.

31. Washington University's business school: OLIN.

32. Arterial insert: STENT.  Today's let's-pass-on-the-graphic moment.

34. Fig. texted from traffic: ETA.  Or, a Greek alphabet reference.

35. Actor Nick: NOLTE.  This actor's name was known to this solver.

39. Some charcuterie slices: SALAMI.  One of the wurst clues.

 

42. Polling place sticker: I VOTED.  They now include the sticker with our mail-in ballots.

46. Walk through knee-deep snow, say: TREK.  A bit misleading (hey, it's Friday) because the answer is not snow-dependent.  

47. Unrefined: CRUDE.  I recently heard a dirty joke about oil drilling.  It was really CRUDE.

51. "Goodness": OH MY.

52. Pinnacle: ACME.  Sometimes it turns out to be APEX.

53. Alfa __: ROMEO.  Wherefore art thou?  Nah.  An automobile reference.

1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint

54. "Ja" opposite: NEIN.  Today's German lesson.

55. Letter before sigma: RHO.  One of today's Greek (alphabet) lessons.

56. Spicy sausage: HOT LINK.  The other wurst clue.

58. Lingerie buy: BRA.  There are many possibilities here but the three-letter requirement cuts things down to size (number and letter) pretty (lace, different colors) quickly.

59. Packed tightly: DENSE.

61. Tiny powerhouses?: AAS.  This one was not another of those sounds-people-might-make answers.

62. Part of building bridges: I BEAM.  Named for its shape when viewed in cross section.

64. Boss (around): ORDER.

65. "For shame!": TUT.  This is yet another one of those sounds-people-might-make answers.  It might have been clued as yet another proper noun.

66. Sell a bill of goods: LIE TO.   Everything You Want to Know About the "Sell A Bill Of Goods" Idiom

67. Daisy known as the "Rosa Parks of the North": MYERS.  The Myers Family Story

68. UFO beings: ETS.  Extra TerrestrialS  Unidentified Flying Objects are now called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs

69. Neuroscience segments: LOBES.

Down:

1. Food with a national holiday in El Salvador: PUPUSAS.  If you started the puzzle at 1 Down then it might have been a rough start.  Oddly, while working on this recap I asked Valerie what I might snack on.  She served up a PUPUSA that she had recently purchased at that temple of Salvadoran cuisine - Costco.  It was delicious.

2. Terse request to chat: A MOMENT.  The only way this one seems to make sense to this solver is as a request to talk to someone and not as a request to chat electronically.  As in "Have you got A MOMENT?"

3. Reflective effect in some gemstones: CATS EYE.

         CATS EYE Gemstones                           Looking For Their Royalty Checks

4. Bird in a eucalyptus forest: EMU.  Eucalyptus tells us to conjure up something Australian.

5. Chance: RISK.  Noun or verb?  It didn't matter this time.

6. Cookie with green creme: MINT OREO.  How do I clue thee?  Let me count the ways.

8. Geometric designs that represent spiritual journeys: MANDALAS.

9. Toy in the final "Calvin and Hobbes" panel: SLED.  Here it is.  Bill Watterson walked away at the top of his game after declining to monetize his characters by, among other things, turning them into plush toys. 

10. Letter after sigma: TAU.  Another one of today's Greek (alphabet) lesson.

11. Big whiff: AIR BALL.  A basketball reference.

12. "Go! Go! Go!": FLOOR IT.  As we move into the electrified automobile future, FLOOR IT might survive whereas "Step On The Gas!" probably will not.  She's real fine my 400 NM?

13. Trick: FAST ONE.  As in to Pull a FAST ONE.

22. "I'll take that as __": A NO.  Yes

23. Face cards?: IDS.  Not IDS as compared to EGOS.  I.D. as in an identification card with, in this case, a head shot photo on it.

26. Blowout patch, at a diner: PANCAKE.  New jargon for this solver.  Usually, it is a sheet rock (drywall) reference.

28. "That may never be funny": TOO SOON.  Often posed as a question:  "Is it TOO SOON?"

33. "Top Chef" judge Colicchio: TOM.  Thanks, again, perps.  Often clued with a turkey reference.

35. Pt. of Loran: NAV.  Long Range NAVigation.

37. Prefix with economics or biology: MICRO.

38. Attach: TIE ON.  As opposed to a Liger?  (well, it was close)

39. Fame and fortune: STARDOM.  I always thought that I was destined for STARDOM but then I realized that my mass was below 0.08 solar masses.

40. Shooting sport: ARCHERY.  Hand up for first trying to make something firearm-related work out.

44. Kuwait or Qatar: EMIRATE.  People in Qatar don't like "The Flintstones" but people in AbuDhabi do.

45. Real powerhouses: DYNAMOS.

48. Turn: ROTATE.  A clue to be taken literally.  Not as in, for example, a baseball game at bat or a time to spin/roll the dice when playing a board game.

50. Many of the founding fathers, religiously: DEISTS. Deism is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation of the natural world are exclusively logical, reliable, and sufficient to determine the existence of a Supreme Being as the creator of the universe. 

56. Women's health brand: HERS.  Lots of possible ways to clue this.  This way was fitting for a Friday challenge.

57. Decide not to run: KILL.  A press (run) reference as in to KILL a story.

60. Honorific in "Game of Thrones": SER.  I might be the only person around who has never watched an epidsdoe of "Game of Thrones" so thanks, perps.

63. Book jacket blurb: BIO.  Short for BIOgraphy and also a short biography.

That includes our international tour for this Friday.  Have a great weekend, everyone.  If you go  exploring, please travel safely!

______________________________________________________________

Thursday, April 11, 2024,Rebecca Goldstein

 

 

ALMOST HEAVEN

 
After he retired my father built a small home on a mountain top in West Virginia.  We made many visits to it, then my mother had to sell it.  But one of sister's children bought it recently so it's back in the family.  And it was, and still is "Almost Heaven", a space where we can go and be at peace in a world with a starlit sky in the night, forests as far as the eye could see, meadows in the valleys, and a bucolic town with a yearly Apple Butter festival in the town below.

Today's constructor Rebecca Goldstein challenges us with 3 theme clues that re-imagine our world as a safe space where all people are free from bias, discrimination, and hatred -- a noble ideal ...

20. Mindset that may hinder growth: COMFORT ZONE.  A COMFORT ZONE is a familiar psychological state where people are at ease and (perceive they are) in control of their environment, experiencing low levels of anxiety and stress. But the clue hints that there is built-in tension -- that it can also hinder growth, and so it requires some careful navigation to maintain it ...

27. Mental image during meditation: HAPPY PLACE.  Here is the visual image of the sound OM used in some forms of meditation ...

35. Tabletop decor piece with raked sand: ZEN GARDEN.  More often a life-sized garden with raked sand.  Here's one at the Bon Secours Retreat Center in Marriottsville, MD.  They call theirs a Peace Garden, a safe space to meditate ...

Bon Secours Peace Garden

And the reveal ...

29. Bias-free environments, or what 20-Across and 27- and 35-Down are: SAFE SPACES.

Something we all wish for.  And each of us has a different path toward them. 

Here's the grid ...
 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Data depiction: GRAPH. With the advent of low-cost graphics tools such as the PC, it became very easy to create GRAPHS tailored to specific needs.

6. Mouth piece?: JAW.  AKA the mandible -- the opposing piece is the maxilla ...

9. Slalom markers: GATES.

14. Diet that precludes grains and dairy: PALEO.

15. Charlottesville sch.: UVA.

16. Animal wearing red pajamas in Anna Dewdney kids books: LLAMA.  I guess that's a better clue than "Camelid who'll spit in your eye!" -- and they have a great after-market --

17. Hybrid wheat species: SPELT.  The ideal grain for Jinx, no matter how you spel it!

18. "A Life Outdoors Is a Life Well Lived" co.: REI.  Lately this co. has spent a lot of time living in crossword puzzles.

19. Get greasy: OIL UP.

20. [Theme clue].

23. Quick burn: SEAR.

24. "Me too": SAME.

25. Deep rift: SCHISM.  Not a  safe space for groups who experience one.

28. Plant used as an herbal medicine: HYSSOP.  A member of the mint family.  Here's what Britannica has to say about HYSSOP.  Here's what WebMD has to say about it. It's certainly a pretty plant ...

Anise Hyssop

32. Rollover subj.: IRA.

33. Getting a grip, maybe: SEIZING. 

Also an archaic nautical term referring to a length of rope.

37. "It's __-win situation": A NO.

38. Slip in judgment: LAPSE.

40. "Jeopardy!" host Jennings: KEN.  No not Barbie's BFF.

41. Getting hungry, probably: UNFED.  If prolonged it's not safe, especially for children -- see for example last Thursday's puzzle.

43. Uses a keyboard: TYPES.

44. Come to a close: END.

45. Slips through the cracks?: SEEPS.  Our basement laundry room SEEPS water and it looks like we'll have to hire a contractor to stop it.

46. Spanish "Hey!": OYE.

47. Field where things disappear?: MAGIC. 

49. NNW opposite: SSE.

50. European range: ALPS.

51. "August: __ County": Streep film: OSAGE.  August: Osage County is a 2013 American tragicomedy film starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, and Misty Upham as a dysfunctional family that reunites at the familial house when their patriarch (Sam Shepard) suddenly disappears.  Looks like a comedy in a dysfunctional sort of way...

52. Agile: SPRY.

54. Actress Gadot: GAL. Gal Gadot Varsano born 30 April 1985, is an Israeli actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She was crowned Miss Israel 2004 and represented her country at the Miss Universe 2004 pageant. She then served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years as a combat fitness instructor, after which she began studying drama, while building her modeling and acting careers.  Her first international film performance was as Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious (2009), a part she reprised in several sequels. Gadot achieved global stardom for her portrayal of Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe films (2016–2023) and the mystery film Death on the Nile (2022).

Gal Gadot

55. Small part to play: BIT ROLE.  We hear BIT PART more often, but this fits too.

57. Skilled sort: ACE.

58. Let up: ABATE.

60. Pretty strange: ODD.  IMHO  all of "reality"is pretty ODD.

61. Chops in the kitchen: DICES.  As the family sous chef, I do a lot of this.

63. Likely to speak out: VOCAL.

64. "Say Yes to Heaven" singer Lana Del __: REY.  Good advice ...

65. Goddess of peace: IRENE.  Eirene or IRENE, is one of the Horae, the personification and goddess of peace in Greek mythology and ancient religion. She was depicted in art as a beautiful young woman carrying a cornucopia, sceptre, and a torch or rhyton. She is usually said to be the daughter of Zeus and Themisa. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess PAX.  She could almost be a fourth themer.  This also brings to mind a song by Huddie Ledbetter made popular by The Weavers ...

... although a careful listen to the lyrics tells us that Huddie and Irene didn't part very peacefully

66. Put forth: EXERT.

67. Chemistry suffix indicating a double bond: ENE.  In chemistry, a double bond is a covalent bond between two atoms involving four bonding electrons as opposed to two in a single bond. Double bonds occur most commonly between two carbon atoms, for example in ALKENES.  Double bonds can form between other elements and may not be designated with the ENE suffix ...

Chemical compounds with double bonds

The letters ENE are more likely to be clued in crosswords as "Opposite of WSW:"

68. Exams: TESTS.

Down:

1. Waze tech: GPS.  Waze Mobile Ltd, formerly FreeMap Israel, is a subsidiary company of Google that provides satellite navigation software on smartphones and other computers that support the Global Positioning System (GPS). In addition to turn-by-turn navigation, it incorporates user-submitted travel times and route details while downloading location-dependent information over a cellular network. Waze describes its application as a community-driven initiative that is free to download and use.

2. Future genre: RAP.

3. Smart __: ALEC.

4. Speaker emerita Nancy: PELOSI.   Nancy Patricia Pelosi (born in Baltimore on March 26, 1940) is an American politician who served as the 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023.   She was the first woman elected as U.S. House Speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress, leading the House Democrats from 2003 to 2023. A member of the House since 1987, Pelosi currently represents California's 11th congressional district, which includes most of San Francisco.

Nancy Pelosi

5. Complete disasters: HOT MESSES.  The opposite of SAFE SPACES.

6. Peer at a trial: JUROR.

7. State firmly: AVER.

8. Counts down the minutes, maybe: WAITS.

9. Member of the blue man group?: GLOOMY GUS.  Here's the poster child for the species from the Hundred Acre Wood ..

10. Dresses that twirl: A LINES.  This one was made from a tablecloth ...

11. Unbelievable story: TALE.

12. Outback bird: EMU.

13. Softy: SAP.

21. Notoriety: FAME.  All of the notorious are famous, but not all of the famous are notorious.

22. Investigative journalist Paula: ZAHN.  Paula Ann Zahn (born February 24, 1956) is an American journalist and newscaster who has been an anchor at ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and CNN. She currently produces and hosts the true crime documentary series On the Case with Paula Zahn on the Investigation Discovery channel.

Paula Zahn

25. Delta deposit: SILT.  Sediment in rivers is deposited, sorted by particle size, as the river slows down. Larger, heavier particles like pebbles and sand are deposited first, whilst the lighter silt and clay only settle if the water is almost still.  Silt deposited at the mouths of rivers formed the basis for ancient deposits of "ball clays" in the US in Tennessee and Georgia.  These fine grain clays are prized by potters for their plasticity.  Newer alluvial plains that are still active can be vast, e.g. the Nile Delta as shown in this photograph from space ...

Nile River Delta

26. Container that may have a built-in sharpener: CRAYOLA BOX.  Beginning in 1958 the 64 color box came with a built-in sharpener, as does the 96 count box.

27. [Theme clue]

29. [Theme reveal].

30. Latte order specification: ONE PERCENT.

31. Dishwasher detergent units: PODS.   Kids do the darnedest things --  between 2012 and 2013, poison control centers reported over 7,000 cases of young children eating laundry pods, and ingestion of laundry pods produced by P&G had resulted in six deaths by 2017. In response to the dangers, P&G changed Tide Pod containers to an opaque design, introduced warning labels, and added a bitter-tasting chemical to the pod contents ...

Original Packaging
Aren't they colorful!

34. Retail outlet whose products often come with Allen wrenches: IKEA STORE.  Sorry I couldn't resist ... 😀

35. [Theme clue].

36. Need for some denim jeans: INDIGO DYE.  Indigo is a pigment extracted from the leaves of indigo-bearing plants and is the oldest natural source of blue dye in the world. Humans have used indigo to dye natural fibers for thousands of years, with traditions spanning continents and cultures.  GLOOMY GUS would love this stuff ...!

"Indigo vat" used for dyeing

39. Observes: SEES.

42. Loch with a legend: NESS.

47. "Me, mon ami?": MOI.  Some good advice to solvers from a famous Belgian solver ...

48. Animation still: CEL.   

50. Tequila plant: AGAVE.

53. Approvals: YESES.  OKAYS fit as well

55. Suspenders alternative: BELT. Probably the most famous belt in the Universe is in the constellation Orion:

Also a song by Sabrina Claudio ...

56. Exchange a few words, say: EDIT.  I exchanged a few words to create this review.

59. Roof sealant: TAR.

62. Fury: IRE.  From the Latin word for "wrath".  The DIES IRAE ("Day of Wrath") is a Latin hymn from the Requiem Mass for the Dead. The setting in Verdi's Requiem left us with the best expression of FURY that I know.  Here it is performed by the Metropolitan Opera on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 ...

Cheers,
Bill

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

waseeley