Theme: It all works out in the end, if you have the right beginning. Is that too enigmatic? All will become clear, I hope. Lets have a look at the theme fill, and hope for a silver lining.
20. Broadway contender's number: AUDITION SONG. A short performance to test the talents of a musician, singer, dancer, or actor.
31. Item that may spruce up empty floor space: ACCENT RUG. A small rug that can be placed in areas where larger rugs wouldn't fit. They're generally 4'x6′ or smaller.
38. Check for immunity: ANTIBODY TESTING. Antibody tests (serology tests) look for antibodies in your blood. Antibodies are proteins your immune system makes to fight infection. These tests help your provider confirm a diagnosis of a wide range of diseases, disorders and infections,
45. Last part of a relay: ANCHOR LEG. The final position in a relay race. Typically, the anchor leg of a relay is given to the fastest or most experienced competitor on a team. The athlete completing the anchor leg of a relay is responsible for making up ground on the race-leader or preserving the lead already secured by their teammates.
56. Positive spin on a bad situation, or a feature of 20-, 31-, 38-, and 45-Across: SILVER LINING. An advantage that comes from a difficult or unpleasant situation: When things look black, there's always a silver lining.
The only thing I can find in common among these theme fill is the first and last letters of each entry. These are AG, the chemical symbol for the precious metal SILVER. This symbol derives from the Latin argentum and Sanskrit argunas from "bright." So, between these letters, the rest of the fill becomes the lining. To pick a nit, the lining should be on the inside, while the AG is on the outside, and this did throw me off for a while. But, I guess, you can't have everything.
Here's today's theme song.
Hi, Gang, JazzBumpa here to lead this mining expedition. Let's see what other precious items we can find.
Across
1. __ Romeo: motorsport brand: ALFA. Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe. It was founded on 24 June 1910 in Milan, Italy, as A.L.F.A., an acronym for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. The brand is known for sport-oriented vehicles and has been involved in car racing since 19115. Soccer goal material: MESH. Material made from a network of wire or thread.
9. Congressional hearings airer: C-SPAN. The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network. C-SPAN is a private, nonprofit organization funded by its cable and satellite affiliates. It televises proceedings of the United States federal government and other public affairs programming.
14. Momentarily: SOON. A short period of time.
15. Hybrid or coupe: AUTO. Types of motortcars.
16. In the know: AWARE. Having knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.
17. App store image: ICON. A symbol or graphic representation on a screen of a program, option, or window, especially one of several for selection.
18. 47-Down woman: FRAU. The German word for woman.
19. Gave an identity: NAMED. As defined.
23. Presidential advisory gp.: NSC. National Security Council. The President's principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his or her senior advisors and cabinet officials. N.B. the abbrv in clue and ans,
24. Dachshund's bark: YAP. A high pitched canine utterance.
25. U2 collaborator Brian: ENO. Brian Peter George Eno [b. 1948] also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambient music and electronica, and for producing, recording, and writing works in rock and pop music.
26. Roman time unit: ORA. An hour, mis-splt. S/b HORA.
29. Amoxicillin target: STREP. Short for streptococcus, a bacterium of a genus that includes the agents of souring of milk and dental decay, and hemolytic pathogens causing various infections such as scarlet fever and pneumonia..
34. Caesar's final day: IDES. He was murdered on the IDES of March. The IDES was a day falling roughly in the middle of each month (the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th of other months) from which other dates were calculated.
36. __ Vegas: LAS. A municipality in Nevada, aka Sin City. It is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-largest in the Southwestern United States.
37. Prefix with -syncrasy: IDIO-. An idiosyncracy is a mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual.
42. "Not so fast": WAIT. Hold on a sec.
43. Rust color: RED. A color at the end of the spectrum next to orange and opposite violet, as of blood, fire, or rubies.
44. Filmmaker Ethan or Joel: COEN. An American filmmaking duo. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody.
48. Netflix genre: DRAMA. A written work that tells a story through action and speech and is meant to be acted on a stage
51. "__ queen!": YAS. A term you say in response to someone fabulous. It's the equivalent of saying, “fierce,” “YES” or “you do you!” You're practically celebrating someone for what they're doing, how they look, or for what they've said.
52. Luau garland: LEI. A garland or wreath common in Hawaii, across Polynesia, and the Philippines.
53. Teamwork impediment: EGO. The part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity. If not controlled, it can lead to an elevated sense of self-importance.
55. Woodsman material, in Oz: TIN. Tin is a chemical element; it has the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort.
62. "Sesame Street" toddler: ELMO.
63. Ice cream parlor option: CONE. An ice cream cone or poke is a brittle, cone-shaped pastry, usually made of a wafer similar in texture to a waffle, made so ice cream can be carried and eaten without a bowl or spoon.
64. __ dog: CHILI. A hot dog served in a bun and topped with a meat sauce, such as chili con carne. Additional toppings may include cheese, onions, and mustard.
65. Coastal inlets: RIAS. A ria is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea.
66. Indigo shrub: ANIL. Indigofera suffruticosa, commonly known as Guatemalan indigo, small-leaved indigo (Sierra Leone), West Indian indigo, wild indigo, and anil, is a flowering plant in the pea family, Fabaceae. Anil is native to the subtropical and tropical Americas, including the Southern United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as northern Argentina. This species has been widely introduced to other parts of the world and today has a pantropical distribution.
67. -Ish: KINDA. A suffix indicating near similarity.
68. Longings: YENS. Strong feelings of wanting or wishing for something. I thought about going to Japan, but didn't have the yen to travel. [This is literally true. Our oldest granddaughter, Amanda, is dancing at Tokyo Disney. We considered gong to see her perform, but decided the 14 hour plane trip was more than we could endure.]
69. On a ferry, perhaps: ASEA. At sea. Or maybe confused while on a boat.
Down:
1. Sri Lankans, e.g.: ASIANS. Any inhabitant of a country located in the Asian continent.
2. Swarming insect: LOCUST. Locusts are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they become more abundant and change their behaviour and habits, becoming gregarious.
3. Writers with good taste, hopefully: FOOD CRITICS. A food critic, food writer, or restaurant critic is a writer who analyzes food or restaurants and then publishes the results of their findings to the public. Although these terms are not strictly synonymous, they are often used interchangeably.
4. Roman time units: ANNI. Years. Unus annus est VMMMDCCLX horis.
5. Party game also known as "Werewolf": MAFIA. Mafia, also known as Werewolf, is a Russian social deduction game created by Dimitry Davidoff in 1986. The game models a conflict between two groups: an informed minority (the mafiosi or the werewolves) and an uninformed majority (the villagers). At the start of the game, each player is secretly assigned a role affiliated with one of these teams.
6. Icy moon of Jupiter: EUROPA. Europa, or Jupiter II, is the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, and the sixth-closest to the planet of all the 95 known moons of Jupiter. It is also the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System.
7. Swiftie or Belieber: STAN. An extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan.
8. Feline friend: HOUSE CAT. A domestic cat, especially one kept as an indoor household pet.
9. Unusual instrument in the "1812 Overture": CANNON. Here is a relevant excerpt.
I've played this, but not with real canons.
10. College tour giveaways: SWAG. SWAG is free promotional merchandise such as branded apparel, drinkware, stationary, accessories, or any memorable gift item given to clients, employees, or meeting attendees for marketing, awareness, and branding purposes.
11. Conagra cooking spray brand: PAM. PAM is a cooking spray currently owned and distributed by ConAgra Foods. Its main ingredient is canola oil. PAM was introduced in 1959 by Leon Rubin who, with Arthur Meyerhoff, started PAM Products, Inc. to market the spray. The name PAM is an acronym for Product of Arthur Meyerhoff.
12. "My lips __ sealed": ARE. All your secrets are safe with me.
13. Flanders of Springfield: NED. Nedward "Ned" Flanders Jr., commonly referred to by his surname, is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer and first appearing in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." He is the good-natured, cheery next-door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally loathed by Homer Simpson, though there are numerous instances where the two are portrayed as good friends.
21. One with an easygoing personality: TYPE B. Type A and Type B personality hypothesis describes two contrasting personality types. In this hypothesis, personalities that are more competitive, highly organized, ambitious, impatient, highly aware of time management, or aggressive are labeled Type A, while more relaxed, "receptive", less "neurotic" and "frantic" personalities are labeled Type B.
22. "Nearly done ... ": ONE SEC. Wait.
26. Rabbinical students' goals: ORDINATIONS. Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized to perform various religious rites and ceremonies.
27. Tulum attraction: RUIN. Tulum is a resort town on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, around 130 km south of Cancún. The 13th-century, walled Mayan archaeological site at Tulum National Park overlooks the sea. It incorporates the clifftop Castillo, built as a watchtower, and the Templo de las Pinturas, with a partially restored mural. Inland, the Cobá archaeological site has pyramid-shaped temples with views over the surrounding jungle.
28. Waiting eagerly: AGOG. Very eager or curious to hear or see something.
30. Wharton who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: EDITH. Edith Wharton 1832 - 1937] was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray realistically the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her novel The Age of Innocence.
32. Drexler who was part of Houston's Phi Slama Jama in the early 1980s: CLYDE. Clyde Austin Drexler (b.1962) is an American former professional basketball player who currently works as the commissioner of the Big3 3-on-3 basketball league. Nicknamed "Clyde the Glide", he played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), spending a majority of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers before finishing with the Houston Rockets. He was a ten-time NBA All-Star and named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. Drexler won an NBA championship with Houston in 1995, and earned a gold medal on the 1992 United States Olympic team known as "The Dream Team".
33. Chemical concentration measurement: TITER. Titer or titre is a way of expressing concentration. Titer testing employs serial dilution to obtain approximate quantitative information from an analytical procedure that inherently only evaluates as positive or negative. The titer corresponds to the highest dilution factor that still yields a positive reading.
35. Sour salad green: SORREL. A perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock. Sorrel is native to Eurasia and a common plant in grassland habitats. It is often cultivated as a leaf vegetable or herb.
38. Not sporting home colors: AWAY. Said of a team playing at the opponents' field, court, or arena
39. Granny: NANA. Familiar terms for a grandmother.
40. Amazon drop-off: DELIVERY. The process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination.
41. "Likewise!": SO DO I. Me, too!
46. "Drivers License" singer Rodrigo: OLIVIA. Olivia Isabel Rodrigo [b. 2003] is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She first rose to prominence for starring on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark and the Disney+ series High School Musical:
10. College tour giveaways: SWAG. SWAG is free promotional merchandise such as branded apparel, drinkware, stationary, accessories, or any memorable gift item given to clients, employees, or meeting attendees for marketing, awareness, and branding purposes.
11. Conagra cooking spray brand: PAM. PAM is a cooking spray currently owned and distributed by ConAgra Foods. Its main ingredient is canola oil. PAM was introduced in 1959 by Leon Rubin who, with Arthur Meyerhoff, started PAM Products, Inc. to market the spray. The name PAM is an acronym for Product of Arthur Meyerhoff.
12. "My lips __ sealed": ARE. All your secrets are safe with me.
13. Flanders of Springfield: NED. Nedward "Ned" Flanders Jr., commonly referred to by his surname, is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer and first appearing in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." He is the good-natured, cheery next-door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally loathed by Homer Simpson, though there are numerous instances where the two are portrayed as good friends.
21. One with an easygoing personality: TYPE B. Type A and Type B personality hypothesis describes two contrasting personality types. In this hypothesis, personalities that are more competitive, highly organized, ambitious, impatient, highly aware of time management, or aggressive are labeled Type A, while more relaxed, "receptive", less "neurotic" and "frantic" personalities are labeled Type B.
22. "Nearly done ... ": ONE SEC. Wait.
26. Rabbinical students' goals: ORDINATIONS. Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized to perform various religious rites and ceremonies.
27. Tulum attraction: RUIN. Tulum is a resort town on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, around 130 km south of Cancún. The 13th-century, walled Mayan archaeological site at Tulum National Park overlooks the sea. It incorporates the clifftop Castillo, built as a watchtower, and the Templo de las Pinturas, with a partially restored mural. Inland, the Cobá archaeological site has pyramid-shaped temples with views over the surrounding jungle.
28. Waiting eagerly: AGOG. Very eager or curious to hear or see something.
30. Wharton who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: EDITH. Edith Wharton 1832 - 1937] was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray realistically the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her novel The Age of Innocence.
32. Drexler who was part of Houston's Phi Slama Jama in the early 1980s: CLYDE. Clyde Austin Drexler (b.1962) is an American former professional basketball player who currently works as the commissioner of the Big3 3-on-3 basketball league. Nicknamed "Clyde the Glide", he played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), spending a majority of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers before finishing with the Houston Rockets. He was a ten-time NBA All-Star and named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. Drexler won an NBA championship with Houston in 1995, and earned a gold medal on the 1992 United States Olympic team known as "The Dream Team".
33. Chemical concentration measurement: TITER. Titer or titre is a way of expressing concentration. Titer testing employs serial dilution to obtain approximate quantitative information from an analytical procedure that inherently only evaluates as positive or negative. The titer corresponds to the highest dilution factor that still yields a positive reading.
35. Sour salad green: SORREL. A perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock. Sorrel is native to Eurasia and a common plant in grassland habitats. It is often cultivated as a leaf vegetable or herb.
38. Not sporting home colors: AWAY. Said of a team playing at the opponents' field, court, or arena
39. Granny: NANA. Familiar terms for a grandmother.
40. Amazon drop-off: DELIVERY. The process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination.
41. "Likewise!": SO DO I. Me, too!
46. "Drivers License" singer Rodrigo: OLIVIA. Olivia Isabel Rodrigo [b. 2003] is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She first rose to prominence for starring on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark and the Disney+ series High School Musical:
47. Austria's language: GERMAN. German language, official language of both Germany and Austria and one of the official languages of Switzerland. German belongs to the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family, along with English, Frisian, and Dutch.
49. Mouse with a polka-dotted dress: MINNIE. Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an American cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a red or pink bow, polka-dotted dress, white bloomers and low-heeled shoes occasionally with ribbons on them.
50. Actress Lansbury: ANGELA. Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury DBE [1925 - 2022] was a British and American actress. In a career spanning 80 years, she played various roles across film, stage, and television. Although based for much of her life in the United States, her work attracted international attention.
54. Lip __: GLOSS. Lip gloss is a cosmetic used primarily to give lips a glossy luster, and sometimes to add a subtle color. It is distributed as a fluid or a soft solid The product is available in ranges of opacity from translucent to solid and can have variously frosted, glittery, glossy, and metallic finishes.
56. Auctioneer's cry: SOLD. An auctioneer is a person who conducts auctions by accepting bids and declaring goods sold.
57. Nobelist Wiesel: ELIE. Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel [1928 - 2016] was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
58. Sweet Sixteen org.: NCAA. National Collegiate Athletic Association.
59. "Gah!": ACK. Expressions of dismay or disgust.
60. Upsilon neighbor: PHI. Greek Letters.
61. Negroni liquor: GIN. The Negroni is made with 1 oz gin, 1 oz Campari an 1 oz sweet vermouth, garnished with an orange peel.
I had fun with this puzzle and I hope you did, too. Did it test your mettle? Would you give it a medal for it's SILVER metal?
Cool regards, my precious friends.
JzB
Cool regards, my precious friends.
JzB
