Today Tim D'Alfonso makes his LA Times Crossword puzzle debut just
as the Summer season approaches, and he greets us with a
real scorcher ...
"Bad Girls" is one of the twists on today's theme that Tim doesn't broach, but
here are the ones he does ...
18A. Author's dream:
BEST SELLER. This dream was answered for
these authors. For another author, see themer 67A below.
26A. It's rated
10+ on the Scoville Scale: GHOST PEPPER. Don't let Tim's rating fool you. According to "Cayenne Diane" the Ghost Pepper is actually rated at 1,041,427 SHU's (Scoville Heat Units). The nursery I bought plants at today was carrying some, but
after reading this, I passed them by ...
56A. Haul, in a bad way: STOLEN GOODS.
67A. "Fifty Shades of Grey," for one: EROTIC FILM. In the obscenity case of Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964) Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, writing for the Court, said that for the material to be obscene, it must be "utterly without redeeming social value." It was in this case that Justice Potter Stewart made this famous quote: "I can't define pornography, but I know it when I see it." The film "Fifty Shades of Grey" received an MPAA R Rating and the public rated E.L. James' book on which it was based the best seller of the past decade. I've not seen the film, so I can't weigh in on whether it has "socially redeeming value". Here's the trailer:
And Tim mixes it all up with ...
42A. 1979 #1 hit for Donna Summer, and what the four longest Across answers are: HOT STUFF.
I'll be back in a minute.
I really need to go cool off!
Okay, I think I'm ready
...
Across:
1. Base in "A Few Good Men," familiarly: GITMO. Short for the
GUANTANAMO Naval base, a small part of Cuba still owned by the United
States. As I recall, this film exhibits a lot of
HOT TEMPERS in a TROPICAL climate, as
it explores the conflict between the Esprit de Corps of the United States
Marines and
the rule of law. A powerful film:
6. Selection: PICK.
10. Eat away: ERODE.
15. Live, TV-wise: ON AIR.
16. Turkish title: AGHA.
An honorific title for a civilian or military officer, or often part of such title, and was placed after the name of certain
civilian or military functionaries in the Ottoman Empire. At the same time
some court functionaries were also entitled to the
agha title.
|
| The Agha of the Janissaries |
17. Red Square honoree: LENIN. My favorite quote from Lenin:
20. White pawns, e.g.: OCTAD. See also 8D below.
21. Became effective: TOOK.
22. Spanish she-bear: OSA.
23. One may be grand: PIANO. As opposed to an "upright" or a "digital". The PIANO was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who named it "clavicembalo col piano e forte" (literally, a harpsichord that can play soft and loud noises). Older keyboard instruments were essentially plucked via a mechanical plectrum or "pick", with no way to control dynamic range, i.e. softness and loudness, or in Italian "piano" and "forte". The original Italian "pianoforte" was eventually shortened simply to "piano".
There have been many variations on this instrument, including one that echos a figure we have already seen in 16A above. Around the turn of the 19th century, "Turkish" music was so popular that piano manufacturers made special pianos with a "Turkish stop," also called the "military" or "Janissary" stop. The player would press a pedal that caused a bell to ring and/or a padded hammer to strike the soundboard in imitation of a bass drum. Here is Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca played on a Janissary piano by Manuela Giardina:
24. GPS displays: RTES.
29. Skip the café: EAT IN.
31. Battleship abbr.: USS. The one that came immediately to mind was the USS Constellation, now docked in Baltimore's inner harbor. "The USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built at the Gosport Shipyard between 1853 and 1855 and was named for the earlier frigate of the same name that had been broken up in 1853". After years of disrepair, the ship has been completely restored and the tours of it are fascinating:
32. Praiseful poem: ODE.
33. Words that may preempt a dismissal: I RESIGN. I used this phrase a lot to preempt a "Check Mate", when I was playing against a buddy of mine, a Chess whiz.
35. Bird in Liberty Mutual ads: EMU. They also frequently appear in Cwds - this is at least the third time since I started blogging on this corner of the Corner. This past Sunday's puzzle included this gluey clue.
37. __ Valley, Calif.: SIMI. DW and I once took the coastal train from Berkeley to LA, and it seemed like most of the trip was spent going thru Simi Valley. The East Coast gets much of it fresh food from here in the cold weather months. Some would even call it the bread basket of the USA.
41. Primes, e.g.: Abbr.: NOS. Prime Numbers. Today's math lesson.
45. Many a fed. holiday: MON.
46. Ltr. directive: ATTN.
48. Ontario-based music gp.: TSO. Not the Chinese chicken dish, but the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. And here they are with a CSO to our very own CanadianEh!
51. "Big Little Lies" airer: HBO. Gee, this was in Sunday's puzzle too, but the answer was one of the co-stars: REESE, as in WITHERSPOON:
53. Providence-to-Boston dir.: NNE.
55. Island environs: WATER.
61. When tripled, a story shortener: YADA. The phrase "yadda yadda" was first popularized by the comedian Lenny Bruce in his standup bit "Father Flotsky's Triumph," the closing track on his 1961 album "Lenny Bruce - American." It gained renewed popularity in the US in the late 1990s on the television show Seinfeld, where it appears as a catchphrase, initially in Season 8, Episode 19, entitled “The Yada Yada”, originally aired on April 24, 1997,
62. Ralph of "The Waltons": WAITE. Ralph Waite was not only an actor, but also a political activist.
|
|
Ralph Waite (June 22, 1928 - February 13, 2014) |
63. "So awful!": UGH. See 66D below.
64. Nautical unit: KNOT. The knot (/nɒt/) is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, exactly 1.852 km/h (approximately 1.151 mph or 0.514 m/s). It is not surprising that sailors would use this word in the measurement of speed and distance at sea, as they are the masters of KNOTS. In fact they wrote the book on it. I thought my copy was out of print, but I was delighted the find that it is still available:
66. Moray catcher: EELER. An EELER (pursuer of Family Anguilliformes) would really have to know his/her eels to go after a MORAY (subfamily Muraenidae). Some of the genera are really HOT STUFF, e.g. the flesh of some species is highly toxic, whereas larger species may be aggressive and are capable of killing humans. However their exotic nature makes them of interest to tropical fish mavens:
|
|
Fangtooth Moray Eel |
71. Crosswise, on deck: ABEAM.
72. Suckers: SAPS.
73. "__ now, when?": IF NOT.
74. Singer nicknamed "The Velvet Fog": TORME. MEL TORME (September 13, 1925 - June 5, 1999) was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire") and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells. Here he is singing "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" ...
75. Hook's sidekick: SMEE. What's a nice guy like SMEE doing hanging out with a crook like Hook:
76. Certain NCOs: SSGTS. Staff Sergeants.
Down:
1. Hunk: GOB. Be still your hearts Cornerettes.
2. Serpent's tail?: INE. While this could e.g. refer to a winding road, I'm assuming that this clue is a misdirection for the suffix INE, and thus might refer to a group of green, brown, or spotted minerals. Serpentine minerals are quite versatile, providing everything from crushed aggregate for road paving all the way to a fine sculpture medium resembling a green marble, This Chinese carving depicts Guanyin, the Buddhist bodhisattva* associated with compassion:
* roughly equivalent to one of our angels.
3. Competition with blindfolds, maybe: TASTE TEST. This should
have been CMOE's puzzle, but the clue could also describe a child's game with
a
Piñata, or
Pin the Tail on the Donkey. You can buy the necessities at your local party store.
4. Cell division: MITOSIS.
The clue says it all, but if you want more
here's a brief intro
to this complicated subject.
5. Roughly: OR SO.
6. Bud: PAL.
7. Inuit homes: IGLOOS. These links on the
Inuits
and
the homes they used to live in
are from the Canadian Encyclopedia (another CSO to CanadianEh!).
8. Place for kings and queens: CHESS SET. PALACE came up
short.
9. Gold measure: KARAT. I always confuse this with CARAT,
both measurements for precious substances (gold and gemstones,
respectively). A
carat is a unit of weight (0.200 grams) used to measure the weight of a gemstone such as a
diamond. A KARAT is a measurement indicating the
proportion of gold in an alloy out of 24 parts, so 18K gold is
18/24 parts gold. Sounds simple enough, but how do you measure the
proportion of gold in an alloy? For that I refer you to
The Story of Archimedes and the Golden Crown. Thus Archimedes discovered a new type of measurement:
density or the ratio of mass over volume.
We'll save the definitions for CARET and CARROT for a later
puzzle. Isn't English spelling fascinating!
10. Ran off to get hitched: ELOPED.
11. Chef's assortment: RECIPES.
12. Ready to be poured: ON TAP.
13. Lane of "Unfaithful": DIANE.
Diane Colleen Lane is an American actress and producer. Born and raised in
New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 13 in George Roy Hill's
1979 film A Little Romance. A major supporting role was played by Laurence
Olivier, who called her "the new Grace Kelly".
19. Hosp. readout: EKG.
24. Isabella, por ejemplo: REINA. Today's Spanish lesson. Or perhaps someone who lives in a "juego de ajedrez" (see 8D).
25. Deck with the Fool and the World: TAROT The great Swiss
psychiatrist Carl Jung,
thought that Tarot cards provided a gateway to the Unconscious Mind.
|
|
Carl Jung (July 26, 1875 - June 6, 1961) |
27. Tracks down: HUNTS.
28. Hairdos made popular by Marie Antoinette: POUFS. This was apparently the wrong hairstyle at the wrong time:
|
|
Marie Antoinette
(November 2, 1755 - October 16, 1793) |
30. Medical research org.: NIH. National Institutes of Health.
34. Boarded: GOT ON.
36. Like some colors: MUTED. And like some MICS. If you're throwing shade, make sure yours isn't HOT.
38. Pretending to be: IMITATING.
39. Called from the pasture: MOOED. DW and I finally got around to watching All Creatures Great and Small. Great series with a lot of MOOING. Rumor has it there WILL be a Season 2.
40. Prefix with mural: INTRA. Also a prefix with UTERINE. Speaking of which ...
43. Ultrasound image: SONOGRAM. This is a SONOGRAM of my oldest grandson, aged 6 months. Eighteen years later he is graduating from high school this weekend and will then be headed off to Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, WY. His first 2 weeks there will be spent on an "outward bound" trek through the Wyoming wilderness. Who'd have thought that all of that would happen as a result of this:
44. Small amount: FEW.
47. Blues, e.g.: NHL TEAM. For any Hockey noobs (hand up here), everything you want to know about the Blues. Based on today's scores (5/22/2021), it looks like the Avalanche were giving them something to be blue about.
|
|
St Louis Blues |
50. Terminations: LAYOFFS.
52. "Cold one, please": BEER ME.
54. Words of despair: NO HOPE. Often a self-fulfilling prophecy.
56. It may be broken in a gym: SWEAT. A lot of it is being broken in the next answer ...
57. Fitness regimen: TAE BO. Tae Bo is a body fitness system that incorporates martial arts techniques, such as kicks and punches, which became popular in the 1990s. It was developed by American taekwondo practitioner Billy Blanks. Such programs use the motions of martial arts at a rapid pace designed to promote fitness. Here's Billy:
58. Gulf ship: OILER. A lot of OILERS were blocked from passing through the Suez Canal this past Spring, when the massive container ship Ever Given ran aground there and was stuck for a week. To give you some idea of the damage wreaked by this catastrophe: About 12% of global trade, around one million barrels of oil and roughly 8% of liquefied natural gas pass through the canal each day. The chairman of the Suez Canal Administration estimated that the Canal's revenues alone were taking a $14m-$15m (£10.2m-£10.9m) hit for each day of the blockage.
59. Jeans brand with a question mark in its logo: GUESS. Okay, I give up?
60. Hit the slopes: SKI. A CSO to Malodorous Manatee.
65. "JAG" spin-off: NCIS.
68. Mao __-tung: TSE. Or when repeated a deadly fly.
69. Realtor's offering: LOT. I think LOT's wife is more famous than most realtors. She was a real pillar of her community until she was turned into a PILLAR OF SALT for looking back as she fled Sodom.
70. Peaks: Abbr.: MTS. And now for the ultimate in HOT STUFF, that gluiest of Cwd glue:
|
|
Mt Etna |
Here's the grid:
waseeley
Cheers,
Bill
