Just Some Singers
in a Rock and Roll Band
in a Rock and Roll Band
Veterans Kevin Christian and Doug Peterson team up today with a simple theme consisting of 5 two word question clues, each beginning with a play on the last name of a pop singer. They fill each clue with a two word in the language phrase beginning with the singer's first name. I couldn't find any pattern in the second word of the fill and there was no reveal. Here are the themers ...
17. Iggy's therapist?: POP PSYCHOLOGIST. You can see why Iggy Pop might need a psychologist -- he was A Real Wild Child ...
23. Taylor's comeback?: SWIFT RECOVERY. Taylor came back from her recent ERAs Tour and apparently finding the last leg to be rather torturous she was in need of some RECOVERY ...
61. Al's state-of-the-art recording equipment?: GREEN TECHNOLOGY. Al Greene (born April 13, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer. Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and is referred to on the museum's site as being "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music" and is considered by some to be "The Last of the Great Soul Singers". Here's his Take Me to the River ...
Despite the simplicity of the theme, I did find some clever cluing and IMO I didn't find any pop culture references that couldn't be resolved with perps.
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. Rock blaster?: AMP. TNT fit, but didn't perp.
4. Plus: BONUS.
9. Celery unit: STALK.
14. Fragrant garland: LEI. A perfect accessory for sitting on a 16A.
15. Are: EXIST.
16. Sunporch: LANAI. A lanai or lānai is a type of roofed, open-sided veranda, patio, or porch originating in Hawaii. Many homes, apartment buildings, hotels and restaurants in Hawaii are built with one or more lānais.
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| Albert Spencer Wilcox Beach House Hanalei, Hawaii |
20. __ equity: SWEAT. Sweat equity refers to work one does to build up value without a salary. This ownership interest, or increase in value, is created as a direct result of hard work by the owner. For example, homeowners who renovate or repair their house themselves are investing in sweat equity that increases the value of their home.
21. Tide competitor: ERA. Here are the best and worst laundry detergents for your money. Spoiler alert: the best, most economical detergent is neither Tide nor Era. And you can save even more money on laundry detergent by rolling your own.
22. Came across: MET.
23. [Theme clue]
28. Far away: NOT NEAR.
30. "Cobra __": Netflix series about a dojo: KAI. Cobra Kai is an American martial arts comedy drama television series created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg. It serves as a sequel to the original The Karate Kid films created by Robert Mark Kamen. Here's a preview of Season 6 ...
31. Primatologist's subject: APE. Probably the most famous primatologist Dame Jane Goodall, who for 60 years has been studying chimpanzees, a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa.
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| Eastern chimpanzee Kibale National Park, Uganda |
32. Chocolate-and-caramel candy: ROLO. Approximately 24.2 million pounds of ROLO® Candy are sold annually.
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39. [Theme clue]
43. Evaluate: ASSAY. Usually specifying a quantitative evaluation, e.g. measuring the percentage of gold in an ore.
44. Even once: EVER. If it has EVER happened, then it has happened at least ONCE.
45. 2016 Super Bowl MVP Miller: VON. Vonnie B'VSean Miller (born March 26, 1989) is an American professional football linebacker for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). At the conclusion of the 2015 NFL season, Miller was named Super Bowl MVP in Super Bowl 50. In 2021, Miller was traded to the Los Angeles Rams and was a member of the team that won Super Bowl LVI.
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| Von Miller |
48. Word on some Oscars: ACTRESS. The Oscar for Best Actress award has been presented 97 times, to 79 actresses. The recipient of the most awards is Katherine Hepburn, with 4.
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| Katherine Hepburn |
56. Wedding notice word: NEE. Today's French lesson: Feminine adjective --"Née = Born".
57. Honest prez: ABE. Did Lincoln really deserve the nickname, Honest Abe?
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| Abraham Lincoln |
61. [Theme clue]
66. "Mercy!": LORDY.
67. Judges' attire: ROBES. Here are nine ...
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| The Supreme Court of the United States |
69. Happen next: ENSUE. 70A ENSUES ...
70. Elitist sort: SNOOT. See 71A.
71. __ trip: EGO. See 70A.
Down:
1. Jungfrau's range: ALPS. Today's German lesson: "Jungfrau (YOONG-frow) = maiden, virgin". The Jungfrau ALP, at 4,158 meters (13,642 ft) is one of the main summits of the Swiss Alps and definitely not a climb for children. It is located in the Bernese portion of the range.
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| Jungfrau Alp |
3. Mouthpieces for some smokers: PIPE STEMS. This is not a pipe ...
4. Ride-or-die pal: BESTIE. Or abbreviated BFF.
5. Stridex shelfmate: OXY. Both products are used in the treatment of ACNE, a mild form of crosswordese. The jury seems out as to which product is best, but as OXY is imported from South Africa it costs more ...
7. Playbill carrier: USHER.
8. Put away: STORE.
9. __-mo: SLO.
10. See 12-Down: TAG.
11. "Demon Slayer" genre: ANIME. Thank you perps. Demon Slayer: Blade of Demon Destruction is a Japanese anime television series based on the manga (comic book) series of the same name by Koyoharu Gotouge. It follows teenage Tanjiro Kamado, who strives to become a Demon Slayer after his family was slaughtered and his younger sister, Nezuko, is turned into a demon.
12. With 10-Down, game with light weapons?: LASER. Laser tag is a recreational shooting sport where participants use infrared-emitting light guns to tag designated targets. Infrared-sensitive signaling devices are commonly worn by each player to register hits. In late 1970s and early 1980s, the United States Army deployed a system using lasers for combat training. But laser tag didn't begin to take off until 1984 when George Carter III, inspired by the Star Wars movies, invented the first affordable system. So how do laser tag systems actually work ...?
13. Cat, affectionately: KITTY.
18. Front-row chess piece: PAWN. This term also refers to a person who does not have any real power, but is used by others to achieve something, e.g. "The refugees were pawns in an international political dispute".
19. Deficiency: LACK.
24. Jamie of "M*A*S*H": FARR. Jamie Farr (born Jameel Joseph Farah; July 1, 1934) is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for playing Corporal Klinger, a soldier who tried getting discharged from the army by cross-dressing. You have to wonder who kept him supplied with duds -- "Hot Lips" Hoolihan maybe?
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| Jamie Farr and Loretta Swit |
25. Cache: TROVE. E.g. a TREASURE TROVE, the subject of Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island. There have been several adaptations of this novel including our favorite, this 1990 film with Charlton Heston as the obsessive pirate Long John Silver ...
26. Hops drier: OAST. An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. Oast houses can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas, e.g. Kent and Sussex, England. Many redundant oasts have been converted into tourist inns.
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| Oasts Maidstone, Kent, England |
27. Two before X: VIII. Today's math lesson (in base BCE): "X (formerly known as Twitter) - II = VIII". 😀
28. Org. that oversees the Artemis moon program: NASA. The Artemis moon program is named for the eponymous Greek goddess, the twin sister of Apollo, who was of course the namesake of the Apollo moon program. Here is the Artemis Program logo, which tells the story in a nutshell ...
29. Major work: OPUS. The plural of OPUS is OPERA, which has come to mean a musical drama or comedy telling a story via a series of works such as an overture, arias, and interludes. Ludwig van Beethoven, whose birthday we celebrated just 10 days ago, wrote only one opera, entitled Fidelio. He wrote a total of 4 overtures to it, finally settling on this one ... 33. Loo: LAV. A Brit place to sit. 😀
34. Surname of heist masterminds played by Sinatra, Clooney, and Bullock: OCEAN. Frank Sinatra played Danny Ocean in the 1960 film Ocean's 11. In Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen Danny was played by George Clooney. In Ocean's Eight women stole the franchise and Sandra Bullock played Debbie Ocean. Got that? Hand up if you've seen any of these flicks and put both yer hands up if I got any of that wrong!
36. Flatfish named for an English port: DOVER SOLE. The town of Dover, England, directly across English Channel from Calais, France is famous for it's White Cliffs -- my Mother used to sing us this song about them. As Dover was also a major fishing port in the late 19th century and a delicate white fish called "King of Sole" was common in the town markets, the name was eventually changed to Dover Sole, a flat fish with a white underside. Here's a simple recipe with capers, parsley, and butter.
37. Mireille of "Hanna": ENOS. Hanna is a sci-fi TV series about a young girl played by Esme Creed-Miles raised in the wilds of Finland by her father, an ex-CIA man, to make her the perfect assassin. She has been receiving injections of DNA since birth as a part of a program called ULTRAX to make her a super-soldier. Mireille Enos plays Marissa Wiegler, the CIA operative put in charge of the original UTRAX program, but who turns from a foe to an ally and mother figure to Hanna. Here's a trailer ...
38. Hyphenated IDs: SSNS.
40. Lancelot's strong suit?: MAIL. Well it must have been chain mail because it certainly wasn't Lancelot's fidelity to King Arthur.
41. Literary governess: EYRE. Jane Eyre is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë, published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847. It is a coming of age story that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall. The novel revolutionized prose fiction, being the first to focus on the moral and spiritual development of its protagonist through an intimate first-person narrative, where actions and events are colored by a psychological intensity.
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| First Edition, vol 1. |
42. With the bow, in music: ARCO. "arco" a the literal score notation and it indicates when to return to bowing the violin after an interlude of "pizz", that is pizzicato -- plucking the strings with the fingers. If you listen carefully and look closely at this score of Edvard Grieg's -Anitra's Dance from his Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, you'll hear and see the alternation between pizz and arco ...
47. ESPN datum: STAT.
49. Ryan Seacrest, for one: TV HOST. Ryan John Seacrest (born December 24, 1974) is an American television presenter and producer. Seacrest co-hosted and served as executive producer of Live with Kelly and Ryan, and has hosted other media including American Idol, American Top 40, and On Air with Ryan Seacrest. He became co-host of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve in 2005, and became the sole host following Clark's death in 2012.
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| Ryan Seacrest |
51. A matter of degrees?: ANGLE. An ACUTE clue ... 😀
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| Eva and Juan Perón |
53. Scholarly article reviewers: PEERS. Peer review is a quality control system for academic publications. It is especially important for scientific publications, which can have widespread societal impact on medicine, health, and public policy. In recent decades this process has come under severe stress due to the high stakes economic importance of some scientific disciplines, and the "publish or perish" phenomenon. These are the probable causes of what concerned scientists call the reproducibility crisis -- the retraction of articles after publication due to the failure of other scientists' to get the same results using the same methodology. This problem has become so serious that in 2010 two longtime health journalists, Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus, founded Retraction Watch, “a site dedicated to reporting on scientific retractions and related issues” to bring to light how many scientific papers are withdrawn yearly and why.
54. Gets taken for a ride, in a way: UBERS.
55. Intel gathered by scouts: RECON. One of the first RECON missions is recorded in the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible. In the painting below the scouts are shown returning from Canaan with grapes (sans the rumored milk and honey) and with bad news about the fortified cities and the race of giants they found there ...
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| The Grapes of Canaan by James Tissot. |
59. Awestruck: AGOG. Awesome - two vowels and two gerund endings!
60. Autocorrect target: TYPO. I'd prefer DWIM ("Do What I Mean") to "autocorrect".
62. College domain: EDU.
63. Dec. 31: NYE.
64. "The White Lotus" network: HBO. The White Lotus is an American black comedy drama anthology television series created by Mike White for HBO. "It follows the guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus resort chain, whose interactions are affected by their various psychosocial dysfunctions". While I've not seen it, I suspect that like all satires it's on the edge of becoming what it parodies. Here's the season 1 trailer (language) ...
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
