Monday December 19, 2022 Spencer Leach

 Hello Cornerites!

sumdaze here, taking a look at Spencer Leach's puzzle. My first thought when seeing the empty grid is that it reminded me of the Message Monster forever stamp from 2021.

 

Do you see it?

I think the monster might be waving hello. Let's make today's theme:

Monstrous Waves 

We'll begin with the 3 themers:

17. Across*  Medical scan with a wand: ULTRASOUND.  First used for medical purposes in Glasgow in 1956, ULTRASOUND is an imaging method that uses sound waves to produce images of structures within a patient's body.

Since an ULTRASOUND uses sound waves, this answer feels a bit too close to the theme. Perhaps something like "Puget Sound" would have done more to separate this themer from the reveal.

27. Across*  "Channel Orange" Grammy winner: FRANK OCEAN.  Every Single Perp for me.

In 2012, Frank Ocean won 2 Grammys -- one for Best Urban Contemporary Album for Channel Orange and another for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for No Church In The Wild with The-Dream, Jay Z and Kanye West.

44. Across*  Comment after a joke that doesn't land: TOUGH CROWD.

Rodney Dangerfield

Then the reveal:

60. Causes a ruckus, and what the end of each answer to the starred clues does: MAKES WAVES.  The 3 types of WAVES the themers make are:

SOUND WAVES

OCEAN WAVES

and CROWD WAVES

Next we'll check out the swell fill clues.

Across:

1. "Whatever floats your __": BOAT.  Whatever makes you happy.

5. Cuts of pork: CHOPS.

Miss Piggy demonstrating pork CHOPS

10. New York MLB team: METS.  Sometimes we are expected to remember that they play at Citi Field.

14. Really get to: RILE.

15. Patient contribution: CO-PAY.

16. Aid and __: ABET.

19. British conservative: TORY.  Whigs and Tories in under 500 words

20. Valentine symbol: HEART.

21. Three-pronged Greek letter: PSI. My memory trick for this letter is Poseidon carried a trident.

22. Mint family herb: THYME.  I do not usually think of THYME as being related to mint but I figured Burpee (seed company) would know.

23. Multiuse tool with lots of attachments: DREMEL.

DH has one. His eyes light up when he thinks of a project that requires it.

25. Phone up: CALL.  You know, "dial".

31. "How sad for you": BUMMER.

Hummer Bummer

35. "A mouse!!": EEK.  Yesterday's puzzle's theme.

36. Sporty car roof: T-TOP.  

Barbie has a pink one.

38. Being kept cold: ON ICE.

39. Box set component: DVD. At first I thought this was one of those video game console questions.

40. "Same here!": ME, TOO.

41. Pottery oven: KILN.  kiln FAQs

42. Actor's prompt: CUE.

43. Pungent sushi condiment: WASABI.  Real WASABI vs. Fake WASABI

47. Farm animal with horns: GOAT.  Like cattle, both male & female goats can have horns.

48. Badger at the comedy club: HECKLE.  What members of a TOUGH CROWD do.

52. "That's the answer!": BINGO.

Inglourious Bastards (2009) 2 min. clip

55. Freight weight: TON.  Axle Weight Limits by State...and Canada, too!

57. Message-spelling board: OUIJA.  Do you say wee-juh or wee-jee? Both are correct. The first pronunciation matches the spelling but the second is more common.

59. Slim woodwind: OBOE.  Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314 was originally composed in Spring or Summer 1777 for oboist Giuseppe Ferlendis from Bergamo (1755-1802).

62. Bird's __ soup: NEST. I have heard of this soup but I had assumed it was made with noodles. I am surprised to learn that it is made with actual birds' nests.  link to a 5-star recipe and very interesting info

bird's nest soup

63. "Queen Sugar" co-producer Winfrey: OPRAH.  They had me at "Winfrey".  about the show

64. Peace Nobelist Walesa: LECH.  We meet again! Clued yesterday as "48D. Polish Solidarity hero Lech", Polish born LECH Walesa was in the news almost daily in the early '80s. This bio on NobelPrize.org tells his story much better than I can. 

65. Post-breakup pair: EXES.

George Strait singing All My Ex's Live in Texas

66. Like bogs: PEATY.

67. Superficially highbrow: ARTY.  Peaty's best friend since 2nd grade.

Down:
1. "Dude!": BRUH.  Recipient of today's Giant Leap award for spelling. Apparently "Bro" is very GenX and the Millennials have made the leap to BRUH. 

2. Used lubricant on: OILED.

3 min. video on Turkish Oil Wrestling

3. Place to say "I do": ALTAR.

4. __ Haute, Indiana: TERRE.  With 58,525 people, Terre Haute is the 15th most populated city in the State of Indiana.

5. IV units: CCS.  Cubic CentimeterS.  There are 2,000 CCs in a 2 liter bottle of soda.

6. Ruckus: HOOPLA.

7. "Mr. Holland's __": Dreyfuss film: OPUS.

Official Trailer (1996) 2:50 min.

8. Froze, perhaps: PANICKED. Good clue.

9. Pink Floyd guitarist Barrett: SYD. Y do I always misspell his name?

10. Students with a lot of problems?: MATHLETES.  super awesome kids!

11. Goth-like aesthetic of some TikTok guys: E-BOY.  Husker Gary gave us this link in his 10/22/22 blog.

12. Time in office: TERM.

13. Eye affliction: STYE.

18. Withdrawal charge: ATM FEE.

22. Gentle handling, for short: TLC.  Tender Loving Care

24. "To __ is human ... ": ERR.

... To forgive, divine.  (Alexander Pope)

... But it feels divine.  (Mae West)

... To admit it, superhuman.  (Doug Larson)

... To purr, feline.  (Robert Byrne)

26. Perfectly fine: A-OK.

28. At no point: NEVER.

29. "__ baby!": "Way to go!": ATTA.

30. Clueless gamer: NOOB. We've seen some spelling variations for this. In many fields, NOOB is short for "newbie" which is slang for someone new to something.

31. __ choy: BOK.  a staple at my house. Here's why:

32. Foot or furlong: UNIT.  MATHLETES have to remember to label their answers with the correct UNIT.

33. Ventimiglia of "This Is Us": MILO. Also the #4 male dog name in Nov.22 according to Rover.com

Milo Ventimiglia

What do you think? Keep or ditch the beard?

34. Happy Meal chicken option: MCNUGGETS.

37. Luau bowlful: POI.

39. All-purpose roll: DUCT TAPE.  Is it "duck" tape or "duct" tape? Actually, it's both!

The first name alludes to the tape's development: an elastic glue appended to a cotton duck fabric backing. Troopers in WWII utilized it to seal ammo cases, repair shoes and do the million different things a duct tape can do. The tape was particularly helpful for its capacity to oppose water, which kept running off the elastic. The "duct" name change really happened post-war, when HVAC experts thought that it was valuable for fixing AC pipes. Source:  10 Really Cool Products Invented by the U.S. Military

40. Bovine disease, familiarly: MAD COW.  AKA Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). According to the CDC, there have been 6 cases in the U.S. 

42. "__-ching!": CHA.  Also a financial literacy program for kids grades K-6.

43. "SummerSlam" org.: WWE.  World Wrestling Entertainment

45. Slime: GOO.  If you've got a lot of Goo, you can get Goo Gone.

46. "How cool!": OH NEAT.

49. __ Lumpur, Malaysia: KUALA.

50. Gallbladder neighbor: LIVER.

51. Kick out: EJECT.

52. Dog biscuit shape: BONE.

53. Wild mountain 47-Across: IBEX.

male Alpine Ibex

54. Win by a __: NOSE. Rudolf, when playing reindeer games.

56. Gumbo pod: OKRA.

58. Like a newly reborn phoenix, probably: ASHY.  I see what they did there.

60. Floor-washing tool: MOP.

61. Relatively timid: SHY.

Here's the completed grid:

That's all for today. I encourage you to not waive your rights to comment!