Good morning, cruciverbalists. Ed Sessa follows up his Wednesday
October 7th puzzle with a Thursday offering featuring some challenging
clues/answers and an interesting grid. The entries at 55 and 58 Across
combine to reveal the theme. Candidly, even with the reveal, it took
this mulling marine mammal many more moments to make sense out of Ed's
machinations. By that time, the theme answers were all in place but I
had not the slightest idea that that had already occurred.
THEME: JUMPING JACK FLASH
55. With 58-Across, cardio exercise ... and what's hidden in three puzzle
rows?: JUMPING.
58. See 55-Across: JACKS.
58. See 55-Across: JACKS.
Okay, so JUMPING JACKS is the theme. Now, just what the heck does
that mean? Ed has a reputation for presenting solvers with challenging
(puzzling?) themes and today is no exception.
There are several possible ways to begin to interpret the theme.
Jack B. Nimble leaping over candlesticks would certainly be a Jumping
Jack. Jumping Jack Flash would be a gas. Jack Rabbits could
provide some hip-hop fun. Perhaps, though, it is a reference meant to be taken at face value. Jacks who jump.
On three puzzle rows, JACKS are JUMPING across the black squares to combine
the final letters in the first answer with the opening letters in the second
answers. The results form the JACKS' surnames and all, of course,
share the same first name, JACK.
It is probably a good idea today to start off with a look at the grid
rather than waiting until the end of the write-up. Ed elected not to
add circles to the grid and this early look will make the theme's
mechanics easier to see.
As can be seen, in red above and below, these are the JUMPING JACKS :
20. Across - Showing shock: A GASP and
21. Across - Squalid quarters: RAT HOLE.
AGASPRATHOLE - SPRAT, Jack
Sprat
35. Across - Like a pendulum's motion: TO AND FRO and
37. Across - Light at some roller rinks: STROBE.
37. Across - Light at some roller rinks: STROBE.
TOANDFROSTROBE - FROST, Jack Frost
42. Across - One of the Magi: CASPAR and
45. Across - Sidewall-sharing abode: ROW HOUSE.
CASPARROWHOUSE - SPARROW, Jack
Sparrow
Across:
1. Radio toggle: AM FM. As Chairman Moe rightly pointed
out last Friday, AM FM radios have become a bit archaic in our digital
world.
5. A minor, for one: CHORD. A bit of misdirection.
A person less than eighteen years old? Something of lesser
importance? No, and no. A musical triad. A CHORD in
the key of A Minor. No sharps, no flats. The relative minor of C
Major.
10. Animal shelter sight: CAGE. Clear The Shelters is a
nationwide ongoing campaign to reduce the number of animals in CAGEs.
14. Big do: GALA. In this case "do" means a social event.
A GALA, or a Fete, or a Ball. These choices have been offered to
us many times before. AFRO would have fit, and been fitting, but it
would not have worked out.
15. Place where fast bucks are made: RODEO. Here, fast
bucks is not a slang term for easy money. At a RODEO you might see a
bucking bronco, or a bucking bull, or .... a bucking tortoise?
16. Team that pulls for its driver: OXEN.
17. Delivery made by mouth: ORAL REPORT.
19. Tear apart: REND. To REND means to tear something
into two or more pieces.
23. Surrealist Tanguy: YVES. YVES Tanguy (1900 - 1955)
was a French surrealist painter.
25. Color in four-color printing: CYAN. The four colors are CYAN, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The
inks can be combined in various proportions to form a vast array of
colors.
26. Open, in a way: UNCAP.
29. Fraternal order member since 1868: ELK. The Benevolent
and Protective Order of ELKs (BPOE).
31. Blocks that lock: LEGOS LEGOS are plastic toy building blocks
but they have been used to build some amazing things. It's
difficult to say how these particular buildings will hold up in the next
big earthquake.
38. Critical hosp. area: ICU. The Intensive Care Unit.
39. Going up in smoke: AFIRE. On fire or
burning. Or, as Ray might put it:
41. Ref. whose first edition took decades to
complete: OED. Volume One of the Oxford English Dictionary, covering only A and B, was published in 1888. Volume
10/2 which covered V to Z was not published until 1928! The
OED started an online version in 2000. A completely revised
Third Edition is expected to be completed in 2037.
48. Warn: ALERT.
49. Business VIP: CEO. Chief Executive Officer.
50. Engrave?: INTER. The answer is not meant to be the
prefix meaning among or within. This time, taken as the clue's bad
pun intends, INTER, with the accent on the second syllable, is used to
mean to place in a grave or in a tomb.
51. Scintilla: IOTA. How did the ninth letter of the
Greek alphabet come to represent a very small amount? Some
etymologists say that it came about because IOTA is the smallest letter
of that alphabet.
53. Carry-on item: TOTE. As with OREO, ACAI, APSE,
EURO, ASTA, ODIE, AGUE, ELAN, etc., etc., etc., TOTE is a short,
vowel-rich word that can be a big help to constructors. TOTE also
features constructor-friendly consonants.
61. Court loser, maybe: PERP. Short for PERPetrator.
62. "You had your chance": TOO LATE NOW. I will
pass on the possible Carole King link and go with the Chuck Willis song
from 1956.
65. What a slight favorite has: EDGE.
66. Satchel Paige's first name: LEROY. LEROY Robert Satchel
Paige was a baseball player who pitched in the Negro Leagues and in the
Major Leagues. He began his career in 1924 with the Mobile
Tigers. In 1965, the then 59 year old Paige pitched three innings
of one-hit ball for the Kansas City Athletics.
67. The Big Easy, informally: NOLA. New Orleans, LouisianA. This clue/answer
likely put a smile on the face of one of our Cornerites.
68. Motley: PIED. In this case, both the clue and the
answer are synonyms for varied in color. The Motley Piper?
Pied Crue?
69. Shangri-las: EDENS. EDENS are (mythical)
delightful places where one dwells in a state of happiness and
contentment. We are stardust, we are golden, and we've got to get
ourselves back to the Garrrrrrdennnnn.
70. Pairs: TWOS.
Down:
1. In the past: AGO. One of the most well-remembered
uses of AGO was employed by the gentleman referenced at 47 Down.
Bill & Ted's ORAL REPORT was far better than Bart Simpson's.
FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN...
2. "Mary Magdalene" star Rooney __: MARA. You'd
think that MM would be familiar with a 2018 movie called "Mary
Magdalene" but that is not the case.
3. Symbol on a pole: FLAG. Fun With FLAGs was a
recurring bit on The Big Bang Theory.
4. Kuala Lumpur native: MALAYAN. Kuala Lumpur is the
capital city of Malaysia. In graduate school, the MALAYAN
students would casually refer to "K.L." in conversation the way I
would refer to "L.A." It was a good lesson in the shortcomings
of parochialism.
5. Thin pancake: CREPE. Oh to be in Paris snacking
on a CREPE with Nutella and bananas.
6. Old school dance: HOP. A perfect fit for today's theme. Is this Ed sharing a little joke with us?
AT THE HOP
7. Sign of some gas leaks: ODOR. The natural gas
that we use has no ODOR. Mercaptan, which does have a
distinctive, rotten egg ODOR is added to the gas to make leaks easier
to detect.
8. Set up again, as pool balls: RE - RACK. The RACK
is the frame that holds the balls before they are broken up to start
the game.
9. Slightly touched: DOTTY. Slang for somewhat mad or eccentric.
10. Forensic team member: CORONER. A CORONER is the
public official who investigates violent, sudden, or suspicious
deaths. Here, a CROSSWORD CORONER.
11. Feat on ice: AXEL. Another bit of whimsy from
our constructor? An ice skating JUMP, the AXEL is named for it's
creator, Norwegian figure skater Axel Paulsen.
TANYA HARDING
12. Code carrier: GENE.
What did the DNA strand say to the other DNA
strand?
Do my GENEs make me look fat?
13. Close: END. If you look up the difference between Close and END, both as nouns and as verbs, you might encounter the word "ergative".
13. Close: END. If you look up the difference between Close and END, both as nouns and as verbs, you might encounter the word "ergative".
18. Got back to, in a way: RSVPD. It is a bit odd to
see the way that "Respondez S'il Vous Plait" has morphed into a
verb. The "D" stuck on the end is something that Ed is probably
still trying to figure out how to tweak.
22. Stop: HALT.
24. Feudal laborer: SERF. A SERF was an agricultural
laborer bound under the feudal system to work on his lord's estate.
26. Erie Canal city: UTICA. Due to high levels of
both political corruption and organized crime in the city, UTICA was,
at one time, known as "The City That God Forgot".
27. Diet drink spec: NOCAL. I first put LO CAL into
the grid but UNCAP made it clear that I needed to cut out even more
calories. NO CALories.
28. Something to believe in: CAUSE. St. Jude is
referred to as the Patron Saint of Lost CAUSEs.
30. Longest river in France: LOIRE. The LOIRE River
is the longest river in France but, at a length of approximately 1,000
kilometres, it is only the 171st longest river in the world.
32. Date, with "with": GO OUT.
33. More than a little plump: OBESE.
34. Meal with matzo: SEDER. At the traditional SEDER
meal, the story of the Jewish People's miraculous Exodus from slavery in
Egypt is retold so that it will be remembered from generation to
generation. Matzo, AKA "the bread of affliction" is the unleavened
bread served as a reminder that in their hasty departure there was
insufficient time to allow bread to rise.
37. Verb that becomes its homophone by changing its
vowel: SEW. So, is it going to be Sow or Sew?
It could have been Sow and, if so, it could have been clued with wild
oats. It turned out to be SEW. Sew what?
40. Trunk supporter: ROOT. Oh, a tree
reference.
43. Groomed oneself fastidiously: PRIMPED.
46. Try to belt: HIT AT.
47. Words engraved under the Lincoln Memorial?: ONE CENT. I first tried to think of a quotation etched into the
Memorial, itself. The question mark at the end of the clue
should have alerted me to skip that thought.
49. Paddled, perhaps: CANOED.
52. Book list listing: TITLE. I went to a book store
for their sale which was "One Third Off On All TITLEs". I picked
up a nice copy of The Lion, The Witch.
54. "Love Train" singers, with "The": OJAYS.
Released in 1972, Love Train reached Number One on
the Billboard Hot 100.
55. Sci-fi good guys: JEDI. A Star Wars
reference. The JEDI Knights were the guardians of peace and
justice in the Galactic Empire. Dark Helmet, from Space Balls, is not a JEDI.
MAY THE SCHWARTZ BE WITH YOU
56. Encourage: URGE.
57. "It's My Party" singer Lesley: GORE. This one
was a gimme. So was the choice of the audio/video clip.
LESLEY GORE - 1964
59. Recognize: KNOW.
60. Without help: SOLO. ALONE would not
fit. We'll save the "Han Solo crashes his airplane" jokes for
another time.
61. Word with rally or talk: PEP. A PEP
Rally is sometimes held before a big game. A PEP Talk is
sometimes given to the team by a coach at halftime.
63. Actor Chaney: LON. LON Chaney, Jr. appeared in
many movies and television shows. His most famous role was as
Larry Talbot, Wolf Man.