Today marks constructor Joe Deeney's 29th appearance in the LA Times and 15 in the NY Times. We're winning! Will Schortz
has this to say about him: 'Joe Deeney, of Melrose, Mass., is a supply
chain director for Philips, a health technology company based in
Amsterdam (the manufacturer of my CPAP machine!). He's been solving
crosswords for as long as he can remember. In 2015 he was solving one
he wasn't particularly fond of and thought, "I can do better than
that!"' Three years later he had his first trip to the Corner, blogged by TTP. Today his theme asks us what we should do about
Loose Change
...
a problem that has lessened in recent years due to people's
unwillingness to touch the stuff. But if you think it's going to go
away anytime soon, think again. Anyway, Joe has pondered this question in depth and reveals this answer:
50A *Spot for coins, and what five letters in the answer do in each starred clue: CHANGE PURSE. Notice is that the embedded string PURSE has been CHANGED (scrambled) in each of the following 4 clues:
16. *Research without direct application: PURE SCIENCE. Science is not quite as pure as it used to be in the good old days of Galileo and Isaac Newton (17th Century). Things started to get murky with the arrival in the early 20th century of two seismic paradigm shifts: the Theory of Relativity developed by Albert Einstein; and the Theory of Quantum Mechanics (QM) developed by an international team of physicists led by Niels Bohr.
Over one hundred years later there are still unresolved conflicts
between these two theories. Efforts to reconcile them have led to a
series of what are called Theories of Everything (TOES). [Geek Alert!] Here is a video by German mathematician and physicist Sabine Hossenfelder on some problems with Relativity (5:27 min). Here are two more videos with her thoughts on problems with two of the most prominent TOES: the Multiverse theory (7:42 min) and String Theory (7:37 min) [End Geek Alert]. Here is a simplified illustration that attempts to stub the second TOE.
23. *Czechoslovakian movement of 1968: PRAGUE SPRING The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), and continued until 21 August 1968, when the Soviet Union and most of Warsaw Pact members invaded the country to suppress the reforms. The Prague Spring inspired many Czech and Slovak artists and musicians to protest the invasion through their work. Here is Czech composer and guitarist Karel Kryl with his dark song about this period, veiled in cryptic poetry ...
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| Demonstrations during the Prague Spring |
34. *Helpline offering: CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Customer Support is system of services designed to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, troubleshooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product. Regarding technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods, it is termed technical support. Here are some skills needed by a customer support specialist:
 |
| Balance of trade |
Here's the grid:
And now it's time to PURSUE a CHANGE of pace ...
Across:
1. Striped pet: TABBY. Here's one of my grandchildren's cats, a TABBY named Poco Loco, and also today's Spanish lesson, an adjective meaning "a little crazy". Actually I think he should have been named Mucho Loco. He and his fellow felines, Rascal, Butterscotch, and Fizzy are all outside cats. Rascal (also a TABBY)
is the oldest and biggest pet, and is a hunter who supplements the food
he gets on the porch with various critters he finds in the nearby
woods.
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| Poco Loco |
6. "__ chic!": TRES. "Very stylish". Today's French lesson.
10. Gear tooth: COG.
13. Sprightly: AGILE. AGILE is also a software development methodology.
14. Bridge predecessor: WHIST. WHIST is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. Here's an online version you can play if you get bored with this review.
15. Back on a ship: AFT. The opposite of ASHORE?
16. [Theme clue]
18. Spending power, for short: CFO. Chief Financial Officer, the member of the C Team who can write checks.
19. "No Ordinary Love" singer: SADE. Helen Folasade Adu CBE (Yoruba: Fọláṣadé Adú [fɔ̄láʃādé ādú]; born 16 January 1959), known professionally as Sade Adu or simply Sade (/ʃɑːˈdeɪ/ shar-DAY), is a Nigerian-born British singer, known as the lead singer of her eponymous band. Surrealistic.
20. Eleven digits?: ONES. 11.
21. Treadmill setting: PACE.
.
23A [Theme clue]
27. Yuletide song: NOEL. Even though 'tis not the season, I interpreted this clue like my favorite conductor Arturo Toscanini, who used to exhort his orchestras: "Come scritto!" ("As written!"):
28. 33-Across years: DECADE. Half a score.
29. Paper or plastic: NOUN. "A word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things" - Oxford Languages Dictionary. E.g. "Materials used to make grocery bags".
30. Father of the Muses: ZEUS. Their grandfather and grandmother were Uranus and Gaia. According to ancient Greek mythology, the Muses are the sources of inspiration for all of the arts and of knowledge. The daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, they were the romantic companions of Apollo’s entourage of gods. Their names were Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Thalia, Terpsichore, and Urania.
 |
| Apollo and the Muses John Singer Sargent |
34. [Theme clue]
38. "I see," at sea: AYE.
39. Noodle nugget: IDEA. No doubt an offshoot of the clue "Bean sprout" that we saw recently (e.g. 2/4/23 clue 21A)
40. "Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's __": Caldecott Medal winner by Verna Aardema: EARS. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale is a 1975 children's picture book by Verna Aardema and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. It is told in the form of a cumulative tale written for young children, and recounts an African legend.
44. "An Caighdeán Oifigiúil" language: ERSE. ERSE is a synonym for the Irish or Gaelic language. And it's today's Irish lesson, i.e. it's an "Official Standard" language in Ireland. I think Joe may be Irish.
45. [Theme clue]
49. Recycle bin, e.g.: ICON. As in ...
51. Becomes compost: ROTS.
55. "Gross!": ICK.
[Theme reveal]
56. [Theme reveal]
59. Baseball great Ripken: CAL. Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. (born August 24, 1960), nicknamed "The Iron Man", is an American former baseball shortstop and third baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001). One of his position's most offensively productive players, Ripken compiled 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, and 1,695 runs batted in during his career, and he won two Gold Glove Awards for his defense. He was a 19-time All-Star and was twice named American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP). Ripken holds the record for consecutive games played (2,632) on September 6, 1995, having surpassed Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 that had stood for 56 years and that many deemed unbreakable. My son was at that game with 50,000 other fans (and another 150,000 who claim to have been!), and still has the tickets to prove it:
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In 2007, Ripken was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility with 98.53% of votes, the sixth-highest election percentage ever.
60. Comes up against: ABUTS.
61. Isaac of "Moon Knight": OSCAR. Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada (born March 9, 1979) is a Guatemalan-born American actor. Known for his versatility, he has been credited with breaking stereotypes about Latino characters in Hollywood. He was named the best actor of his generation by Vanity Fair in 2017 and one of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century by The New York Times in 2020. "I am Moon Knight. The bearer of the mantle of Khonshu. Khonshu the justice bringer. I am vengeance". Looks like a pretty nice guy actually ...
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| Oscar Isaac |
63. Response heard during a pool game: POLO. Oh "POLO!", as in "MARCO POLO, a game played in swimming pools. Here are the rules.
 |
| Marco Polo |
 |
| Lieutenant Wharf |
1. Spigots: TAPS.
2. Río flower: AGUA. A fluid not a flora.
3. __ of paradise: BIRD. A flora not a fauna.
 |
| Bird of Paradise |
5. [Nod]: YES.
6. Org. with 27 member states: THE EU. The European Union.
7. Salon procedure: RINSE.
8. Key to going back?: ESC.
9. Grassy expanse: STEPPE. The best description for this clue is musical ...
10. Word on an Italian menu that means "hunter": CACCIATORE. Today's Italian lesson. Here's a recipe for Chicken Cacciatore. I'm unclear how this dish got its name, as you don't really have to hunt for chickens. Aren't they usually found in coops?
 |
| Chicken Cacciatore |
12. Classic Pontiac muscle car: GTO.
14. Annex: WING.
17. Anthracite or lignite: COAL.
22. __ de Triomphe: ARC. The Arc de Triomphe was inaugurated in 1836 by French king, Louis-Philippe, who dedicated it to the armies of the Revolution and the Empire. The Unknown Soldier was buried at the base of the arch in 1921. The flame of remembrance is rekindled every day at 18:30.
 |
| L'Arc de Triomphe. |
24. Nevada city about 100 miles from Burning Man: RENO. This year this bacchanal takes place from Sun, Aug 27, 2023 to Mon, Sep 4, 2023. Mark your calendars!
 |
| Burning Man |
25. The Aztecs of the NCAA's Mountain West Conf.: SDSU. The Aztecs are the athletic teams that represent San Diego State University (SDSU). San Diego State currently sponsors six men's and eleven women's sports at the varsity level.
27. Center of a 3-4 football defense: NOSE TACKLE. It takes a whole team to win a football game (even if it's just by a NOSE) ...
 |
| If you're still confused, this might help ... |
29. Spanish dialect in the Big Apple: NUYORICAN. A CSO and thanks to Chairman Moe for helping me find a utility showing that this is probably the first crossword to use this fill (and congrats to Joe! (although he probably already knew that)). NUYORICAN is a portmanteau of the terms New York and Puerto Rican and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants. An estimated 1,800,000 Nuyoricans are said to live in New York City, the largest Puerto Rican community outside Puerto Rico. Some prominent Nuyoricans you might recognize are Jennifer Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. And here's the band Nuyorican Soul with their 1996 hit Runaway featuring Nuyorican crossword queen india.arie ...
30. Character debuted by Zadie Smith?: ZED. Zadie Smith, FRSL* (born Sadie; Willesden, London, 25 October 1975). Another CSO for MOE, as this also appears to be the first time ever that this clue was used for crosswordese ZED. Zadie is British and ZED being the first character in her name thus "debuts" it. [Double groan]. Dr. Smith is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, White Teeth (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University since September 2010.
 |
| Zadie Smith *Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature |
32. Can. neighbor: USA.
34. "You __ be serious": CAN'T. I avoid it wherever possible.
35. Leave out: MISS.
36. Home of many Quechua speakers: PERU. Quechua is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most widely spoken pre-Columbian language family of the Americas, with an estimated 8–10 million speakers as of 2004. Approximately 25% (7.7 million) of Peruvians speak a Quechuan language.
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| The four branches of Quechua: I (Central), II-A (North Peruvian), II-B (Northern), II-C (Southern) |
37. Means to an end?: PASS RUSH. As the QB is the usual target of a PASS RUSH I was a bit confused by this clue (see also 27D). Or maybe Joe's clever attempt at misdirection was actually a veiled reference to this (Hi Anon -T!):
42. Final words of an engagement: I DO. Before them you're engaged. After them you're married!
43. Top removed before dashing off?: PEN CAP. Precedes "dashing off" a memo.
44. Conditional programming word: ELSE. One of the three basic structures in programming.
46. Mover's rental: UHAUL.
47. Cost: RUN TO.
48. Identifies (as): PEGS. Thought this might be a kinky gender reference, but more than likely it's an abbreviation for more than one MARGARET.
52. Largest member of the dolphin family: ORCA. The OREOS of crossword aquatic mammals.
 |
| Orcas |
 |
| Standard of the Tsar of Bulgaria |
54. Feudal laborer: SERF. Betcha' Simeon I had more than a few Bulgarian SERFS at his beck and call.
55. Diamonds, in slang: ICE.
57. "Last Week Tonight" network: HBO. Last Week Tonight is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver. The half-hour-long show premiered in April 2014 on HBO. Here's the only trailer I could find that didn't need to be BLEEPED OUT ...
58. "Bam!" kin: POW. We now conclude with a few UNBLEEPABLE words from Batman and Robin ...
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
