Signals Ahead
Constructor Jason Reich shared a few grains of truth in his first appearance on the Corner this past January. Today he sends us some mixed messages that life might not be so simple after all. Modern society is constantly bombarding us with messages, and at times it becomes difficult to tell them from the noise, especially if the former are encrypted (scrambled) in someway, like these 4 themers ...
17A. "Devilishly delicious" hard cider brand: ORIGINAL SIN. It's what got Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden, but where would we cruciverbalists be without EDEN? This one can get you kicked out if you drink too much of it. I think all the Cornerites are old enough to get into this site.
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Original Sin Ciders |
50A. Result of appreciation: CAPITAL GAINS. Something that all investors appreciate, except at tax time.
As Jason reveals here, his encryption algorithm is pretty simple -- he just TURNS anagrams for the word SIGNAL into fragments inserted in his theme fill ...
60A. Blinkers, and a hint to filling in 17-, 24-, 38-, and 50-Across?: TURN SIGNALS.
ORIGINAL SIN
CHORAL SINGER
GILLIGAN'S ISLAND
CAPITAL GAINS
CHORAL SINGER
GILLIGAN'S ISLAND
CAPITAL GAINS
I was going to give Jason a demerit for not spanning the two words in the third themer, but maybe it was intentional, as Gilligan and company couldn't get a SIGNAL off of the ISLAND.
Here's the grid ...
Across:
1. Here, there, or everywhere: ADVERB. Swap "or" for an "and" and you've got a song ...
11. 12-mo. spans: YRS.
14. Bit of baby babble: GOO GOO. While babies play with DOLLS, the GOO GOO DOLLS play rock and roll ...
15. Cornfield array: EARS. It's that time of year! We're eating Eastern Shore Silver Queen sweet corn most evenings.
16. Permit: LET.
17 [Theme clue].
19. "Blonde" Oscar nominee de Armas: ANA. ANA Celia de Armas Caso (born 30 April 1988) is a Cuban and Spanish actress. She began her career in Cuba with a leading role in the romantic drama Una rosa de Francia (2006). At the age of 18, she moved to Madrid, Spain, and starred in the popular drama El Internado for six seasons from 2007 to 2010. She starred in Blonde, the 2022 bio-pic about Norma Jeane Mortenson (June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) ...
20. Josh of "Frozen": GAD. Joshua Ilan GAD (born February 23, 1981) is an American actor, comedian and singer. He is known for voicing Olaf in the Frozen franchise, playing Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, and playing Le Fou in the live-action adaptation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
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24 [Theme clue].
27. Give, as a passport: ISSUE TO.
30. Wee: ITSY. I'm reminded of a song ...
31. Many a Maldives formation: ATOLL. The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives is an archipelagic state and country in South Asia, situated in the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 kilometres (470 miles; 400 nautical miles) from the Asian continent's mainland. The Maldives' chain of 26 ATOLLS stretches across the equator from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south. Here is the Malosmadulu Atoll seen from space ...
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Malosmadulu Atoll Republic of Maldives |
35. Young chap: LAD.
38 [Theme clue].
42. __ pro nobis: ORA. Today's Latin lesson - "Pray for us" -- Lord knows we need it!
43. Texter's "But ... ": OTOH. What we'd all do for a one handed politician! 😀
44. Hexa- minus one: PENTA. Today's Greek math lesson.
45. Promising: ROSY. A CSO to RosE, who I assume pronounces it the same way.
48. Causing acute embarrassment: CRINGEY. The feeling most people get when they listen to opera. 😁
50. [Theme clue].
54. Florida city known for thoroughbred farms: OCALA. OCALA in Marion County was the first thoroughbred horse farm in Florida and was developed in 1943 by Carl G. Rose. Ocala is one of only five cities (four in the US and one in France) permitted under Chamber of Commerce guidelines to use the title, "Horse Capital of the World", based on annual revenue produced by the horse industry. 44,000 jobs are sustained by breeding, training, and related support of the equine industry, which generates over $2.2 billion in annual revenue. In 1978, Affirmed, who was bred and trained in Marion County, won the Triple Crown:
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| Affirmed Spendthrift Farm in 1981 |
56. Racing circuit: LAP.
59. Part of some German names: VON. German for "from". For example, Field Marshal Paul VON Hindenburg was President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. He will be forever remembered for the eponymous air ship the Hindenburg, which crashed while attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township in New Jersey on May 6, 1937 ...
64. Before, poetically: ERE.
65. "All clear now": I SEE.
66. Blue alien played by Karen Gillan in Marvel films: NEBULA. I'm more familiar with Karen as Amy Pond in Dr. Who, but here she is as NEBULA in Guardians of the Galaxy ...
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| Nebula |
68. Throw out a line: CAST.
69. Motown great Knight: GLADYS. GLADYS Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer, songwriter, actress and businesswoman. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner, Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, which included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten. Here's their cover of Jim Weatherly's Midnight Train to Georgia ...
Down:
1. Dumbfounded: AGOG.
2. Animated explorer: DORA. Here's DORA's Night Light Adventure ...
3. Null and __: VOID.
4. Urge (on): EGG.
5. French king: ROI. Today's French lesson.
6. Laugh line?: BON MOT. More French -- literally "Good word". Around here they're called "Punch lines".
7. David Oyelowo film set in Alabama: SELMA. SELMA is a 2014 historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, and John Lewis. The film stars actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King ...
8. Atelier tripod: EASEL.
9. Orthopedist's scan, briefly: MRI.
10. "Wouldn't you agree?": ISNT IT.
11. Tropical flower used in aromatherapy products: YLANG YLANG. Ylang Ylang flower - uses, side effects, and more. It's also called the "Queen of Perfumes" ...
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Ylang Ylang |
12. "Girls5eva" co-star __ Elise Goldsberry: RENEE. RENÉE Elise Goldsberry (born January 2, 1971) is an American actress and singer known for originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway musical Hamilton, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Her name is also a CSO to our Monday sherpa.
Girls5eva is a 2021 mini-series about a one-hit-wonder girl group from the 1990s that get thrust back into the limelight 20 years later. Its members reunite to give their pop star dreams one more shot -- this time while balancing spouses, kids, jobs, debt, ageing parents, and shoulder pain ...
13. Drummer Ringo: STARR. Also a singer ...
18. Stunt pilot: AEROBAT. Here is a team of 7 Italian AEROBATS performing in Dubai on August 20, 2021
23. Add-__: ONS.
24. Winnow: CULL.
25. Prefix with pad: HELI. This is a Google Earth shot of the HELIPAD on the top of the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. One of my nieces is a nurse who used to go out on these flights to give emergency medical treatments to trauma victims ...
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Helipad University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center |
26. Tireless, unpaid assistant: SIRI.
27. "It is the green-eyed monster ... " speaker: IAGO.
In Shakespeare's Othello, Act 3, Scene 3 IAGO tries to
manipulate Othello by suggesting that his wife,
Desdemona, is having an affair. Iago plants the seeds of jealousy in
Othello’s mind by saying:
“O beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
And the seeds sprout.
28. Step in a cocktail recipe: STIR.
29. Green thing on a roof: SOLAR PANEL.
33. Musician Brian who calls himself a "nonmusician": ENO. Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle ENO (born May 15, 1948, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England), British producer, composer, keyboardist, and singer who helped define and reinvent the sound of some of the most popular bands of the 1980s and ’90s and who created the genre of ambient music. One those bands was U2 ...
Sometimes artists are their own worst critics. Apparently ENO, who was the producer for U2's 1987 album Joshua Tree and the song Where the Streets Have No Name, hated the latter so much that he tried to destroy it.
34. Refuse collectors: ASH CANS. Also navy slang for the depth charges used in anti-submarine warfare.
36. Prerequisite to a deal: ANTE.
37. Make-or-break time: D DAY. The D-Day invasion that helped change the course of World War II was unprecedented in scale and audacity. This past June 6th was the 79th anniversary of the landings. The 2001 HBO Mini-series Band of Brothers was one many attempts to bring that event home to those who weren't there ...
39. Spanish painter Francisco: GOYA. Francisco José de GOYA y Lucientes (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and print maker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. Goya is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns.
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Francisco Goya |
41. Eye part: LENS.
46. Frequent medium for 39-Down: OIL. For example: The Third of May 1808, which Goya completed in 1814. In the work, Goya commemorates Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the occupation of 1808 in the Peninsular War ...
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The Third of May 1808 Museo del Prado, Madrid |
49. On the way up: RISING.
50. Sheltered inlets: COVES.
51. Squirrel morsel: ACORN. Also the name of a British personal computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK, including the ACORN Electron and the ACORN Archimedes. They are credited with the development of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) personal computers. They ceased operations in 1999.
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Acorn Electron |
52. Early strings: LYRES. LYRES are still around (at least in France)...
53. Absurdist playwright Jean: GENET. Jean GENET (19 December 1910 – 15 April 1986) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels The Thief's Journal and Our Lady of the Flowers and the plays The Balcony, The Maids and The Screens.
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Jean Genet Illustration by Edward Kinsella. |
57. Side (with): ALLY.
58. Free TV spots: PSAS.
61. Can. neighbor: USA. A left-handed CSO to CanadianEh! ...
63. Org. with Kings and Cavaliers: NBA. The aristocracy of B BALL?
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
