Theme: Are we having fun yet? Here we have in-the-language phrases that otherwise have nothing in common reimagined as descriptions of showing disrespect to a variety of otherwise innocent objects. For some reason, being made fun of is never fun. Go figure.
17. Make fun of boxing gear? : KID GLOVES. These are GLOVES made from the soft, supple skin of young goats. Handling something with KID GLOVES means giving it very gentle treatment. To KID can mean a variety of things from mock and tease playfully to deceive. Be careful if you do that to boxing GLOVES.
25. Make fun of Harleys? : RIDE BIKES. Harleys are popular American-made motorcycles with many riders. To RIDE is to ridicule or harass with carping criticism, a bit harsh for "make fun of."
38. Make fun of sweater styles? : MOCK TURTLE NECKS. These are articles of clothing made with a collar folded over to form a tube, with both edges of the tube fastened to the garment at the neck line. One can make fun of real TURTLE NECKS, where the tube is twice as long, folded over, and only fastened at one end of the tube.
50. Make fun of tunes? : PUT ON AIRS. This phrase means to act in a haughty manner, pretending to be superior. In a different sense, AIRS are songs, and one could make fun of them. But to "put on" means to deceive or mislead, for amusement or to make someone or something look better than it is.
62. Make fun of Porky and Petunia? : ROAST PIGS. To roast someone is to hold an event with that person is guest of honor; and a series of speakers subject him or her to [ostensibly] good natured ridicule. To ROAST a PIG is to cook the entire animal over an open fire
Hi gang, JazzBumpa reporting for duty. This is a fun-making theme, but a bit loosey-goosey in terms of exact correspondence to the verb in the clue. Well, I'm not going to make fun of it. Let's see what other fun is in store.
Across
1. Moments, briefly : SECS. Not brief moments of DF, though those can be fun, but SECondS, briefly.
5. God with a bow : AMOR. AKA Eros, AKA Cupid. Could inspire a brief moment of DF.
9. Like some elephants : ASIAN. They are smaller, less wrinkled, and more hump-backed than their African counterparts, with different anatomical features in the head and face.
14. Jai __ : ALAI. Popular X-word puzzle game, played in a closed space using a ball and large, curved wicker baskets.
15. "Game over," to Kasparov : MATE. The end of a chess game, when the losing king cannot escape. Garry Kasparov (b 1963) is a Russian former world chess champion and political activist.
16. Forrest's shrimp-loving friend : BUBBA. From the movie Forrest Gump.
19. Lusitania sinker : U-BOAT. The Lusitania, launched in 1906, was the world's largest passenger ship. It was torpedoed and sunk on May 7, 1915, six days out of New York, bound for Liverpool, killing 1198 passengers. It was 11 miles off the coast of Ireland in a German-declared war zone, and sunk in 18 minutes. This event was influential [a straw, if you will. Vide infra - see 61 A.] in bringing the U.S into the war two years later.
20. StyleBistro and Slate : E-ZINES. Electronic magaZINES.
21. "Into the Woods" (2014) director Marshall : ROB. He is a stage and screen director and choreographer, who won several awards for directing "Chicago" in 2002. "Into the Woods" involves an original story of the baker and his wife, which is used to tie together several otherwise unrelated fairy tales. Also last Wednesday's theme clip. Am I in a rut?
23. Schlep : TOTE. v. To haul or carry a burdensome load. That's no fun at all.
24. Arles article : LES. "The" in French
27. "Gigi" novelist : COLETTE. Also French. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954) was a novelist, journalist, actress and mime.
30. Barcelona-born muralist : SERT. Josep Maria Sert i Badia (21 December 1874 – 27 November 1945)
31. MouthHealthy.org org. : A D A. American Dental Association.
32. Line from the sun : RAY. Beam doesn't fit.
34. Ristorante desserts : GELATI. Italian ice creams.
42. Came afterward : ENSUED.
43. Roller in Vegas : DIE. Spotted cubic gambling device.
44. Low digit : TOE. I wanted "TWO."
45. Lively dance : REEL. For real!
47. Adopt, as a cause : ESPOUSE. Does anyone here ESPOUSE polygamy?
54. Ga. neighbor : ALAbama.
55. Numbered musical piece : OPUS.
57. Human rights advocate Sakharov : ANDREI. (May 21, 1921 – December 14, 1989) Russian nuclear physicist, and later dissident and human rights activist, earning him state persecution and a Nobel peace Prize. The Sakharov prize, awarded annually by the European Union for dedication to human rights and freedom is named in his honor.
60. "¿Cómo __?" : ESTAS. Spanish "How are [you?]"
64. Requests for Friskies, maybe : MEOWS. Cat food brand.
65. Half of zwei : EINS. From 2 to 1 - a German division.
66. Rules, to GIs : REGS. REGulations.
67. Proverbial reason for a break? : STRAW. Only if it's the last one on the camel's back.
68. Schedule opening : SLOT. An open space between occupied spaces, figuratively or literally, from Old French esclot, the space between the breasts.
69. Bone, in Rome : OSSO. Modern Rome, not ancient, but derived from the Latin ossum. Also Monday's 39 D. Is it time to bone up on my Italian?
Down
63. 365 días : ANO. Years in Spain, sadly lacking the tilde.
Down
1. Benefit : SAKE. Often for Pete, though I don't know why.
3. Eldorados, e.g. : CADILLACS. Automobiles.
4. One of the Declaration of Independence's 56 : SIGNEE. One who signs on, not someone who gets signed on.
5. "Famous" cookie guy : AMOS. Wally AMOS learned cookie baking from his aunt. Later in life, as a talent agent with the William Morris agency, he would often send cookies to celebrities he wanted to woo. In 1975 he left it all behind and became a cookie entrepreneur.
6. Big D cager : MAV. Dallas MAVerick professional basketball player.
7. "SNL" alumna Cheri : OTERI. (b 1962) This frequent crossword gal was on SNL from 1995 to 2000.
8. Patches, as a lawn : RESODS. I wanted RESEEDS, but that has to many letters.
9. __ Dhabi : ABU. Middle East country.
10. Foreign film feature : SUB-TITLE. English translation of foreign-language dialog. printed near the bottom of the screen Not sure what it has to do with titles.
11. Discontinued Apple laptop : I-BOOK. Sold from 1999 to 2006.
12. Let up : ABATE.
13. Archibald and Thurmond of the NBA : NATES. Archibald played on several teams from 1970 to 1984. Thurmond played with 3 teams from 1963 to 1977
18. For fear that : LEST. This word comes to us from Old English, via Middle English. I have no idea how LEST - which literally means "The less that" got transmogrified into "For fear that" - but that is commonly how it is defined. We don't do A, lest B happen. It is a preventive, and fear has nothing to do with it. /rant.
From Dictionary.com: "before 1000; Middle English leste, contraction of the lesse the, thi les the; late Old English the lǣste, earlier thȳ lǣs the, literally, whereby less that ( thȳ instrumental case of the demonstrative and relative pronoun, lǣs less, the relative particle.)
22. "Saturday Night Fever" group : BEE GEES.
25. Raise : REAR. Take care of and support until mature. Also, a horse REARS by raising up on its hind legs, but I can't find a connection between these meanings.
26. Machine gun partly named for the Czech city in which it was designed : BREN. First designed and manufactured in Brno, Moravia, this gun was popular with the British armed forces from the 30's through 1992.
27. Showed up : CAME. Arrived at an event.
28. Take too much of, for short : O.D. ON. Over-dose, figuratively, as on chips, in yesterdays 39 A.
29. "Doonesbury" creator : TRUDEAU. Garry, purveyor of a classic politically oriented newspaper cartoon.
33. Pay stub abbr. : YTD. Year To Date.
35. Insurance risk assessors : ACTUARIES. They use mathematics, statistics and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs.
36. Ring stats : TKOS. Technical Knock Outs. These occur in boxing matches when it is determined that the match can not safely continue.
37. "Understood" : I SEE. Got it.
39. "Rashomon" director : KUROSAWA. Akira KUROSAWA (1910-1998) was a highly influential film maker who directed 30 films over his 57 year career. Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese movie which uses the plot device of having several characters provide contradictory versions of the same incident. It won several awards and is considered on of the greatest films of all time.
40. Many a "Divergent" reader : TEEN. "Divergent" is a trilogy of dystopian young adult novels set in post-apocalyptic Chicago.
41. "It's all false!" : LIES. Accusation of mendacity.
46. Petrol measures : LITRES. British spelling of metric units for automobile fuel.
48. Huff and puff : PANT. Should be huff OR puff. Together, they are a pair of pants.
49. One who knows the ropes : OLD PRO. Way back when I was young, an OLD PRO told me that youth and skill were no match for old age and treachery.
50. Sonnets, say : POEMS. A literary form using meter, rhyme, imagery and other devices to evoke meaning beyond what is in the mere words.
51. Unexpected victory : UPSET. So called because the favored team is toppled, thus UPSETing the natural order of things, or alternatively because of the way they feel about it.
52. Sylvan Learning employee : TUTOR. Franchised and corporate supplemental learning centers that provide personalized learning programs for primary and secondary education students.
53. Work on, as a stubborn squeak : RE-OIL. When one OILing simply isn't enough.
57. No. 2 : ASST. ASSistanT.
58. Frittata ingredients : EGGS. An Italian dish similar to an omelet or crustless quiche, incorprating a variety of other ingredients such as meat and cheese.
59. "That __ last week!" : IS SO. This awkward partial belongs in an assessment that something ephemeral has become quickly outdated.
61. Sacramento-to-San Jose dir. : SSW. South-SouthWest
This is so 1968
63. 365 días : ANO. Years in Spain, sadly lacking the tilde.
Well, we had some retro music, an eggy treat, a frozen confection, and I got to carp a little bit. That's about as much fun as I can handle in one day. Hope you don't MOCK me for it.
Cool regards!
JzB
Cool regards!
JzB
Note from C.C.:
Happy Birthday to dear Montana, who's been through so much the past year. My heart aches whenever I think of the hard time when she had to sell her late son's house and took care of other unfinished business. She's an extraordinary courageous mom and grandma.
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| Montana and her 5 children celebrated her birthday last year in Vail, CO |
