Today's puzzle was constructed by
Bruce Haight. As an ophthalmologist, Bruce spends a lot of time staring intently
into the faces of his patients. He experiences them FACE TO FACE,
the theme of this puzzle. Like his experiences with his patients, this
puzzle's themers are multi-layered: he first asks us to look at 4 common-place
objects and phrases and then to take a closer look. We then see that
these objects are word pairs consisting of 4 pairs of
"FACE types". Let's take a look at each of the theme clues and
answers and peel off some of their "makeup". It turns out there's a lot
more here than meets the EYE:
17. Circuitous: ROUND ABOUT. ROUND ABOUTS are used to
speed-up the flow of traffic at intersections, especially in major
cities.
Here is Washington State's illustrated MANUAL of rules for
traversing ROUNDABOUTS (whatever happened to STOP on RED and
GO on GREEN?). ROUND ABOUTS can be real white knuckle experiences,
especially when driving in England! Or even worse in
Harbin, China where my son and I visited when he adopted Ray, our 2nd
oldest grandson. I'm pretty sure this pic was PHOTO SHOPPED to
remove all the traffic, which day and night was always 6 lanes deep and bumper-to-bumper all the way around. Our
driver Soong had a preternatural ability to make
sharp left turns through to the center, zip around to the
desired exit, and make a sharp right turn to get out. And we're
all alive to tell about it!
|
|
Roundabout in Harbin China |
| But wait there's more: ROUND also describes a common SHAPE for a face: |
and ABOUT FACE is a military drill command to "do a 180" turn on the heels facing the way you came.
26. Unfilled, as a schedule slot: LEFT OPEN. Simple enough,
but a LEFT FACE is also a drill command to turn
LEFT 90 DEGREES. And if you do and look down, you'll be facing an
OPEN FACE HAM and CHEESE sandwich:
36. No-frills card game: STRAIGHT POKER. A variant of POKER, along with STUD and TEXAS HOLD EM. BUT you need a STRAIGHT FACE (a.k.a. a POKER FACE) or your REVEAL will TELL on you and give away your HAND:
49. Short nightgown: BABY DOLL. As clued, a type of LINGERIE (as this is a family blog I'll skip the pic for this (BLUSH)). But it's also a CHILD'S TOY:
... and a BABY FACE:
and DOLL FACE (I hear the originals are worth a fortune):
I think that's most of the MASCARA, so here's the reveal:
60. In person ... and like 17-, 26-, 36- and 49-Across?:
FACE TO FACE.
Oh yes, and there were other clues ...
Across:
1. Logo of The Hartford: STAG. The Hartford Insurance Co.
logo is derived from this iconic painting by English painter
Sir Edward Landseer. The word HART is an archaic synonym for
STAG:
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|
The Monarch of the Glen |
5. Less noble: BASER. Seems to me there must be a less BASE word for less NOBLE.
10. Pueblo people: HOPI. Just a little of the Hopi's history, customs, culture, and spirituality.
14. Thick book: TOME. Repeat after me: 3 letters and it's OED, 4 letters and it's TOME
15. Amazon assistant: ALEXA.
16. Spoonbill kin: IBIS. The National Aquarium in Baltimore has several of these stunning birds in its rooftop rain forest.
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Scarlet Ibis |
19. Daily vitamin, e.g.: PILL. Also a pejorative for hard to swallow people ...
20. Puzzled: AT SEA. Spitzboov can explain this a lot better than
I can.
21. Some German imports: AUDIS.
23. PreCheck org.: TSA. Expedited security checking courtesy of
the Transportation Safety Administration.
24. Plump: FLESHY.
28. Many MIT grads: EES. I believe Dash T is a
Double E. Don't know his shoe size.
29. Roleo surface: LOG. A portmanteau of RODEOS and
LOG ROLLING contests.
31. "Expand on that," in improv comedy: YES AND.
All you want to know about it ...
32. Lummox: BIG APE. GALOOT didn't perp. Apparently a
distant synonym for a famous
PHILISTINE.
35. Quite a stretch: AGES.
40. Emperor after Galba: OTHO. Reigned in the Year of 4 Emperors
(69 AD) . OTHO lasted 3 months.
41. State bordering Arizona: SONORA. But not one of the
Estados Unidos.
42. Like a quarter's edge: REEDED. Aside from describing
OBOES, SAXES and such, this is also specialized adjective
describing the RIDGED rims of COINS.
45. Podcast interruptions: ADS.
46. "LOTR" menace: ORC. Really really mean
MEANIES.
52. Turin title: SIGNOR.
54. "__ have what she's having": quip from "When Harry Met Sally...":
I'LL. A truly classic SCENE if you haven't
SEEN it!
55. Super sexy: SO HOT. Particularly when attired in a
49A.
57. "I'll pass": NOT ME. And so will I.
58. "On the double!": STAT. FROM the Latin STATIM, which means “instantly” or “immediately.” Hands up everyone who
swagged ASAP first? MDs want it STAT,
MBAs want it ASAP.
62. "Howdy ... you just get here?": OH HI.
63. "Looking 4 Myself" R&B singer: USHER. Heard of him.
Never heard him.
64. Each: A POP. The origin of this phrase seems obscure.
65. Wall St. index: NYSE. It's the New York Stock EXCHANGE, but is it an INDEX? Like the Dow Jones Industrial Average
(DJIA), or Standard and Poors (S&P 500), or
the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASDAQ)?
66. Fresh: SASSY. Not really CW fresh, but still very
GLUEY.
67. __ Martin Cognac: REMY. All you want to know about
Rémy Martin. I would have taken you directly to their website, but you have to be
older than 21 to login to it. A CSO to CMOE to take a shot at
this one.
Down:
1. Attack from above: STRAFE. My Mother was never strafed, but
she told me that Stoke-on-Trent, England where she grew up was regularly
bombed during WWII. Here family would black out the windows and
all huddle under a big oak table in the basement
2. Mosey: TOOTLE. As of 2001,
the third largest selling children's book
in the English speaking world:
3. Tickles: AMUSES. I'm sure Tootle, tickles a lot of little children.
4. Parental units?: GENES. Before anyone knew how they worked (and we're still a long way off from that), the existence of discreet units of inheritance was demonstrated by Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk living in 19th century Bohemia. His discoveries were made around the same time as Charles Darwin's publication of The Origin of Species, but Darwin died before Mendel's work became widely known around 1900 and thus the former knew nothing about the latter. The term GENE was actually coined by Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen in 1909.
5. Ewes do it: BAA. As do lambs and rams.
6. "L.A.'s Finest" actress Jessica: ALBA. If she's the "Finest" actress in L.A. how come she was nominated or won 5 Golden Raspberry Awards between 2006 and 2011?
7. Gangnam District city: SEOUL. More than you want to know about Gangnam Style ...
8. Ooze with: EXUDE.
9. Formally approve: RATIFY.
10. Trendy: HIP.
11. Where to find departure info?: OBIT PAGE. Clever clue.
12. Beer named for a Czech city: PILSENER. Constructors tend to prefer ALES, not only because of their taste, but because they are SHORTER and much GLUIER. But Stella Artois and Pilsner Urquell are pretty refreshing after a hot summer day in the garden.
13. Christmas and Easter: ISLANDS. Clever clue. I struggled with it for awhile.
18. Mexico's national flower: DAHLIA.
22. Office address abbr.: STE. Short for street?
25. "You can observe a lot by watching" speaker: YOGI. Wanted YODA.
27. 2020 US Open winner Naomi: OSAKA.
30. Pranks: GAGS.
32. "The Pianist" Oscar winner Adrien: BRODY. Brody won an OSCAR for Best Actor in 2002 at age 29, making him the youngest actor to win in that category. Here is the performance of the Chopin Nocturne No. 20 from the original soundtrack, performed not by Brody, but by pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman.
33. Beef broth soup: PHO. Today's Vietnamese lesson. I've had Pho ("fuh") several times, as one of my sisters is a gourmet cook married to a Vietnamese born physician/scientist. Delicious, but a lot of work. Here's the recipe she uses.
34. Italian volcano: ETNA.
36. Like ninjas: STEALTHY.
37. Ennui: THE BLAHS.
38. Sci-fi vehicles: PODS. Hands up everyone who swagged UFOS? When it perped I was immediately reminded of a horror film called The Invasion of the Body Snatchers that came out when I was 9 years old. I had nightmares about it for years. The aliens in this film arrived in the form of seed PODS from outer space, captured human bodies, and then walked zombie-like among us. In fact they may STILL be walking among us! Very scary!
39. "Twelfth Night" duke: ORSINO.
40. "Only the Lonely" crooner: ORBISON. Roy. A torch song often follows a long and torturous path from its origin to the throat of a singer. This song actually had its beginnings in the 18th Century from the pen of the great German polymath and poet JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE in his 1796 poem Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt ("Only those who know longing"). The gauntlet was later picked up by the Russian PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY in a song setting called "None but the Lonely Heart". His version became popular around the world and was eventually used in English translation by none other than FRANK SINATRA, circa 1958. Orbison followed with his rendition in 1960 "Only the Lonely", which shot to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number one in the UK and Australia:
43. Slate slate, briefly: EDS. An Ezine.
Editors.
44. Inept one: DOOFUS. I felt like a DOOFUS at times as I
TOOTLED all over the landscape of this puzzle.
46. Saved, in a way: ON TAPE. TAPE can save you in more
ways than one. I picked this flowchart up years ago from the hilarious
Canadian skit comedy series, THE RED GREEN SHOW. Although they
used DUCT TAPE way more than WD40 (another CSO to
DASH T):
47. Hallmark Channel fare: ROM COM. See 54A. Then see the flick if you haven't seen it. I considered posting the YouTube clip here, but then again this IS a family blog.
48. Goosebumps-inducing: CREEPY. Those 38As were pretty CREEPY to a 9 year old.
50. Potala Palace city: LHASA. The home of the LHASA APSO in the land of the DALAI LAMA.
51. Scottish vacation sites: LOCHS. Fine if you don't mind PLESIOSAURS popping up on your beach:
|
| Nessie |
53. Accomplish much: GO FAR.
56. Golf course areas: TEES.
59. Draw: TIE. While I was TOOTLING around down here
...
61. Sample: TRY. ... I got TIED up
for TRYING.
Here's the grid:
While putting this together I've been nagged by thoughts of a 5th themer
pair: ROCK FACES. Thought about illustrating it with a ditty from
ROD STEWART and his house band FACES. But
Dw suggested this instead:
waseeley
Cheers,
Bill
