Thursday, May 2, 2024, Zhouqin Burnikel

 

  Root, Root for the Home Team!

Today's constructor is veteran Zhouqin Burnikel, alias C.C., baseball aficionado and blog maestra extraordinaire.  She invites us to do some ROOTING, not just for the home team but also to burrow through the DOWN clues looking for some delicious, healthy ROOT vegetables, and see what turns UP.  Here's her reveal ...

25D. Digs out, or what can be found in four long Down answers?: ROOTS UP.

 If you didn't spot them while solving (CSO to D-O), here they are ...

3D. Spiritual path of action: KARMA YOGA.  YAM.  Well I've always thought that a YAM was just another name for a SWEET POTATO -- but they are not the same vegetable.

10D. Event for minor leaguers?: TEE BALL GAME.  BEET. These are not particularly difficult to grow, but we like the tender greens in salads and tend to side pick them stealing the strength from the root.  But whichever way you eat them they are good for you.

Detroit Dark Red  Beets

24D. Sport with pit stops, in Britain: MOTOR RACING. CARROT.  CARROTS are slow germinating, slow growing, and very sweet when they're fresh.  One of my favorite drinks is fresh carrot juice.   They also have many health benefits.

Carrots

35D. Lab animal with white fur: ALBINO RAT. TARO.  TARO is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in African, Oceanic, East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian cultures (similar to yams). Taro is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants.   We've never cooked with it, but I think it may be available in our local supermarket. I found these for sale at the H.E.B. in Victoria, TX -- they look a little rough, but they sound delicious.

Taro Roots

And of course, adhering to good crossword etiquette,  C.C has embedded each vegetable so that it spans 2 words. Here's how they look underground ...

... and the rest of today's garden ...

Across:

1. Tools with teeth: RAKES.  And C.C. starts us off with RAKES, essential tools for planting ROOT CROPS, which like fine, well raked soil.  Teri and I use a modified version of Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening method, planting the seeds to a depth of 2-3" in drills filled with potting soil.  We've had good luck with BEETS, RADISHES, CARROTS, and TURNIPS.  We usually plant our YAMS (sweet potatoes) with plants in shallow trenches.  I've not seen TARO seeds or plants in our gardening catalogues.

6. Geocaching device: GPS.  You use the Global  Positioning System in your phone to zero in on containers called geocaches, at specific locations marked by coordinates all over the world.  Here's a one minute explanation ...

Here are more details

9. Did a face-plant: ATE IT.  Ouch!

14. "This really matters to me": I CARE A LOT.   When you really CARE A LOT ...

16. First name in country: MERLE.  Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.  He was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled after the death of his father, and he was incarcerated several times in his youth. After being released from San Quentin State Prison in 1960, he managed to turn his life around and launched a successful country music career.  Here's his Working Man Blues ...

17. Keep on keeping on: PERSEVERE.

18. Like a misty pond after dark: EERIE.  It's not a good idea to go there alone. 😨

19. Genre that includes dubstep: EDM.  Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the late 1990s. It is generally characterized by sparse, syncopated rhythmic patterns with bass lines that contain prominent sub-bass frequencies. The style emerged as an offshoot of UK garage, drawing on a lineage of related styles such as 2-step, dub reggae, jungle, broken beat, and grime. In the United Kingdom, the origins of the genre can be traced back to the growth of the Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s.  Here's a dubstep number by Lindsey Stirling called Crystallize that I thought was kind of cool ...

20. Dudes: MEN.  All the ones I know use HE/HIM/HIS pronouns.

21. Vegetable in a yellow pod: WAX BEAN.  The original version of this particular bean grew in the tropical climate of Central and South America. “Wax” has become a common term and refers to any yellow bean whether it is waxy or not. True wax bean types actually do have a waxy texture and feel.

Wax Beans
Atchison Farmers Market

23. "So true!": AMEN.

25. Color of rambutan skin: RED.  What the heck is Rambutan and how do you eat it?   They look like "the aliens have landed", but they don't bite you, you bite them ...

You  eat the white part

26. Contributes: ADDS.

27. Deli jarful: MAYO.  Also a clinic in Minnesota that C.C. is probably familiar with.  I have a niece who is a resident in psychiatry there.

29. "The Chimpanzees I Love" author Jane: GOODALL.  Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE (born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), is an English primatologist and anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, after 60 years' studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. Goodall first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to observe its chimpanzees in 1960.  She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots program, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.

Jane Goodall and friends

32. Showbiz "grand slam": EGOT.  Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.  Nineteen people have achieved competitive EGOT status and six others have done so with honorary or special awards. In 2018, Robert Lopez became the only double EGOT winner.

33. "Xanadu" band: ELO.  The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangements with futuristic iconography. Here's the title song from the 1980 fantasy film Xanadu starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelley ...

34. Classic Chevy: BEL AIR.  The car I learned to drive in.  Teri, who already had her license, would drive over to our house in her Rambler, and she would sit in the passenger seat of our 56 Chevy and tutor me on the finer points of driving.

1956 Chevrolet Bel Air

If I recall correctly, it was a Chevy not much older than this that Don McLean drove to the levy the day that music died.

38. Gas in some lasers: ARGON.  Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble (inert) gas. Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere after Nitrogen and Oxygen.  Argon lasers have a wide variety of uses including eye surgery. and the treatment of various skin disorders.

40. List-ending abbr.: ETC.

42. Shelter made of compressed snow: IGLOO.

43. Pacific Palisades location: LA AREA.  Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the West-side region of Los Angeles, California, situated about 20 miles (32 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles.

View south from Will Rogers State Beach,
of Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica
I think Renee lives around here somewhere

45. Take legal action: SUE. Also the name of a sleepy head ...

47. Lie adjacent to: ABUT.

48. Shelter dogs: RESCUES.  CSO to Pat.

50. Fail to see: MISS.  But we hope we see our Irish MISS on the Corner every day.

51. Branch of Islam: SHIA.  Shia Islam (/ˈʃiːə/) is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib (r. 656 – 661 CE) as his successor and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, but was prevented from succeeding Muhammad as leader of the Muslims by some of Muhammad's other companions. This view contrasts with Sunnī Islam, which asserts that Muhammad did not appoint a successor before his death and considers Abū Bakr, who was appointed caliph by a group of senior Muslims at Saqifah, to be the first rightful caliph after Muhammad (632–634 CE).

54. Short flight: HOP.

55. Subsequently: THEN.

57. Keep under wraps: CONCEAL.

59. Kung __ tofu: PAO.  Kung Pao Tofu is a vegan stir-fry dish made from tofu (soy cheese) with dried red chilies, pepper, peanuts all tossed together in a flavorful sauce.  Here's a recipe ...

Kung Pao Tofu

60. "Lookee here!": OHO.

63. Reversed: UNDID.

64. Tipping point: LAST STRAW.  The proverbial STRAW that broke the camel's back.

67. For the time __: BEING.

68. Bankrupt company's transaction: ASSET SALE.

69. Opposites attract, e.g.: ADAGE.  Also a law of physics.

70. Tedious routine: RUT.

71. Squelched: SAT ON.

Down:

1. Like a yellow papaya: RIPE.

2. Scored on a serve: ACED.

3. [Theme clue].

4. Hectic hosp. areas: ERS.  They're not hectic until they're hectic ...

5. Note with a low grade, perhaps: SEE ME.

6. Narrow valley: GLEN.  E.g. Glen Canyon, a natural canyon carved by a 169.6-mile (272.9 km) length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States.

Glen Canyon

7. "__ favor": POR.  Today's Spanish lesson: PLEASE!

8. Slow-boiled: STEWED.

9. "Don't live life without it" card co.: AMEX.

10. [Theme clue].

11. Blundered: ERRED.

12. Poem that inspired Pat Barker's "The Women of Troy": ILIAD.  The Trojan War is over and the Greeks are ready to return home as victors.  But their fleet is becalmed and they must camp by the city they destroyed waiting for a fair wind, kept company by the women they stole it from.

13. Freezing temps: TEENS.

15. Get payback for: AVENGE.

22. Very little: A DAB.  "Brylcreem - a little DAB'll do ya".  Just make sure you don't use two!

34. [Theme clue]

25. [Theme reveal].

27. Dim sum, e.g.: MEAL.  Chinese TAPAS.

Dim sum

28. City southeast of New Delhi: AGRA.  The site of an architectural OREO.

30. Fútbol cheer: OLE. 

31. Necklace shipped with ice packs: LEI.  You can by them from Cindy.

35. [Theme clue]

36. Markers: IOUS.  The first time I've seen this clue for IOUS.

37. Becomes inedible: ROTS.  E.g. when your PAPAYA turns BROWN.

39. Maiden name indicator: NEE.

41. Billiards stick: CUE.

44. "The Prisoner's Wife" author Bandele: ASHA.  As a favor for a friend, a bright and talented young woman volunteered to read her poetry to a group of prisoners during a Black History Month program. It was an encounter that would alter her life forever, because it was there, in the prison, that she would meet Rashid, the man who was to become her friend, her confidant, her husband, her lover, her soul mate.

46. Sprawling property: ESTATE.

49. Shirt feature: COLLAR.

51. Reef explorer's gear: SCUBA.  An acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

SCUBA diver

52. Made sharper: HONED.

53. 28-Down's country: INDIA.

56. Podcast moderators: HOSTS.

58. Slight lead: EDGE.  Also a singer in a rock and roll band ...

The Edge

59. Soft "Look over here!": PSST.

61. Divine circle: HALO.

62. Clive of "Monsieur Spade": OWEN.  To really understand Monsieur Spade we have to go back twenty years to the Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart as San Francisco private detective Sam Spade ...

"Monsieur Spade", played by British actor Clive Owen, is  now comfortably retired in the South of France but he finds that his karma has followed him there ...

The first is a great film and the second a great series, although the plot of the latter is quite complicated and the ending is a little enigmatic.

65. Sun Devils sch.: ASU.  Arizona State University.
 

66. Airport org. that approves some locks: TSA.  What are TSA-approved locks?


Cheers,
Bill

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

waseeley