Feathered Follies
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| Tweety |
Today's constructors-cum-ornithologists feather our nest with fill from 5 classic movies, which they have morphed into punny birds with just a single letter change. Kelly Richardson is a fledgling in these parts and Katie Hale has soared through our skies many times as a constructor and assistant editor.
Here is each new hatchling, followed by the original still in its shell ...
16A. Film about a seabird who will stop at nothing for a sandwich?: RAGING GULL. RAGING BULL is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and based on Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta.
22A. Film about a bird who is constantly mistaken for a common pigeon?: DOVE ACTUALLY. LOVE ACTUALLY is a 2003 Christmas romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. It features an ensemble cast, composed predominantly of British actors, many of whom had worked with Curtis in previous film and television projects. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through 10 separate stories involving a variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as the plot progresses. There were a lot of trailers for this movie and one wouldn't really tell the story, but I had to stop viewing them after the first 2 because my glasses started fogging up. The first one stars Keira Knightly and Andrew Lincoln ...
The second one stars Colin Firth and Ana Lúcia Pereira Moniz ...
33A. Film about a flocking bird who wants to fly solo?: INDEPENDENCE JAY. INDEPENDENCE DAY is a 1996 American science fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. It stars an ensemble cast that consists of Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, James Rebhorn, and Harvey Fierstein ...
45A. Film about a prehistoric songbird?: JURASSIC LARK. JURASSIC PARK is a 1993 American science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Richard Attenborough. It is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton ...
55A. Film about a diving bird who collides with a snorkeler?: LOON STRUCK. MOONSTRUCK is a 1987 American romantic comedy-drama film directed and co-produced by Norman Jewison, starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello, Olympia Dukakis, and Vincent Gardenia. The film follows Loretta Castorini, a widowed Italian-American woman who falls in love with her fiancé's hot-tempered, estranged younger brother (with a soundtrack by Puccini!) ...
And of course this explanation wouldn't be complete without a coda from my favorite bird (and a CSO to Ray - O) ...
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. Purple bloom: LILAC. Here is an Asian Lilac ...
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| Asian Lilac |
10. Digital collectible: Abbr.: NFT. Non Fungible Token. Think of this as a digital contradiction of the old maxim that "Information is the only thing of value that you can give away and still own". If you give away an NFT, you don't own it anymore ...
13. Geek Squad member, for short: IT PRO. Geek Squad is a service of Best Buy. They can also fix refrigerators (different team from the ITO PROS).
15. Foal's mama: MARE.
16. [Theme clue]
18. Track shape: OVAL.
19. One of the Gulf States: Abbr.: ALA. ALABAMA not the UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE).
20. Jewish scholar: RABBI.
21. Garden gastropod: SNAIL.
22. [Theme clue]
24. Like a cyclops: ONE EYED. E.g. Polyphemus, who was the son of Poseidon and Thoosa and the most feared of the Sicilian Cyclopes—brutish, one-eyed shepherds who lived far from civilization.
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| Polyphemus, a cyclops |
28. Ermine kin: MINK.
29. 39- and 59-Across locale: ASIA.
30. Be in the picture?: ACT.
33. [Theme clue]
38. Future profs, often: TAS. Teaching Assistants
39. Vietnam neighbor: LAOS. The two countries are apparently much more than just neighbors.
40. Wild onion: RAMP. What’s So Special About Ramps?
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| Ramps |
42. Much of the Great Plains: PRAIRIE. The Great Plains lie between the Rio Grande in the south and the delta of the Mackenzie River at the Arctic Ocean in the north and between the Interior Lowland and the Canadian Shield on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west. CSOs to Husker Gary, desper-otto, LeoIII, Anon-T, TxMs, and OwenKL. SO if I missed you ...
49. Some Pennsylvania Dutch speakers: AMISH. Pennsylvania Dutch, sometimes referred to as Pennsylvania German, is a variety of Palatine German, also known as Palatine Dutch, spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch: Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonites, Fancy Dutch, and other descendants of German immigrants in the United States and Canada. There are possibly more than 300,000 native speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch in the United States and Canada. Spitzboov, we miss you.
50. Way to go: ROUTE. As you are reading this my oldest granddaughter will be walking "The Way", a 500 mile pilgrimage across Northern Spain, more formally known as El Camino de Santiago ("The Way of Saint James"). This ROUTE was celebrated in a beautiful 2011 video entitled The Way starring Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez ...
51. Barb: DIS.
54. GQ and Cosmo: MAGS.
55. [Theme clue]
57. Parisian pal: AMIE. Specifically a GAL PAL.
58. Designer Cassini: OLEG.
59. Capital of Vietnam: HANOI. See 39A.
60. Top: LID.
61. Merrie __ England: OLDE. England is over 1000 years OLDE, but it hasn't always been Merrie.
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| England ca. 880 AD |
62. Spy: AGENT. Before there was James Bond, there was The Spy Who Came in From the Cold ...
Down:
1. Euro forerunner: LIRA. The LIRA is the former monetary unit of Italy and Malta and the currency of modern Turkey. The EURO is now the official currency of 20 of the 27 member states of the ...
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| European Union |
3. Links org.: LPGA.
4. "Beau Is Afraid" director Aster: ARI. ARI Aster (born July 15, 1986) is an American film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in horror films, including Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), and Beau Is Afraid (2023). Here's the trailer from his latest film. It looks like a lot of fun ...
5. Frances of "Six Feet Under": CONROY. Six Feet Under is an American drama television series created and produced by Alan Ball. It premiered on the premium network HBO in the United States on June 3, 2001, and ended on August 21, 2005, spanning 63 episodes across five seasons. It depicts the lives of the Fisher family, who run a funeral home in Los Angeles, along with their friends and lovers. Frances plays Ruth Fisher, the matriarch, who is emotionally repressed and trying to form a new, independent life.
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| Frances Conroy 2014 |
6. Spot for Spot to sleep: DOG BED.
7. "In Treatment" actress Uzo: ADUBA. In Treatment is an American drama television series for HBO, produced and developed by Rodrigo Garcia about a psychotherapist, 50-something Paul Weston, and his weekly sessions with patients, as well as those with his own therapist at the end of the week. The program, which stars Gabriel Byrne as Paul, debuted on January 28, 2008 and ran for four seasons. Uzo plays Dr. Brooke Taylor. We saw Gabriel Byrne recently as a quirky pathologist in an Irish series called Quirke.
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| Uzo Aduba |
9. Visual communication syst.: ASL. Used by deaf people and their children, even those who hear ...
10. Maritime: NAVAL.
11. Delicate: FRAIL.
12. British tube: TELLY. As the Brits have a chronic word shortage, "Tube" doubles as jargon for the London Underground, a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
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| The Tube |
15. "Dirty Computer" singer Janelle: MONAE. Dirty Computer is a 2018 dystopian musical science fiction film in which Janelle plays a robot. It serves as a visual companion to Dirty Computer, the third studio album by Janelle Monáe. Here's the title song ...
17. Yielded: GAVE.
21. Poison __: SUMAC. This clue has been repeated as a Public Service Announcement. Memorize this picture ...
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| Poison Sumac |
22. Hockey feint: DEKE.
23. Unconvincing, in a way: THIN. A meta-clue?
24. Leave out: OMIT.
25. "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" singer Simone: NINA. Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop.
26. Objectives: ENDS.
29. Some pop-ups: ADS.
30. Not quite closed: AJAR. It's not a DOOR.
31. Cropped top?: CAMI. A "cropped" CAMISOLE?
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| Camisole |
34. Luxuriously soft: PLUSH.
35. Hearing things: EARS.
36. Seaweed-wrapped bite: NORI ROLL. NORI (海苔) is an edible seaweed used in Japanese cuisine, made from a species of red algae, which turns dark when dried. It has a strong and distinctive flavor, and is often used to wrap rolls of sushi or onigiri (rice balls). MAKI is probably the more common term for a NORI ROLL.
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| Assorted MAKI sushi |
37. Karlsson of the NHL: ERIK. ERIK Karlsson is currently with the San Jose Sharks.
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| Erik Karlsson |
42. Deep dive: PLUNGE.
43. "Darn it!": RATS.
44. "Chain of Fools" singer Franklin: ARETHA. ARETHA Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the "Queen of Soul", Rolling Stone has twice named her as the greatest singer and the ninth greatest artist of all time.
45. Crawford who was NBA Sixth Man of the Year three times: JAMAL. The NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award has been given annually since the 1982–83 NBA season to the league's best performing player for his team coming off the bench as a substitute (or sixth man). Jamal currently plays for the LA Clippers.
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| Jamal Crawford |
47. Unlikely to flex: RIGID.
48. Babbled, as a baby: COOED.
51. Sand formation: DUNE. DUNE is also the name of a 2021 American epic science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve, the first of a two-part adaptation of the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert. There are LOTS of sand formations in this movie, some of which are the underground habitat of gigantic, voracious monsters called sand worms. In this clip a sand worm overtakes and consumes an entire spice harvester ...
52. Tapped pic: ICON.
53. "A Black Lady Sketch Show" segment: SKIT. A Black Lady Sketch Show is an HBO comedy series created by Robin Thede. The show began in 2019, was renewed for 2023, and consists of comedy SKITS performed by a main cast of Black women, currently consisting of producer and creator Thede, Gabrielle Dennis, and Skye Townsend. Alumni cast members include Quinta Brunson, Laci Mosley, and Ashley Nicole Black. The show has featured guest stars such as Issa Rae, Vanessa Williams, Angela Bassett, Gabrielle Union, Wanda Sykes, and Patti LaBelle.
56. Cleaning cloth: RAG.
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading, for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
