Monday January 2, 2023 Dylan Schiff

  

Hello Cornerites! Happy New Year to you all! Best wishes for health & happiness in 2023!

It is my pleasure to take you through Dylan Schiff's 5th L.A. Times puzzle. He has one Friday, two Sundays, and two Mondays to his credit. I hope we will see more from him in the coming months.

Today's offering has a well-hidden theme, four themers, ten 2-word answers, only four 3-letter fills (Hi Irish Miss!), a pair of 10-letter fills, and a reveal neatly tucked into the SE corner. Well done, Dylan!

Our theme is:  BURN, BURN, BURN

Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire

Let's start with the 4 starred clues:

20. Across*  Frozen structures that help with some winter migration: ICE BRIDGES.  Here's one theory.

27. Across*  Food that lacks nutritional value: EMPTY CALORIES.  Definition, Food List, & Examples

44. Across*  For all to see, after "in": BROAD DAYLIGHT.

50. Across*  Yoga mat material: FOAM RUBBER.  Types of Foam in Yoga Mats

What could possible connect these 4 themers? Let's go to the reveal:

54. Down.  "Hamilton" song about destroying love letters, or what one can do to the ends of the answers to the starred clues: BURN.

If you are not familiar with the song, you might guess at BURN. Here is the song with the lyrics:

Burn is sung by the character Eliza Hamilton. (See 42 Down.)

So now, with 20A we have BURN BRIDGES.  An idiom meaning to do something that cannot be easily undone or reversed in the future (often because one has behaved offensively or unfavorably.)

... with 27A, we have BURN CALORIES. Perhaps a New Year's resolution?

... with 44A, we have BURN DAYLIGHT. My first thought went to this clip from The Cowboys (1972), starring John Wayne. (42 sec.)

That is Roscoe Lee Browne playing Jebediah Nightlinger.

... and with 50A, we have BURN RUBBER.  peel out

Let's not BURN any more daylight before we move on to the rest of the grid...

Across:
1. List on the side of a taco truck: MENU.  ¡Muy Delicioso!

5. TV's __ at Nite: NICK.  a cable TV channel

9. College student's declaration: MAJOR. They call it that because it is a MAJOR decision.

14. 8-Down mineral: IRON. and 8D. Leafy vegetable rich in 14-Across: KALE.

Prior to becoming a "superfood", one of the biggest purchasers of KALE was Pizza Hut. Surprised? They used it to decorate the perimeter of their salad bars.  Kale & Pizza Hut

15. Vegetable pod that thickens gumbo: OKRA.

16. Photoshop maker: ADOBE.  an American software company

17. NPR journalist Totenberg: NINA.  You can hear her on All Things Considered.

18. Rotary phone part: DIAL.

the evolution of the phone

19. Add to an email, as a gif: EMBED.  The above comic is EMBEDed into this blog.

Bonus:  hard or soft 'g'?

23. __ facto: IPSO.

adverb

1. by that very fact or act.

   "the enemy of one's enemy may be ipso facto a friend"

24. Small batteries: AAs.

25. Pang: THROE.  We usually encounter this word in its plural form, as in "collapsed in the THROEs of agony".

33. Stories: TALES.  Tall TALES are skyscrapers.

34. Valentine's Day icon: CUPID.

35. Bubble bath spot: TUB.  where you can wash off the CRUD

38. Yucky buildup: CRUD.

39. __ throat: STREP.

40. Word on some diet products: LITE.

41. Stitched border: HEM.

42. Scornful smile: SNEER.

43. Trite: BANAL.

47. Before, with "to": PRIOR.

48. 20-vol. lexicon: OED.  "Vol" is abbreviated. So is The Oxford English Dictionary.

49. Many an Eastern European: SLAV.

57. Group of pundits on a TV news show, e.g.: PANEL.

Hi unclefred!

59. Difficult trip: TREK.

Hi Picard!

60. Mystical glow: AURA.

61. Braugher of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine": ANDRE.  I have seen this show so I am familiar with this actor. The show aired for 8 seasons (2013-2021). It is full of laughs and has a talented, fun-to-watch cast. ANDRE played the intensely pragmatic Capt. Raymond Holt.

Capt. Holt giving work & life advice. (35 sec.)

62. Oscar winner Malek: RAMI.  2019 Best Actor for Bohemian Rapsody

RAMI in the role of Queen's Freddy Mercury
He rocked!

63. Baby bed: CRIB.

64. Authority to decide: SAY-SO.

65. __ vera gel: ALOE.  good for sunBURNs

66. ACL location: KNEE.  Anterior Cruciate Ligament

Down:
1. Short skirt: MINI.

a history of the MINI skirt by Vogue (5:39 min.)

"While short skirts were worn by noblemen in Ancient Egypt and in China by women of the Duan Qun Miao, the miniskirt entered the contemporary fashion lexicon in the West during the swinging 1960s."

2. "What Truth Sounds Like" writer Michael __ Dyson: ERIC.  4.1 stars on goodreads

3. Zero: NONE.

4. Without any reduction in intensity: UNABATED.

5. DVD player error message: NO DISC. Fun clue!

6. "Just messin' with ya!": I KID.  the opposite of "I KID you not"

7. Jagged rock: CRAG.

9. "Parenthood" actress Whitman: MAE. I have never seen this show. Here's a pic of Mae and her beautiful smile.

10. Respect: ADMIRE.

11. Entry on Indeed.com, e.g.: JOB POSTING.  Indeed.com explained

12. Like many sumo wrestlers: OBESE. I am a bit uncomfortable with this clue because we are talking about dedicated athletes with intense training regimes. There is more to it.

13. Start over: REDO.  Need a REDO? No prob! Just hover over this button.

21. Tampa Bay team: RAYS.  Baseball. "Bucs" (football) also fits.

22. Narrow piece: STRIP.  Ray Stevens sang about STRIPping in 1974.

"Don't look, Ethel!"

26. Kept secret: HID.

27. __ A Sketch: ETCH.

28. Female horse: MARE.  In common cowboy parlance, a female horse is a filly until she is bred; after which, she is referred to as a MARE. The world of horse racing has its own criteria.

29. Distilled alcohol made with fruit: PLUM BRANDY. My friend Aki-san's dad gave me a bottle of his homemade PLUM BRANDY. He knew what he was doing.

30. Played a part: ACTED.  theater

31. Drew (in): LURED.

A LURE is used to LURE fish.

32. "The Phantom of the __": OPERA.  So many wonderful songs from which to choose. Today I will go with Michael Crawford singing The Music of the Night (1987).

36. Salt Lake state: UTAH.  State motto:  Industry;      State snack:  Jell-O

37. Accessory with a buckle: BELT.

39. Wolf (down): SNARF.

40. Easygoing: LAID BACK.

42. Tony nominee Phillipa: SOO.

Phillipa originated the role of Eliza in Hamilton.

43. Chicken cordon __: BLEU.  5-star recipe

45. Missouri and Ohio: RIVERS.  "States" also fits. Nice misdirection!

46. Small terrier: YORKIE.

Yorkshire Terrier
originally bred for "ratting"

47. Opening strategy: PLAN A.

49. Health resorts: SPAS.

51. Spanish "other": OTRA.  used to modify feminine palabras

52. Depleted Asian sea: ARAL.  I need to keep these straight:  Ural Mountains & ARAL Sea.

53. Personnel note: MEMO. I was surprised to read that the first known use of "MEMO" was in 1705.

55. Cleveland's lake: ERIE.  My idea of Eden is to play an aria on an oboe as I roam the shores of Lake ERIE while snacking on an Oreo before going to two spas where they will cover me in aloe.

56. Broccoli __: RABE.

58. Novelist Tolstoy: LEO.  Born 9/9/1828, making him a Virgo.

Here's the completed grid:

That's all for today. I look forward to reading your comments!