High Fives
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| Click on Diagram to Enlarge |
Shannon Rapp, disguised as Nora Sharpe (a riff on Michael
Sharp of Rex Parker fame?), is no stranger to the LA Times.
Here's
a bit about her,
shamelessly plagiarized from Anon -T's review of her
August 31, 2022 puzzle
(and his debut to boot).
Today Shannon hints at ways that members of
underground societies
signal their identities to others in their groups
in plain sight. E.g. Freemasons
are well-known for their elaborate systems of handshakes to indicate their
level in the Masonic hierarchy; the 1st-4th century mystery religion of
Mithraism, a rival to Christianity, called new initiates
syndexioi, those "united by the handshake"; when an early Christian met a stranger on the road he'd reveal his identity by idly drawing a curved line arcing downward in the dirt with a stick. If the stranger responded by drawing the other half of a fish they would know that they'd met a fellow believer.
Shannon's four Zen-like themers show us the result of "one hand shaking" embedded in each clue ...
17A. *Bounce around the Caribbean, say:
ISLAND HOP. How about bouncing
around the Pacific instead? ISLAND HOPPING was the Allies' code name for their successful strategy in the Pacific in WWII:
25A. *1983 film that won an Oscar for Best Original Song: FLASH DANCE. Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic drama dance film starring Jennifer Beals as a passionate young dancer who aspires to become a professional ballerina (Alex), alongside Michael Nouri playing her boyfriend and the owner of the steel mill where she works by day in Pittsburgh. The film itself was a flash in the pan, but the song was a winner. It was composed by Giorgio Moroder, with lyrics by Irene Cara and Keith Forsey, was released as a single, and spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Here it is sung by Cara ...
Sadly, as I was finishing up this review on November 26th and posting comments to the Saturday puzzle, Ray - O shared the news with us that Irene Cara had passed away the previous day.
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| Irene Cara March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022 |
47A. *School of Hindu philosophy:JAIN DHARMA. Jainism, also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four Tirthankaras (supreme preachers of Dharma), with the first in the current time cycle being Rishabhadeva, whom the tradition holds to have lived millions of years ago (Vidwan we miss you; you would make all of this clear!). Jain monks, after positioning themselves in the sublime state of soul consciousness, take five main vows: ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacharya (chastity), and aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
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56A. *Was completely clueless: HAD NO IDEA. When a crossword solver is completely clueless about the answers to two intersecting clues, we call that a NATICK,
And the reveal:
35A Greeting between members of an exclusive club, and what's hiding in the answer to the starred clues?:
SECRET HANDSHAKE.
Here's the grid:
Let there be no secret about the rest of the clues ...
Across:
1. Period after Shrove Tuesday: LENT.
Shrove Tuesday
is the day before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), observed in
many Christian countries through participating in confession and absolution,
the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms, finalizing one's
Lenten sacrifice, as well as eating pancakes and other sweets.
It's also
known as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). Next year it falls on
February 21, 2023.
Good times will roll in New Orleans!
5. Lyricist Gershwin: IRA. IRA wrote the words to Summertime from George
Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess, and here ELLA and LOUIS sing it:
8. Inca __: Peruvian soft drink: KOLA. Inca Kola (also known as "the Golden Kola" in international advertising) is a soft drink that was created in Peru in 1935 by British immigrant Joseph Robinson Lindley. The soda has a sweet, fruity flavor that somewhat resembles its main ingredient, lemon verbena.
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Inca Kola |
14. Blues' org.: NHL. The Saint Louis Blues. Hand up if you're a Blues fan?
17. [Theme clue].
19. Tropical ray: MANTA. We visited the National Aquarium twice last week with 3 of our grandchildren. It's an exciting place. Here's a brief video taken by a visitor of some MANTA RAYS, SHARKS, HUMANS, and other denizens of the deep ...
20. Beg: PLEAD. "Not guilty your honor".
21. "It's open!": COME IN.
22. Brought into a discussion: CCED. "Carbon Copied". Or invited to blog by our fearless leader!
25. [Theme clue].
27. Adjust after a wrong turn: REROUTE.
29. Courts: WOOS. Or short for WOOSLE, my son's nickname for of one of my granddaughters.
30. "The Waste Land" poet: ELIOT. Thomas Stearns Eliot, an American poet born in St. Louis, MO (Hello inanehiker!). Here are some of his poems.
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T. S. Eliot |
32. Lab animal: RAT. Rattus norvegicus domestica. Researchers seem to prefer the albino breeds, e.g. the "Wistar" breed developed at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia:
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Isn't he cute! |
40. Sked "Don't know yet": TBA. "To be announced". You'll see it here first, as soon as they do!
41. Pack it in: EAT. This time last week, most people were "packing in the stuffing".
42. Petco Park player: PADRE. Some off season news on the SAN DIEGO PADRES. BTW the original PADRES were Franciscan missionaries that founded all the missions along the coast of California that start with SAN, starting with SAN DIEGO.
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Petco Park |
45. Animal that can run using its flippers: SEA LION.
47. [Theme clue].
51. Antique car design feature: FINS. Nice ends!
52. Houston team: ASTROS. It was a good year for the STROS and even more so for Justin Verlander. Hello Anon -T!
55. Sun block?: VISOR. Unclear on the concept. Must be the flat head ...
60. Pueblo dwelling material: ADOBE. Pueblos aren't the only dwellings that use ADOBE:
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Great Mosque of Djenné |
62. Willing parties?: HEIRS. Prime suspects in many murder mysteries.
63. Just scrapes (by): EKES.
64. Smelter's supply: ORE. Crosswords are loded with the stuff these days.
65. Show appreciation at a poetry slam: SNAP. Is this poet really a poet (or is she a meta-poet?) if nobody's snapping?
I wonder if people snapped at T.S. Eliot?
Down:
1. Lanai wreath: LEI.
2. First responders, briefly: EMS. Emergency Medical Services.
4. Feature of a magician's stage: TRAPDOOR. Here's Cosentino, an Australian magician, historian of magic, and collector of magic memorabilia with a brief demonstration of an antique TRAPDOOR:
5. Gulp down quickly: INHALE.
6. "Darkwing Duck" character Dr. __ Dendron: RHODA. Last week it was Sports Heroes, this week it's Foul Heroes. Darkwing Duck is an American animated superhero comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation (formerly Walt Disney Television Animation) that first ran from 1991 to 1992, and was then re-run up until about 2007. Here's the opening sequence and the credits. I couldn't find anything on Dr. Dendron. She must be a plant.
7. French peak: ALP.
8. __ dragon: KOMODO. The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), also known as the Komodo monitor, is a member of the monitor lizard family Varanidae that is endemic to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang. It is the largest extant species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of 3 metres (10 ft), and weighing up to 70 kilograms (150 lb). Trigger warning: these guys are scary:
9. 2000s first family: OBAMAS. It seems like decades ago.
10. Tablecloth fabric: LINEN.
11. Top story?: ATTIC. This clue is starting to form cobwebs.
13. NBC sketch show: SNL. Timely fill! I think this review could use a little more COW BELL ...
16. Well-reasoned: SANE. In whose opinion!?
18. Skillful: DEFT.
21. A major, for one: CHORD. Major CHORDS are TRIADS, i.e. three notes played simultaneously. A Major is a specific chord rooted in the key of A and consists of A, C#, and E. There other types of triads beside Major chords. This brief tutorial tells you about Major, Minor, Augmented, and Diminished triads.
22. Peak: CREST. E.g. 7D. Could also be a verb.
23. Big star: CELEB.
24. Writer Jong: ERICA. Novelist and noted sufferer from Aerophobia. She is also a poet.
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| Erica Jong |
28. Colorado's Sleeping __ Mountain: UTE. Ute Mountain, also known as Ute Peak or Sleeping Ute Mountain, is a peak within the Ute Mountains, a small mountain range in Montezuma County. It is also the location of the Ute Mountain Tribal Park in the Mesa Verde/Mancos Canyon area.
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| Sleeping Ute Mountain |
31. Sonar operator?: BAT. Is there an ECHO in here?
32. Pie chart lines: RADII.
33. Ohio hometown of poet Rita Dove: AKRON. Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952. A 1970 Presidential Scholar, she attended Miami University of Ohio, Universität Tübingen in Germany, and the University of Iowa, where she earned her creative writing MFA in 1977. In 1987, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her third collection of poetry, Thomas and Beulah, and from 1993 to 1995, she served as U.S. Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress.
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| Rita Dove |
36. Support pros: TECHS. A CSO to Anon - T, TTP, Jinx, et. al.
37. "omg so funny!": HA HA.
38. Tub with jets: SPA.
39. 50-50, facetiously: HALFSIES. "You cut it in half and I'll pick one".
43. Wrap: ENROBE.
44. Fangirls over, perhaps: ADORES. or ADORBS?
45. Greasy fingerprint, maybe: SMUDGE.
46. Merit: EARN.
47. Programming language with a coffee cup logo: JAVA. You don't code programs in JAVA, you brew them from objects called Java beans.
JAVA was the language de jour about the time that Teri and I retired from IT. Nowadays the trendy language is PYTHON. But just wait few years and there will be a new trend. The cynic in me says
that's because programmers aren't really interested in solving problems, they just
like learning new programming languages. The language Teri and I
started with was COBOL. It's still around, but it's not very cool. You won't even find it listed in the pie chart in the previous link, but a recent study estimated that there could be more than 775 billion to 850 billion extant lines of COBOL code currently running in production, and good money can be made writing and maintaining it.
48. Lines that break the fourth wall: ASIDE. Shakespeare was famous for them. But so were these guys ...
49. "No harm, no foul!": ITS OK.
50. Show again: RE AIR.
54. "I'm excited!": OOH.
56. "The White Lotus" network: HBO. A recent series developed by and for Schadenfreudians. What will they resort to next? But as my Mother used to say, "Misery loves company". No trailer here, as Miss Farrar wouldn't approve (I know I've linked that before, but just think of it as occasionally necessary bloggerese).
57. Annoying racket: DIN.
58. Notable stretch of time: ERA.
59. Nile cobra: ASP. And speaking of bloggerese, ASP is crosswordese that slithered into today's puzzle along with such favorites as DIN, ERA, SPA, ALP, LEI, and ORE. You can find a whole puzzle filled with this stuff at David Alfred Bywater's site in his meta masterpiece Alphabetical Cavalcade of Crosswordese.
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri
for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
