Thursday, November 30, 2023 David Goldenberg, Matthew Goldenberg

 

Sow's Ear to
a Silk Purse

Eric Bernhardt
Bernie's Blues 2020

It's often said that "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear", but our soloist Eric Bernhardt does exactly the opposite in his rift above called Sow's Ear to a Silk Purse.  And so too do our new team of constructors for today's puzzle: David Goldenberg and Matthew Goldenberg.  They do this by taking the nicknames found in five fictional themers and fancifying them with formal first names.  Here are the resulting fills, followed by the names their friends call them ...

18A. Formal name of a tech business?: DOROTHY COM.  Nickname: DOT COM.  A dot.com is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website on the World Wide Web that uses the popular top-level domain (TLD) ".com".  As of 2021, .com is by far the most used TLD, with almost half of all registrations.

23A. Formal name of a bun holder?: ROBERT PIN.  Nickname: BOBBY PIN.

Bobby Pins

37A. Formal name of a free local periodical?: PENELOPE SAVER. Nickname: PENNY SAVER.  A pennysaver is a free community periodical that advertises items for sale. It usually contains classified ads grouped into categories. Many pennysavers also offer local news and entertainment, as well as generic advice information, various syndicated or locally written columns on various topics of interest, limited comics and primetime TV listings.  Pennysavers can also be online, e.g. this one is for our neighborhood.

51A. Formal name of a twin-engine fighter jet?: THOMAS CAT.  Nickname:  TOMCAT.  The F-14 Tomcat ...

F-14 Tomcat

59A. Formal name of a DNA collection?: EUGENE POOL. Nickname:  GENE POOL,  Also referred to as an organism's genome.  And as they're busy 7x24, also a place where GENES can get a little RNR (Ribo Nucleic Recreation 😀) ...

I thought this was a clean, clever theme.  No reveal.  None needed.

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest.

Across:
 
1. Many a four-hour movie: EPIC.  These are the 10 longest Hollywood movies.  This one is not the longest, but it may be the most EPIC ...

5. Blue-white heavenly body: B STAR.  A B-type main-sequence star (B V) is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type B and luminosity class V. These stars have from 2 to 16 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 10,000 and 30,000 K.  B-type stars are extremely luminous and blue.

10. Dash dial: TACH.

14. Taboo: NO NO.

15. Shrine on the San Antonio city flag: ALAMO.  One of my favorite cities.

16. Dull pain: ACHE.

17. First queen of Carthage: DIDO.  DIDO was the lover of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans, as related in the EPIC poem The Aeneid, by the Latin poet Virgil.  On his long journey to what will eventually become Rome, he visits Carthage, meets Dido, and they fall in love.  But as he lingers in Carthage Aeneas realizes that he is duty bound to continue his mission and deserts her.  She is grief stricken and takes her own life.  Her lament before dying is related in this famous aria from the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell ...

18. [Theme clue]

20. Employ: USE.

21. __ Pueblo, New Mexico: TAOS.

22. "The Bear" platform: HULU .  The Bear is an American comedy-drama television series created by Christopher Storer. It premiered on HULU on June 23, 2022, and stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmy (short for Carmen), a young, award-winning chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to manage the chaotic kitchen at his deceased brother Michael's sandwich shop. "The Bear" is a term of endearment that Michael had for Carmy ...

23. [Theme clue]

26. Heath shrub: GORSE.   GORSE, also known as  furze, whin, or ulex) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are native to parts of western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.

Gorse in bloom

29. Submission: ENTRY.

30. Ham it up: OVERACT.

32. Picture: IMAGINE.  I can't IMAGINE how we store all the pictures in our heads, and rapidly retrieve them after many decades have passed.

36. Small bit: TAD.

37. [Theme clue]

41. "Argo" spy org.: CIA.  Argo is a 2012 American historical drama thriller film directed, produced by, and starring Ben Affleck. The screenplay, written by Chris Terrio, was adapted from the 1999 memoir The Master of Disguise by U.S. C.I.A. operative Tony Mendez and the 2007 Wired article The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran by Joshuah Bearman. The film deals with the "Canadian Caper", in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, under the guise of filming a science-fiction film during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis.

42. Home of the WNBA's Storm: SEATTLE.

43. Chihuahua y Tabasco: ESTADOS.  Today's Spanish lesson: "States"

46. Microorganisms: GERMS.

50. Egg specification: LARGE.

51. [Theme clue].

55. See 9-Down: IRAS.

57. Theater honor: OBIE. Here are the 66th Annual Off Broadway Awards announced on February 23, 2023.

58. Wail: CRY.

59. [Theme clue].

62. April honoree?: FOOL.

63. Queens stadium namesake: ASHE.  Arthur ASHE, tennis great.
 

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr.
July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993

64. First name in cosmetics: ESTEE.

65. Sunscreen additive: ALOE.

66. "Darn it all!": RATS.

67. "Doctor Who" role for Michelle Gomez: MISSY.  Last Thursday the Dr. Who industry celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first appearance of  "The Doctor" in a blue Police Box parked in a junkyard in London on November 23, 1963.  I recall watching all of the pre Sylvester McCoy episodes at least three times until it went into hiatus in 1989.  But it was rebooted in 2005 (some say at the request of Queen Elizabeth II!) and given fancy new production digs in South Wales. 

In anticipation of the anniversary celebration I've been binging a lot of post 2005 episodes, but [as you can see from this list] I'm hopelessly behind. I've not yet encountered MISSY, but from what I gather she is a female incarnation of Dr. Who's perennial nemesis, the evil Time Lord called The Master.  Here she is unleashing the dreaded Cybermen on the streets of London and introducing herself to the 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi.

Missy
The Mistress

68. Map publisher __ McNally: RAND.  While it might seem that the invention of the GPS has made maps obsolete, apparently RAND McNally is still going strong.

Down:

1. Last: ENDURE.

2. Cause of death in some cozy mysteries: POISON.  Murder mysteries don't get any cozier than those of Agatha Christie, and in her case saying that "some" perps use POISON is a bit of an understatement.  Before achieving fame as a novelist she worked as a apothecary's assistant and knew quite a bit about poisons.  Here's the trailer for the star studded The Mirror Cracked with Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple ...

3. Owing: IN DEBT.

4. Dove sound: COO.

5. Unskilled in: BAD AT.

6. Single-master: SLOOP.  I know we had this last week, but I'm playing it again for Jinx.

7. Anklebones: TARSI.

8. "Yo te __": AMO.  More Spanish: "I love you".  Also a song, here sung by Chayanne ...

 English Translation

9. With 55-Across, nest egg options: ROTH.  ROTH IRA.  What it is and How to Open One.

10. "Midnights" artist Swift: TAYLOR.  Here's Anti-Hero from her 10th studio album Midnights ...

11. Spot on: ACCURATE.

12. Sulu player John: CHO.  John CHO (born Cho Yo-Han; June 16, 1972) is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the Harold & Kumar films, and Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek rebooted film series.

John Cho

13. __ and haw: HEM.

19. Massive: HUGE.

21. Response to "You won't believe this": TRY ME.

24. Speedskater Jackson who won a gold medal at the 2022 Olympics: ERIN.  ERIN Jackson (born September 19, 1992) is an American speed skater, roller derby player, and Olympic gold medalist. Jackson is the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual sport. 

Erin Jackson

25. Nine-piece combo: NONET.  Here's the Miles Davis' NONET playing Moon Dreams from his album The Birth Of The Cool ...

27. Injury reminder: SCAR.

28. Check-in info: ETD.

31. Sleeveless outerwear: VEST.

33. Plus: ALSO.

34. "Whither thou __ ... ": GOEST.  These words are the beginning of a verse from the Old Testament Book of Ruth (1:16-17).  In 1954 it was set to music by Earl Chalmers Guisinger.  Here's Canadian Leonard Cohen's farewell song from his 2012 tour of Canada (another CSO to CanadianEh!)...

These are the lyrics to the song from the Biblical text ...

"Wither thou goest I will go
Wither thou lodgest I will lodge
Thy people shall be my people, oh
Wither thou goest I will go".

When my Father asked my Mother to marry him in England after WWII and to come to America, she recited that verse to accept his proposal.

35. Craft brew with a high ABV: IPA.  India Pale Ale with a high Alcohol By Volume (ABV).  One of my son's brother-in-laws operates a brewery with an IPA named Dundalk Calling.  After a can of it I can't hear it calling me any more. 🙄

37. Italian city known for a campanile: PISA.  Legend has it that Galileo used the bell tower in PISA to perform experiments proving that objects of different masses fell with the same acceleration, disproving Aristotle's theory of gravity (which states that objects fall at speed proportional to their mass). Most historians consider it to have been a thought experiment rather than a physical test.

38. Nutritionist's advice: EAT RIGHT.  Good advice.

39. Aquarium gunk: ALGAE.  Assuming you have more than one ALGA in your aquarium.

40. Victory signs: VEES.

41. Cartoon still: CEL.  Their subjects are serving life with no parole. 😁

44. Corresponds: AGREES.

45. Norris of "Breaking Bad": DEAN.  I've never seen Breaking Bad.  Is Norris a campus figure?

47. Soda since 1905: RC COLA.  The RC stands for "Royal Crown" and their first product was a Ginger Ale.  There is also a "Ginger Beer", which has a low ABV.  IIRC the 4th Dr. Who (Tom Baker) imbibed a bit.

48. Dark red: MAROON.

49. Arranged: STYLED.

52. Nocturnal noises: HOOTS.  Hand up if you speak owl? 

53. Winds orchestras tune to: OBOES.  I think we need a new clue for this, e.g. "Plural of the instrument featured in the soundtrack to the 1986 film The Mission" ...

54. "Younger Now" singer Cyrus: MILEY.  She'll get over it eventually.

56. "So it would __": SEEM.

59. Orecchiette shape: EAR.  Here's a recipe for Orecchiette with White Beans, Tomatoes, and Olives.

Orecchiette Dish

60. G7 member: USA.

61. Omega preceder: PSI.

62. Many miles: FAR.

Cheers,
Bill

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

waseeley