Thursday, December 8, 2022, David Alfred Bywaters

 

 

Would it Saw or Wood it Knot?

This will mark 43rd appearance of David Alfred Bywaters in the LA Times crosswords.  He was one of the first constructors I blogged and I always find his puzzles a delight.  David's puzzles make extensive use of wordplay, with less use of obscure people and places.  Since I have no puzzle to solve on Thursdays I always go to his website for a puzzle.  He hosts one of the most beautiful sites on the web and it's always worth a visit.

Today he teases us with 4 clues for the names of SAWS, tools commonly found in a wood shop and then gets his fill by riffing on another meaning of the word SAW:  a MAXIM or PROVERB.  For those interested I've linked pictures of the tools into the clues, and then followed with annotations of David's punny fill:

20A. Band saw?: UNITED WE STAND.  The Band of Brothers in the 2001 HBO American war drama stood united in their struggle against the tyranny of Hitler in WWII.  The series was based on the 1992 non-fiction book of same the name by historian Stephen E. Ambrose. Here's a trailer from the mini-series, created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who also served as executive producers. It won the 2001 Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best miniseries.

25A. Circular saw?: IT IS WHAT IT IS.  An example of  circular reasoning - a logical fallacy often referred to as "begging the question".   But in 1949 the term It is what it is morphed into an idiom meaning: "Deal with it": a response to a frustrating or challenging situation that a person believes cannot be changed and must just be accepted.  Here's where the phrase originated.

48A. Power saw?: MIGHT IS RIGHT.  Another logical fallacy called Argumentum ad baculum ("appeal to the stick").  I'm afraid this  saw is becoming more and more pervasive around the world, including here at home.

 56A. Coping saw?: ONE DAY AT A TIME.  An approach to dealing with obsessive thoughts about the past or the future.  A phrase often heard in addiction therapy settings.  And good advice from our 16th President:

 
Here's the grid:
 

Across:

1. Courteous title: MAAM.  An elision of MADAM.

5. "Make tracks!": SCRAM.

10. Be rife (with): TEEM.  Whenever we go to the National Aquarium, we always visit the Australian Exhibit  and head for the tank TEEMING with Archerfish.  You sport fishermen out there could learn a few tricks from these remarkable animals:

14. __ mater: ALMA.  Alma mater (Latin: alma mater, lit. 'nourishing mother';  is an allegorical Latin phrase used to identify a school, college or university that one formerly attended or/and graduated from; also the name of the school song.  Hand up if you're a Columbia grad!

Columbia University
Daniel Chester French 1903

15. Fragrance: AROMA.

16. Fairy-tale antagonist: OGRE.

17. Expanding Asian desert: GOBI.  Its size is expanding due to desertification.  Here are 20 interesting facts about the Gobi Desert.

18. Temporarily unavailable: NOT IN.

19. Work hard for: EARN.

20. [Theme clue]

23. Tuned to, as a radio dial: SET AT.  Sorry, I couldn't resist.

24. Genetic material in some vaccines: RNA.   The history of mRNA vaccines.

25. [Theme clue]

33. Trail behind: LAG.  Sometimes clued as "Internet problem".

36. Photographer Leibovitz: ANNIE.  Anna-Lou Leibovitz (born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses.

Annie Leibovitz 2008

37. Incline: SLANT.

38. Concerning: IN RE.

40. Zenith's opposite: NADIR.  If you're fortunate enough to live far from the light pollution of big cities and you go outside after dark and look up, you'll be looking at the Zenith.  If you're not sure what you're looking at, one of these cellphone apps might help.  Even though I have poor visibility in my neighborhood, I still occasionally use one called Startracker to verify the identity of planets, which I can still see.  One neat feature of these apps is that they can look  down through the earth past your sky's NADIR, and straight through to the Zenith in the Southern Hemisphere to see what celestial objects are rising and setting.  BTW, those touting trips to the GOBI Desert (17A) claim that it has the clearest night skies in the world.

42. Place to build: SITE.  E.g. if you want to create a web SITE, you'd build it on a web server..

43. Back up an apology, say: ATONE.  I.e. make amends.

45. Pampering treatments for feet, informally: PEDIS.  A CSO to our Lucina.

47. Sad: LOW.  Or a sound that cattle make.

48. [Theme clue].

51. Spot for a sleeve tattoo: ARM.  I've seen people with these, but didn't know they had a name.  Hand up if you have a tattoo!  ARM up if you have a sleeve tattoo.

52. Abates: EASES.

56. [Theme clue]

61. Stylish: CHIC.  People with sleeve tattoos?  YMMV.

63. City south of Gainesville: OCALA.  Ocala is the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida.  Here are some things you can do there.

64. Image in the Timberland logo: TREE. Timberland LLC is an American manufacturer and retailer of outdoor footwear, owned by VF Corporation and founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1952. The company also sells apparel and accessories including watches, eye wear, and leather goods. Timberland's corporate headquarters are located in Stratham, New Hampshire.
 

65. Proficient: ABLE.  Or in crosswordese: EPT.

66. More up-to-date: NEWER.  Or less OLD.

67. Allow to borrow: LEND.

68. "Cheers" bartender Woody: BOYD.  Woodrow Tiberius Boyd is a character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Woody Harrelson. Woody came to Cheers at the beginning of the fourth season of Cheers in 1985 in the episode "Birth, Death, Love and Rice".   A goodhearted goof:

Woody

69. Accounting giant __ & Young: ERNST.  I'm only giving them all this press because they're based in Baltimore.

70. Finishes: ENDS.  Thus ENDS the Acrosses.

Down:

1. Wizard: MAGUS.  Three visited a stable one snowy night in Bethlehem a long time ago.

2. Unaccompanied: ALONE.  For 4 letter fill use SOLO.

3. Sphere of influence: AMBIT. 
 

/ˈambət/

noun

noun: ambit; plural noun: ambits

the scope, extent, or bounds of something.

"within the ambit of federal law"

4. Cocktail typically garnished with an orchid: MAI TAI.  Some history, pictures and a recipe.

Mai Tai

5. Surface for beach volleyball: SAND.  One of my granddaughters started playing volleyball on SAND, but now plays it indoors at her high school.  Here are the rules.

6. Imitate a rooster: CROW.

7. Mechanical learning method: ROTE.

8. "Inside Story" novelist Martin: AMIS.  Inside Story is an autobiographical novel by the English author Martin Amis, published in 2020.

Martin Amis

9. Words of incantation: MANTRA.  A mantra is a sacred utterance, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, magical or spiritual powers. Some mantras have a syntactic structure and literal meaning, while others do not. Christianity also has analogous repetitive sayings, e.g. the Jesus Prayer, common among Orthodox sects.  All of these can be thought of as ways to calm the mind, empty it of distracting thoughts, and make it a space for the Divine.  Perhaps the most well-known mantra is this one:

Om

10. Canvases for 45-Across: TOENAILS. 

11. "Zounds!": EGAD.  Both are expressions of astonishment. 

12. Make a blunder: ERR.

13. Chaps: MEN.

21. James who sang "At Last": ETTA.  I've linked the clue song before for ETTA,  so how about Something's Got a Hold On Me (lyrics):

22. Inhabitants of a classroom "farm": ANTS.  We had these critters a while back clued as "Animals in a farm".  It stirred up a real ants nest.

26. Travel guide listing: INN.

27. Round closers on a onesie: SNAPS.  SNAP is versatile fill.  Just last week it was clued as "Show appreciation at a poetry slam".

28. Not as narrow: WIDER.

29. Former North Dakota senator Heitkamp: HEIDI.  Mary Kathryn "Heidi" Heitkamp (HYTE-kamp; born October 30, 1955) is an American politician who served as a United States senator from North Dakota from 2013 to 2019.  OK so she may be obscure to most of us.  Does anyone from  North Dakota  visit the Corner?

Heidi Heitkamp

30. Long part of a comet: TAIL.  Comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock, and ices. They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, and as they orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet. This material forms a TAIL that stretches millions of miles.  The most famous of comets, Halley's Comet appears at intervals of approximately 75 years.  It last appeared in 1986 and is due to return in 2061.

Halley's Comet 1982

31. Very much a fan of: INTO.  I'm very much INTO Maurice Ravel.  Here's his Gaspard de la nuit, about which he said: “Listen! Do you know what you hear? Handfuls of rain that I've thrown against your window, thrown by me, Ondine, spirit of the water.”

32. Crockpot dish: STEW.

33. Hemsworth of "The Hunger Games": LIAM.  Here's the trailer with Hemsworth and his co-star Jennifer Lawrence (BTW 68A is in it too):

34. Opposed to: ANTI.

35. Rum-and-water quaff: GROG.  A definitive guide to grog, which uses the same spirit as the Mai Tai at 4D.   Also the object of Captain Stratton's Fancy, a song by Peter Warlock, here sung by the late, great baritone John Shirley-Quirk (lyrics):

GROG is also the name of an ingredient used in most clay bodies to add strength and texture.  It also reduces shrinkage, cracking and warping, the latter particularly important in tile making.

39. Made better: ENHANCED.

41. Drilling structure: RIG.  Not a SEMI this time, but one of these:

Oil Rig

44. Raison d'__: ETRE.  PURPOSE, lit. "Reason for being", today's metaphysical French lesson. 

46. Home of the N.Y. Mets until 2008: SHEA.  Now they're in CITI FIELD, which is adjacent to the location of the old stadium, which was demolished in 2009.  Full disclosure -Teri and I use their sponsor's credit card.

Citi Field

49. "Stick a fork in me": I'M DONE.  Not quite.  Just eleven more clues to go ...

50. Spill the beans: TATTLE.

53. Tornado watch sound: SIREN.  We rarely get tornadoes in Maryland, but in areas where they are common they can be deadly.  Have a plan for staying safe in a tornado, before the SIREN sounds. 

Tornado

54. Fix: EMEND.  Bloggers do a lot of this.

55. Botanic beginnings: SEEDS.  I wonder how they do that?

56. Unctuous: OILY.  A characteristic of a dirty rotten scoundrel, an apparently timeless story.  You'd need a 41D to extract all the oil in these two guys:

57. Aspire notebook maker: ACER.

58. Show fatigue: YAWN.  Hang in there, you've only got to stay awake for 4 more clues ...

59. Many taps in a brewpub: ALES.  Okay, so DAB does occasionally imbibe a little crosswordese.

60. Fruit-filled dessert: TART.  And I'm sure he likes desserts.

61. Taxi: CAB.

62. "Barry" cable network: HBO.  I hope HBO is paying the LA Times advertising fees.  Here's Barry and here's the trailer:

Cheers,
Bill

As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley

David Alfred Bywaters, you 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.

Notes from C.C.:

1) Belated "Happy birthday" to Lucina!

2) Happy 76th birthday to dear Jazzbumpa (Ron)! Ron has been faithfully guiding us on Wednesdays since Jan 2011. He's a total pro.