Good morning, once again, cruciverbalists. After taking last week off to be the subject of an alien probe, this Manatee has once again put flipper to keyboard to recap a puzzle. The aliens, in turn, have continued to act a bit otherworldly. In the Manatee's last write-up, we shared a theme of Jumping Jacks and one of those Jacks was Jack Sprat. Well, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction as today our constructor, Jerry Edelstein, reveals today's theme to be none other than:
57. ACROSS - Nursery rhyme guy whose last name inspired the answers to starred clues?: JACK SPRAT.
Eerie coincidence aside, this was one of the more straightforward themes that we have seen in a while. All of the theme answers below are anagrams of SPRAT. That is, if Sprat is a "word". If SPRAT isn't a word then, per last week's comments, all the theme answers are Jumbles of S P R A T.
17. ACROSS *Helmet part: CHIN STRAP.
23. ACROSS *Diamond protectors: INFIELD TARPS.
35. ACROSS *Unlikely roles for mimes: SPEAKING PARTS.
46. ACROSS *Crustacean catchers: LOBSTER TRAPS.
ACROSS:
6. "Sistas" and "Being Mary Jane" cable channel: BET. The Black Entertainment Television networks.
9. Toaster, often: EMCEE. Were we duped, initially, to think of a kitchen appliance? In this instance, the TOASTER is the person who makes a toast to the Toastee.
14. Like Lindbergh in the Spirit of St. Louis: ALONE. In 1927, at the age of twenty-five, Charles Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York, USA to Paris, France. The flight took more than thirty-three hours and he did it ALONE in his plane which was named The Spirit of St. Louis. We could spend days, here, discussing the Spirit of Lindbergh, himself.
Charles Lindbergh
15. Former boxer Laila who wrote "Food for Life": ALI. Laila ALI is the daughter of Muhammad ALI. Nature or nurture?
Muhammad and Laila ALI
16. Ancient Greek physician: GALEN. Although he did not discover circulation, GALEN did discover that arteries carried blood.
1Claudius GALEN 129 AD - 210 AD
19. Pick at the polls: ELECT. More than enough has been written on this topic recently.
20. In __: as found: SITU. Latin for "on site" or "in position".
21. Tate Modern collection: ART. In its present incarnation, the Tate Modern was opened on May 11, 2000. It holds the national collection of British ART as well as international modern and contemporary ART.
22. Taj Mahal location: ASIA. Using this approach a virtually unlimited number of clues could be used for this answer. But, it cannot be denied that Agra is, indeed, located in ASIA. I first put in AGRA because that is where the Taj Mahal is located and two of the letters worked.
The Taj Mahal
28. Chip raw material: POTATO. Silicon would not fit. Both POTATO chips and Silicon chips have enriched this Manatee's life immensely.
30. Hosp. areas: ORS. Operating Rooms
31. Half a cocktail: TAI. One version of the classic Mai TAI is made with three types of rum (light, gold, and dark), pineapple juice and orange juice.
32. Neat as __: A PIN. Just how neat is a pin? The expression was originally meant as in "As neat as a new metal pin." That doesn't really explain much, does it?
33. Artist Yoko: ONO. Oh, no! ONO again!?
34. Scuttlebutt: DIRT. Scuttlebutt has a derivation similar to that of trading gossip (DIRT) around the office water cooler. Scuttlebutt is a nautical term for a cask used to serve drinking water on a ship.
39. Pol. units until 1991: SSRS. The Union of Soviet Socialist RepublicS was formed in 1922 and it dissolved in 1991. It's various components live on in crossword puzzles.
40. "The Sign" pop group __ of Base: ACE. A Swedish music group.
41. Start to commute?: TELE. The question mark tips us off that we are not to take this clue literally. Many people are TELEcommuting during the COVID crisis.
42. Previously: AGO. Did you know that The Rolling Stones covered "Going to A GO Go" ?
Next week, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band cover "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy".
43. Polished off: ATE.
I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing
44. Sign usually seen at night: CLOSED.
50. Golfer Poulter or Woosnam: IAN. The first name of both gentlemen.
51. Hybrid Jamaican fruit: UGLI. An UGLI is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefuit. The name is a registered trademark. Would a competitor really wish to steal it?
Preparing to BRINE a Brisket
to Make Corned Beef
59. Gulps down: CHUGS.
60. Boat on a 40-day mission: ARK. What's a cubit?
Noah's ARK
61. Clinton running mate: KAINE. In 2016, Hillary Clinton's running mate was U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Did you remember the answer to this one? Perps came to the rescue for this solver.
62. Halley's __: COMET.
Halley's COMET
63. Grill fuel: GAS.
DOWN:
1. Brits' raincoats: MACS. Abbreviated version of a MACkintosh which is named for its Scottish inventor, Charles Macintosh. The K was added later.
2. Pre-college, briefly: ELHI. I have never heard this word used outside of crossword puzzles where it has appeared (too) many times.
3. "Stop stalling!": DO IT.
4. Recurring payments: ANNUITIES. To purchase ANNUITIES you pay a lump sum of money to an insurance company (or other issuer) and they guarantee to pay you periodic fixed sums of money that can last a lifetime.
5. Article in Elle France: LES. This Manatee never knows, until the perps, if it is going to be LES, CES, MES, or DES. There are other possibilities, also.
6. Spanish district: BARRIO. A BARRIO is a district of a town in Spain or other Spanish-speaking countries.
7. Get a big grin out of: ELATE. It means "to make someone happy".
8. Money left on the table: TIP. A bit of misdirection. As an expression relating to business dealings, to "leave money on the table" means not to take in money that is available. Here we are supposed to take the clue quite literally.
9. Expels: EGESTS. There will be no graphics for this one!
10. Former first daughter: MALIA.
Malia Obama
11. Proof of legal ownership: CLEAR TITLE. CLEAR TITLE means that there are no other claims on TITLE. This is one form of legal ownership but by no means the only form.
12. Continental trade gp.: EEC. The European Economic Community existed from 1958 until 2009 when the institutions of the EEC were absorbed into the European Union.
13. Sinus doc: ENT. Ear Nose and Throat specialist.
18. 1920s chief justice: TAFT. William Howard TAFT also served as President of the United States from 1909 - 1913. He is considered to have been the most obese U.S. President (and Chief Justice).
22. __ in the bucket: A DROP. "A DROP in the bucket" is an idiomatic expression that means an insignificant amount.
24. Grammy: NANA. Another bit of misdirection by the constructor. A Grammy Award? Nope. Grammy and NANA are synonyms for grandmother.
25. Word with Beach or Island: LONG. Valerie, and her sister Denise, hail from Rockville Center, LONG Island twenty five miles east of Manhattan. The City of LONG Beach lies South of Los Angeles.
The Long Island Sisters
26. Grammatically analyzed: PARSED.
27. Convene: SIT. Meet would not fit in the allotted space.
28. One way to earn $200: PASS GO. A reference to the game Monopoly which was first broadly marketed in 1935.
29. Cause of disgrace: OPPROBRIUM. I do not believe that I have ever before seen OPPRORIUM worked into in a crossword puzzle. Bravo, Jerry! The definition is "the public disgrace arising from someone's shameful conduct."
33. Number of Eagles' Super Bowl wins: ONE. The Bengals, Bills, Browns, Cardinals, Chargers, Falcons, Jaguars, Lions, Panthers, Texans, Titans and Vikings combined have ONE less Superbowl win than that.
34. Play the part of in costume: DRESS UP AS.
36. Beckinsale and Winslet: KATES. Coulda' had a hat trick with Hudson.
37. Bakery employee: ICER. Or, a hockey player hitting the puck over the center line and the opponent's goal line.
38. Resting on: ATOP.
A TOP
39. Cantina condiment: SAL. SAL is Spanish for salt. Cantina was the tip off for the use of a Spanish word as the answer.
43. Ideally: AT BEST.
44. Finally spills the beans: CRACKS. No, it's not a food service reference. Almost everyone CRACKS under enough pressure.
45. Slender: LANK. LANKy is seen in usage far more often.
47. Burn a bit: SINGE.
48. Crown: TIARA.
Miss Piggy Wearing A TIARA
52. Golf lesson subject: GRIP.
53. Country road: LANE.
54. Hwy. through San Antonio and Houston: I TEN. Interstate Highway TEN is 2,460 miles long and runs from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville, FL.
55. Email option, briefly: BCC. When you Blind Carbon Copy someone they can see the email but their identity is concealed from the other recipients. The reference to Carbon Copy seems a bit archaic today.
56. Pi follower: RHO. All that I know about the Greek Alphabet, which is not much, I have learned from solving crossword puzzles.
57. Beemer rival: JAG. The clue and the answer are slangy terms for BMW and Jaguar automobiles, respectively.
58. Reggae Kin: SKA. SKA music is a bit "punchier" than Reggae music which evolved from SKA.
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MM OUT
