Thursday, July 7, 2022 Laura Dershewitz, Katherine Baicker

 

 

What the Hack?

 

Today's constructors are Laura Dershewitz and her partner in crime Katherine Baicker.  This is Laura's first visit to the LAT, and Katherine first appeared here on May 19, 2022, reviewed by my partner in crime Malodorous Manatee. Laura's and Katherine's theme is all about HACKS.  But what exactly is a HACK?  It turns out to be quite a mercurial term with a least a dozen different meanings, many with no apparent connections to the others.  Today we tend to associate "hacking" with computers, but the term apparently predates modern computers by many years.  In their reveal for the themers our constructors seem to be exploring two usages of the word HACK, separated below by  the conjunction AND ...

58A. Tricks to improve productivity, and the tricks used to form the answers to the starred clues?: LIFE HACKS.  (my italics).  The first usage, "Tricks to improve productivity", can be illustrated by this popular O'Reilly Book on Microsoft Word:

The second usage is, "the tricks used to form the answers to the starred clues": LIFE HACKS.  This commonly implies "tricks to improve the productivity of one's life" but then riffs on that phrase with the "black hacker" meaning of surreptitiously altering a program or program data.  Our constructors effect a hidden insertion of the word LIFE in the middle of each two word themer to transform it from a funny clue into a commonly used phrase.  Here are the themers with the [LIFE HACKS]: 

17A. *Paperwork for a UFO pilot?: ALIEN [LIFE] FORM.  The subject of much debate this days.  It seems to be commonly believed that they're "out there", but highly unlikely that they could be "down here".

23A. *Fast fashion?: ACTIVE [LIFE] STYLE.   I've never been much of a fashion plate, but this is one STYLE I need to wear more of.

36A. *House of worship known for raucous parties?: WILD [LIFE] SANCTUARY.  These seem to be shrinking world wide, especially in the Amazon rain forest (scroll down or hover over the menu on the left to navigate;  also the sound track takes a few seconds to load).

47A. *Office scale?: WORK [LIFE] BALANCE.  Something that even us retirees can use more of.

Here's the grid, with the themers before the [LIFE HACKS]
 

Across:

1. Catch a glimpse of: SPOT.  Or a SPOT of TEA, a popular drink on the Corner. Just last week, in a visit to one of our old neighborhoods, Teri and I discovered a new tea room called Emma's Tea Spot.  Amid the British themed decor, I encountered the slogans below popularized by Queen Elizabeth II during WWII.  At this writing she is still "Carrying On" at age 96!

5. "__ Great Heights": single by The Postal Service: SUCH.  The Postal Service was an American indie pop supergroup from Seattle, Washington, consisting of singer Ben Gibbard, producer Jimmy Tamborello, and Jenny Lewis on background vocals.  They were active on and off from 2001 to 2014.  Here's  "Such Great Heights" from their album Give Up (lyrics)

9. Shelter org.: ASPCA.  This dog Bennie has been following me around YouTube for months and I thought it was time that we got acquainted (a CSO to PAT):

 14. "Take it!": HERE.

15. Wind with a range of roughly three octaves: OBOE.  Here's the 2nd of Robert Schumann's Three Romances for Oboe and Piano:

16. Pulse: THROB.

19. Emotional states: MOODS.

20. Mobile game?: PHONE TAG.  I recently spent 4 days playing telephone tag with a technician to schedule the installation of a new CPAP machine.  I can breath much easier now.

21. Sauce thickener: ROUX.  A ROUX is flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. A roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight.  The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth.   Here's Teri's recipe for Velouté Sauce from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook.  This cookbook makes a great wedding gift.  Plus it has hard to spell recipes like Vichyssoise and Bouillabaisse!

22. Suffix with ether: EAL.  Ethereal is an a word with a least three meanings.  Here are the first two, courtesy of the Oxford Languages Dictionary:

ETHEREAL was also the original name of a free software product (now called Wireshark) generically known as a "packet sniffer", a device that enables techs to decode network traffic to troubleshoot problems or to monitor and detect intrusions by HACKERS (was this a themer I missed?). The name probably derives from the root ETHERNET, a low level network service that most software "sniffers" can decode. 

27. Drag through the mud: SMEAR.  As in SLANDER.

29. CPR provider: EMT.  Emergency Medical Technicians perform Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation, among other services.

30. Manner: WAY.

31. Snap at, say: REACT TO.

35. Mug: FACE.  The association of the words MUG and FACE, probably derives from the Scandinavian word MUGG, a "drinking vessel".  In the 18th and 19th centuries, mugs produced in Staffordshire, England were often decorated with caricatures on the face of ceramic jugs. This may have led to the term MUG as a synonym for an ugly face and where we get our term MUG SHOT. Here is a typical 19th Century MUG, alias a TOBY JUG.  Looks SUSPICIOUS doesn't he?

39. Tech leader?: NANO.

40. Country songs: ANTHEMS.  Before the Star Spangled Banner was officially declared our National Anthem in 1931, our anthem was considered by many to be America the Beautiful  (lyrics):

41. Go (for): OPT.

42. Wonkette founding editor __ Marie Cox: ANA.Ana Marie Cox (born September 23, 1972) is an American author, blogger, political columnist, and critic. The founding editor of the political blog Wonkette, she was also the Senior Political Correspondent for MTV News, and conducted the "Talk" interviews featured in The New York Times Magazine from 2015 to 2017.
 

Ana Marie Cox

43. "__ welcome": YOU'RE.  An archaic phrase meaning "NO PROBLEM".

52. Pester: NAG.  A terrible instance of Equine appropriation!

53. Booker Prize-winning author Murdoch: IRIS.  Dame Jean Iris Murdoch DBE (15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. 
 

Dame Iris Murdoch, DBE

54. Really cheap: FOR A SONG.   Among many other works, composer Franz Schubert  (1797-1828) wrote over 600 SONGS in his all too short life of 31 years.  Despite the fact that they are considered masterpieces of German art song, it's doubtful that he was ever paid more than a pittance for any of them.   Here's his hauntingly beautiful Gretchen am Spinnrade, written when Schubert was only 17 and set to a poem from Goethe's play Faust.  Gretchen is sitting at her spinning wheel pouring her heart out for her lover Faust, who has abandoned her. Notice how the piano accompaniment evokes the sound of the spinning wheel's treadle:

56. Inelastic: RIGID.

59. "Yay me!": I RULE.

60. "Can't argue with that": TRUE.

61. The Met __: annual NYC fundraising event: GALA.  Sorry, but all the hits on this topic wanted me to pay them money to see their advertising.  As Bloggers don't have an expense account, I swiped left.

62. Some spa treatments: PEELS.  I think we were treated to one of these recently.  It doesn't sound very APPEELING to me.

63. Tear to bits: REND.

64. Actor Mapa of "Ugly Betty" and "Doom Patrol":  Alejandro "Alec" Mapa (born July 10, 1965) is an American actor, comedian and writer. 
 

Alec Mapa

Down:

1. Board book subject: SHAPES.  Despite having dozens of these around the house for the grandbabies, I didn't know they had a formal name.  I guess being made of boards, the pages are hard to REND.  Here's Harper Collins Publishers re The Best Baby Board Books of 2022.

2. New York suburb near New Rochelle: PELHAM.

3. Camden Yards [sic] player: ORIOLE.   As of  this writing the O's are at the bottom of the AL East ladder.  However my cardiologist, who is one of the team's cardiologists, and who is an expert in these matters, informs me that they will be really AFIRE in 2 or 3 years.  To think that I'm just 2 degrees of separation from all of the Orioles!  Unfortunately I don't know any of their names this season.  A hand up from anyone who does?  Oriole Park at Camden Yards (the correct name) is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year (but I doubt seriously that that picture was taken in 2022)
 

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

4. __ Choice Awards: TEEN.

5. Icy center?: SOFT C.  Not ICKY.

6. WWII sub: U BOAT.  "Unterseeboot", auf Englisch "under-sea-boat", today's German lesson.  The occasional capture of U-BOATS by Allied warships was extremely helpful in the breaking of the ENIGMA machines used by the Germans to encrypt their communications.  This article tells part of that story.

7. Short-legged dog: CORGI.  One of my sisters has a CORGI, a rescue dog named Deidre.  She was probably abused by a previous owner and she doesn't like men.  So I don't get to pet her.

8. Clothing line?: HEM.  Ho, hum, hem.

9. Not more than: AT MOST.

10. Stain-removal brand: SHOUT.  It's triple acting!

11. Armed conflict waged on behalf of superpowers: PROXY WAR.  If they're so "super" why can't they fight their own wars?

12. Fish sticks fish: COD.  Much better baked in EVOO with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and fresh Italian herbs, served over rice.

13. Core muscles: ABS.

18. Closed in on: NEARED.

21. Off the beaten path: REMOTE.  Is REMOTED the opposite of 18D?

24. Forage plant: VETCH.  VETCH is a well known legume also known as "common vetch" or "tares". Its scrambling, smothering growth habit and frost tolerance make it a very useful winter cover crop or green manure.  It is one of many types of forage crops.

25. Like some lingerie: LACY.  Some of the CAMIS we've seen for the past two weeks were LACY.

26. Retina locale: EYE. 

28. "Collapsed in Sunbeams" singer Parks: ARLO.  Another ARLO!  Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho (born 9 August 2000), known professionally as Arlo Parks, is a British singer-songwriter and poet. Her debut studio album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart.  Here's the song Hope from that album (lyrics):

32. Yoga postures: ASANAS.  Here are explanations and familiar names for the 7 poses shown below:
 

33. Waterway with locks: CANAL.  Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveying water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxis). They can be thought of as artificial rivers.  A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways.

34. Explosive letters: TNT.

35. Burkina __: FASO.  We saw this in Pam Klawitter's puzzle just this past Sunday.  Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of 274,200 km² (105,900 sq mi), bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and the Ivory Coast to the southwest. Note that MALI and NIGER are also landlocked (and sure to be fills in a future puzzle):

West Africa

36. D.C. daily: WAPO.  If you can't get your LA Times puzzle fix from your usual pusher, the Washington Post gives it away for free.  Unlike their news.

37. Fascinate: INTRIGUE.  Teri and I are armchair detectives and are INTRIGUED by British murder mysteries.

38. "Sure, I guess": UM YEAH.  "Well you don't sound sure!"

39. "I don't have all day!": NOW.   The MD's on the corner don't say that.  They say STAT!

42. Stomachs: ABIDES.

44. West Coast petroleum giant that merged with Chevron in 2005: UNOCAL.  Union Oil Company of California, known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century.

45. Really get to: RANKLE.

46. Arachnid incubator: EGG SAC.  When I'm tilling in the garden and see a Wolf Spider with an EGG SAC, I do my best to avoid killing them.  All those eggs will hatch and grow up to be natural enemies of the various pests in the garden.
 

Wolf Spider with Egg Sac

48. Whale fare: KRILL.  Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian word krill, meaning "small fry of fish".

Northern Krill

49. Pumped up: AFIRE.  A stoneware kiln is really "pumped up" when it reaches WHITE HEAT, approximately 2380 degrees Fahrenheit.

50. Devoid of joy: NO FUN.

51. 2015 boxing film directed by Ryan Coogler: CREED.  Creed is a 2015 American sports drama film directed by Ryan Coogler from a screenplay by Coogler, Aaron Covington, and contributions by Sylvester Stallone.  This is a film about people who really BELIEVE in boxing.  I'm not really qualified to say more, as I've not seen any of the Rocky films. However I have climbed the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art several times over the years and have great respect for anyone who can run up and down them.  Creed is the 7th film, but not last, in the Rocky franchise (see next clue for details).

55. Multigenerational tale: SAGA.  For example, the Rocky franchise. 

56. __ tide: RIP.  Here's how to escape from a RIP TIDE ...

57. Hot temper: IRE.  Anger.

58. USPS unit: LTR.  Letter.

As always, thanks to Teri for proofreading and for constructive criticism (and for the Velouté Sauce recipe).

waseeley

Cheers,

Bill

Laura Dershewitz and Katherine Baicker, you both are invited to post anything you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever, in the Comments section below.  We'd love to hear from you.  Oh and Laura, I'm curious as to whether you are one of the authors of this book?