Jess returns after a six month hiatus and brightens our Saturday with a wonderful puzzle. I sailed through in sixteen minutes and was slowed only to be amazed and amused by her skill. I found Jess on FaceBook and can't tell you what a bright, engaging person she is.
Jess has separated from the Air Force after five years of service where she told me served as an Urdu linguist, not interpreter. She now lives in Colorado Springs with her husband who serves in the U.S. Space Force. This is a picture with her and her then 5-year-old son having a good time on the playground. Jess assures me this is Urdu for, "I hope you enjoyed Jess's puzzle."
مجھے امید ہے کہ آپ نے جیس کی پہیلی کا لطف اٹھایا ہوگا۔
Across:
1. Beach blanket: SAND - 😀 Yeah, I guess beaches are blanketed with SAND
5. __ Men: one-hit junkanoo band of 2000: BAHA.
9. Member of a dazzle: ZEBRA - I'd probably still say herd
14. "Van Helsing" role: IGOR.
15. Smart __: ALEC.
16. Location of the Karnak Temple Complex: EGYPT - A visit to the Karnak Temple Complex is part of Agatha Christie's plot in this Poirot movie.
17. Have empathy: CARE.
18. Pepa or pepper partner: SALT - 😀 The less common of the pairing.
19. "Buona __": NOTTE - Good Night in Italian. I hope Jess will stop in to tell us if شب بخیر is correct in Urdu.
20. Phrase on a shamrock-green T-shirt: KISS ME I'M IRISH - I'd love to buy this for a dear lady we all know on our Crossword Corner!
23. "Almost ready": ONE SEC.
24. Sleeping soundly: OUT.
25. Hermey of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," for one: ELF - Who knew?
28. Comedian who wrote "Cracking Up" and "I Know I Am, but What Are You?": SAMANTHA BEE.
32. Hodgepodge: MISH MASH.
35. Hoity-toity type: SNOOT.
36. Euler's field: MATH - If you're a math peep like I am, you know it is pronounced OY LER. Bonus points for understanding this:
37. Vital organ elements: PIPES - Our good friend Splynter knows a lot about these elements! Be sure to read his comments below the write-up!
39. Sound quality: TONE.
40. "Long story short ... ": IN SUM.
42. Motocross need: DIRT BIKE.
44. Cozy aesthetic: COTTAGE CORE.
46. Goof: ERR.
47. Camel kin: TAN.
48. Some event notices: E-VITES
53. "Stop misquoting me!": I DIDN'T SAY THAT.
57. Treadmill options: PACES - It's in here somewhere
59. Throaty sound: AHEM.
60. Cornstarch brand: ARGO - Also the ship for Jason and the Argonauts
61. Rice brews: SAKES.
62. "American Chopper" argument, e.g.: MEME.
63. Diminutive of Dolores: LOLA - Did anyone else think of Gwen Verdon and Damn Yankees?
64. Aromatic herb: THYME.
65. Robed dignitary: EMIR.
66. Chuck: YEET - A well known synonym for throw is softball circles
Down:
1. Travis Scott's "__ Mode": SICKO.
2. Once more: AGAIN.
3. Like Freya and Hel: NORSE.
4. Word with down or up: DRESS 😀
5. One of two near Everest: BASE CAMP - All who climb 29,00o foot Everest must first make the 8 - 12 day difficult but doable trek up to BASE CAMP at 17,500 feet. This family did make it to BASE CAMP with their kids.
6. Jai __: ALAI - A fav game in Crosswordland
7. Tiller: HELM - He is "at the HELM" because he has his hand on the tiller
8. Lara Croft, for one: ACTION HERO.
9. High points: ZENITHS - Big brother to cwd regulars acme and apex
10. Super followers?: EGOS.
11. Without any variation: BY THE BOOK.
12. Sch. assignment: RPT.
13. Made a fast stop: ATE 😀 On Easter Sunday, March 31 this year, those of you who fast for lent can stop.
21. Breathable fabric: MESH.
22. Groove: RUT - There can be a big difference
26. Currency in West Africa: LEONE - This bike in Freetown, Sierra Leone will run you 107,000,000 LEONES or about $4,400.
27. Swanky gala: FETE.
29. Handle for a née-sayer: MAIDEN NAME - I have no issue with keeping a surname after marriage
30. Savory jelly: ASPIC.
31. Start to freeze?: ANTI.
32. Large estate: MANOR.
33. "Too much to get into": IT'S TRICKY.
34. Close: SHUT - klōz not klōs
36. Game for owls: MICE 😀
38. Cord cutter, perhaps: STREAMER 😀
41. "Blue Nude" painter: MATISSE.
A set of three
43. Large group: BEVY.
45. Josh who plays Shakespeare on "History of the World, Part II": GAD.
49. Winner of four FIFA World Cups: ITALY.
50. Paroxysm: THROE.
51. Old quarter back: EAGLE - 😀 In this clue, quarter back is two words. Now the obverse side still has George Washington but the reverse side has hosted an EAGLE and many special images
Old quarter
A example of a new quarter
52. Mink kin: STOAT.
54. Judge: DEEM.
55. Creature feature with giant ants: THEM - Circa 1954
56. Quasi: SEMI.
57. Wash. setting: PST - Washington state is two hours behind me where I'm on CST
58. "That's the spot": AAH - I'll bet that's how you feel after finishing Jess's fun puzzle!
From Splynter:
Hi Gary,
Most of what I do for the company concerns design, drafting and the installation of the components of a pipe organ - chests, reservoirs, windlines, etc. I am rarely on site when the actual pipes get put on the chests. I did find some images, but nothing special, see attached. I had a coworker snap the image, also attached, when we recycled zinc pipes that did not get voiced and reinstalled at a church. I then took a selfie ( and I really, really wanted to send you a "shelfie", too ) Here are half of the facade pipes from the National Cathedral before we took them down and refurbished them.
Blogging
a puzzle on the Ides of March? Be prepared, then, fellow Cornerites
for some puns (and jokes) to "celebrate" the 2068th year of
Julias Caesar's assassination. For starters:
This
is a story about a Roman. His name was Herman. His name was Roman
Herman. The fad of the era was berries. People collected berries. They
were a status symbol. One day, while Roman Herman was roaming the
outskirts of Rome, he spied a berry. It was the most beautiful berry he
had ever seen. He took the berry and brought it to his wife, who loved
berries. She saw the berry. She praised it. She said, "That's an awfully
nice berry you got there Herman!" Pretty soon, word got around about
the berry. People came from all over Rome to see the berry, and to
praise it. One night, there was a menacing knock on the door. It was
late. Herman opened it. He said, "Who are you?" They said, "We've come
for your berry." He says "It's not my berry, it's my wife's berry. Have
you come to praise her berry?" "No, we've come to seize her berry, not
to praise it."
OK, I digress ... on
this year's Ides of March, our constructor du jour (Alan Levin) decides
to tease us with a series of entries whose clues contain the "aha"
behind the reveal:
58-across. When read as
three words, suitable sponsor for "Sesame Street" and an alternate
answer for 18-, 20-, 30-, 36-, 46-, and 53-Across: THE LETTER S.
Wait,
what?? THE LETTER S?? What does that have to do with the 6 entries??
Well, let me try to use the KISS method, as I highlight the key word(s)
in each clue for you ...
18-across. It concludes The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds": CAROLINE, NO.
Forget about the final song track on the Beach Boys' album "Pet Sounds" and
think about the last letter of the album's name; "Sounds" ends/concludes
with THE LETTER S
20-across. Character seen at the beginning and end of "Star Wars": AR-TOO DE-TOO. R2-D2 (the droid) is quite a character. Additionally, the movie title (name), "Star Wars" begins and ends with THE LETTER (aka, CHARACTER) S
30-across. It comes early in September: LABOR DAY. LABOR DAY is not only celebrated early in September (the first Monday, traditionally, in the US), but THE LETTER S also comes early in the "word" SEPTEMBER
This year's LABOR DAY is 9/2
36-across. One is used in basketball but not in hockey: SHOT CLOCK.
This is probably my most favorite of Alan's ... the "SHOT CLOCK" is a
timer that sits above each backboard at a basketball game. In the
NBA, e.g., the team with possession has 24 seconds to attempt a SHOT,
and at the very least, hit the rim of the net (or make the basket), or else they would turn the ball over to the other team
In
hockey, the only CLOCK is the one on the scoreboard that ticks down the minutes/seconds (20:00, to be exact) in each of three periods. The skaters/players on each team have no sense of urgency to take a shot; hence, there is no SHOT CLOCK
So what makes this clue/answer even more amazing is that the word "basketball" contains THE LETTER S; the word "hockey" does not ... very, very clever
The SHOT CLOCK is above the backboard for easy visibility
46-across. What can be seen in two placesin Missouri: MLB TEAMS.
At first, I was a bit miffed at this answer (before I solved the
puzzle) because the clue contains no abbreviated word(s). Usually, if
part of a crossword answer should be abbreviated, an abbreviation
appears in the clue.
But after further review I get it. Both the St.
Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals are MLB TEAMS in the state of
Missouri. And guess what? THE LETTER S also is seen in two places in
the "word" Missouri. Nice!
53-across. One can't print dollars without it: SPECIAL INK.
Try printing the word "dollars" without THE LETTER S; it can't be
done. The word would be "dollar". Try printing a sheet of US
Dollars without SPECIAL INK (or special paper) and you'd be arrested for
counterfeiting, if caught
Lots of SPECIAL INK used
I
highlighted all 14 of THE LETTER ESSES found in today's puzzle. Can't
wait for the rest of the clues/words to see what else is in store ...
5. Fades: DIMS. Many lighting sources come with some sort of DIMming device these days
9. Redolence: AROMA. Its literal meaning; mostly used as an adjective (redolent)
14. Strip of wood: SLAT.
15. Legendary: EPIC.
16. Participated in a regatta, maybe: ROWED. My first thought
was that a regatta was a boat race for sailing vessels, not rowing
vessels ... but this image below shows the type of boat referred to:
17. Prefix between giga- and peta-: TERA. A GIGA-byte is 1
billion bytes; a TERA-byte is 1,000 gigabytes; but a PETA byte is what
happens when a worker at the SPCA doesn't pay attention to the rescue's
bark ...
22. Gain an advantage: ONE UP. Who wants to ONE UP the Chairman today on dad jokes??!😏
23. Collection of vineyards, perhaps: ESTATE. This one is right up the Chairman's alley
28. Tune from "10": BOLERO. Been a lonnnnggggg time since I saw
this EPIC film starring Bo Derek and Dudley Moore ... the clip below is
definitely NSFW [be warned!]
32. W-2 org.: IRS. One month - to the day - and our 2023 1040 tax returns are due
33. Benefit: AVAIL. Many of us AVAIL ourselves of the blog to see where we went wrong (or succeeded)
35. Nose (out): EDGE. Also a horse racing term; when a horse "wins by a nose" and EDGEs out its rival
Also known as a "photo finish", but the inside horse EDGEd out the other
39. Hearty partner: HALE.
42. Animal also called a forest giraffe: OKAPI. Fun facts about it in this short video clip:
43. Boxer's warning: GRR. Maybe THIS is the warning made by a dog prior to giving one a "peta-byte"
49. Dinner-and-a-show platform: TV TRAY. Margaret and I still use this device
Tables for two??
51. Small accident: MISHAP.
52. One-named K-pop singer: IRENE. This filled in with perps; Her
62. Powdery mineral: TALC. I'm sure the sales of this powder plummeted once the discovery of its connection to cervical cancer was made public
64. Inbox filler: EMAIL.
65. Cut down to size: CROP. Most of my images in this blog are CROPped from its original size
66. Poetic tributes: ODES.
67. Study aids: NOTES. I was a prolific NOTES taker when I was in school
68. Physicist Bethe portrayed in "Oppenheimer": HANS. The movie "Oppenheimer" is bound to provide us with many new clues/entries this year in xword puzzles
69. Moon landing org.: NASA.
Down:
1. Summer hrs.: DST. Not here in AZ (except for the Navajo Nation) ... apparently there is a bill before the Senate (and/or House) that would make DST permanent ... YMMV ... having more daylight here in the desert SW during the summer would not be welcomed
2. Roosevelt whom Truman called the "First Lady of the World": ELEANOR. FDR's wife
3. Crude carriers: BARRELS. TANKERS also fit as an answer
4. Square figure?: STATUE. Nice misdirection for a clue ...
square, as in "town square", where many statues reside, though many that
had to do with Civil War figures (CSA) have been torn down/removed.
Here is a joke related to square figures ... (just one cuss word)
For decades, two heroic statues, one male and one female, faced each other in a town square until one day, an angel came down from heaven. "You've been such exemplary statues," the angel said, "that I'm going to give you a special gift. I'm going to bring you both to life for thirty minutes, during which time you can do anything you want."
And with a clap of his hands, the angel brought the statues to life. The two approached each other a bit shyly and dashed for the bushes, from whence there came a good deal of giggling, laughter, and shaking of branches. Fifteen minutes later, the two statues emerged from the bushes with wide grins on their faces.
"You still have fifteen more minutes," said the angel, winking at them. Grinning even more broadly, the female statue turned to the male statue and said, "Great! Only this time you hold the pigeon down and I'll shit on its head!" [Jokes4us dot com]
5. Ert 's style: DECO. as in Art DECO
6. Tablet since 2010: iPAD. No tablets in the Moe household; just PC's and cellphones
7. Marshy spot: MIRE. BOG didn't fit
8. Dundee resident: SCOT.
9. Melodic passage: ARIOSO. Here is a nice Bach ARIOSO:
10. Director Howard: RON. He's come a long way from playing Opie
11. Have debts: OWE. Mine include just a car payment and mortgage payment; credit cards, no
12. Guys: MEN. MALES was too long to fit
13. Flap: ADO. Had to check all of the synonyms ... does the thesaurussaurus agree?
Nope; ADO didn't make it
19. "Stay" singer Lisa: LOEB. Lots of proper names in today's puzzle; who kept track of them? Not I
21. 2021 interviewer of Meghan and Harry: OPRAH.
22. Kimono sash: OBI. Lots of 3-letter words (TLW) today; who kept track of them? Irish Miss, perhaps?
24. Arduous journey: TREK.
25. Append: ADD.
26. Graffiti signature: TAG. This, maybe??
27. Needle hole: EYE.
29. Lacto-__ vegetarian: OVO. One who consumes dairy and eggs in their non-meat diet
30. Soundly defeats: LICKS. I have been known to "soundly defeat" a lollipop ...
31. Penne __ vodka: ALLA. Italian for "with"
34. Speck: ATOM. IOTA fits, too
36. MacFarlane or Green of "Family Guy": SETH. The man of many voices. Does anyone else here watch The Graham Norton show? It's one of our favorites - shown on BBC America
37. Elect (to): OPT. OPT in or OPT out; that's the "election"
38. Polite: CIVIL. Unlike the CIVIL War, which was anything but "polite"
39. "Let me see ... ": HMM. HMM and GRR in the same puzzle?? ARRGGHH
40. Mahershala with two Oscars: ALI. Not the "boxer's" family member
41. Nt. wt. units: LBS.
43. Southernmost of the Windward Islands: GRENADA.
Grenada
is situated to the northeast of Venezuela; to the northwest of Trinidad
and Tobago; and to the southwest of Saint Vincent and Grenadines.
44. Really irks: RANKLES.
45. Saloon pour: RYE. As opposed to a "salon" pour, which
would've been DYE. RYE is one of the Chairman's favorite whiskies -
especially when used to make a Manhattan cocktail
47. Stands in front of artists: EASELS. MODELS could've answered this clue, too ... yes??
48. Dr. visit: APPT. I like to make mine (APPT.'s) mid-morning
50. Son of Poseidon: TRITON.
54. Engrave: ETCH.
55. "Life & Beth" actor Michael: CERA. Michael Austin Cera is a Canadian actor and musician. He is known for
his awkward, offbeat characters in coming of age comedy films and for
portraying George Michael Bluth in the sitcom Arrested Development
(2003–2006, 2013, 2018–2019). He is also known for voicing Brother Bear
in The Berenstain Bears
56. Curling __: IRON. RINK also fit, though I bet most Canadians refer to the surface for curling as a sheet
57. Egyptian snakes: ASPS. Cleo's foil
58. Number of digits on a keypad: TEN. Note: the final five clues in today's puzzle yield TLWs, Irish Miss ...
59. Med. care provider: HMO.
60. "Don't let it get cold": EAT.
61. Whopper: LIE.
63. Farm-share program, for short: CSA. Clues that match this answer to the group that split from the USA in 1861 are no longer allowed, methinks
And
there you have it! The IDES of March puzzle fell with no additional stab wounds.
Curious to know YOUR thoughts ... in the comments section below.
On
another note, the Chairman and Margaret will be attending the funeral of
her mom today, so I won't be coming here until tomorrow, or much later
tonight to see your comments. Her mom passed peacefully a few weeks ago
(at the age of 94). May she RIP; she is now reunited with the love of her
life who passed away in 2019, just a few days after their 68th
wedding anniversary
This is Baylee Devereaux's 3rd visit to the Corner, the last reviewed
by sumdaze on
January 30, 2023. Some of you will have already noticed that there are circles in this
puzzle, and for those who see them as unneeded, I decided make it easier
for you to solve by removing them from the grid, comme ça ...
Today's grid sans circles
And to make it even easier I decided to remove the superfluous reference in the reveal to
circles, comme ça ...
63A. Elegant hairstyle, as given by clues 17-,
30-, and 47-Across?: FRENCH TWIST.
Without all that clutter
solving the themers should now be a piece of cake ...
17. Man in 1990s hip-hop fashion?: HAMMER PANTS. Named for the
eponymous M C Hammer?
Hammer Pants
30. School in a recreational vehicle?: MOBILE HOME. All the best
recreational vehicles are now equipped with them, but if you can't afford
one you can just ...
... send the kids outside
47. Dog in a classic drawing game?: PICTIONARY. This one was really
easy...
All you have to do is picture it!
But the one thing that bothered me was the reveal.
GALLIC IRONY perhaps? Or a clever reference to
Monsieur O'HENRI? And then there was the constructor's name -- sounds suspiciously
FRENCH doesn't it? There just had to be more to this theme. So I
decided to put the circles back in ...
... and then light them up and fill the grid ...
... and suddenly the reveal started to make sense ...
63. Elegant
hairstyle, and what the circled letters give to 17-, 30-, and 47-Across?:
FRENCH TWIST.
... all three of
the actual themers were 5 letter
mots Français that twisted
UP and
DOWN (or
DOWN and
UP) above and below the FAUX themers (those referenced in the
reveal). They provide today's French lesson, spelled respectively ...
HOMME: "Man in 1990's hip-hop fashion?" ECOLE: "School in a recreational vehicle?" CHIEN: "Dog
in a classic drawing game?"
... very clever (and hard to construct I bet). And to think that I nearly missed it! The moral of
this saga is that circles are sometimes useful and may even be necessary
to solve a crossword puzzle, or at the very least to understand the theme. 😀
Most of the rest of the clues are lot easier, except for 1A ...
Across:
1. Market leader?: GROCER.
I got this answer only with the help of perps. The word "leader"
usually implies a prefix or perhaps the start of a meta-clue. After 2
or 3 false starts I gave up trying to figure out what the clue had to do
with a GROCER and googled it -- "A market leader
could be a product, brand, company, organization, group name which has
the highest percentage of total sales revenue of a particular market. The market leader dominates the market by influencing the customer loyalty towards it, distribution, pricing, etc." - indiatimes.com. I don't get it. Any ideas?
7. Bogus: SHAM.
11. Borrow, but not really: BUM. At the very end of this Beatles classic John Lennon tries to BUM a cigarette. Listen for it ...
14. Mexican state on the Gulf of California: SONORA. SONORA
-- officially the Spanish: Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (English:
Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which,
along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. Looks
like it's right down the road from Lucina and the Chairman ...
15. Pilates target: CORE. The CORE
or trunk is the axial (central) part of an organism's body. In common
parlance, the term is broadly considered to be synonymous with the torso, but academically it also includes the head and neck. Pilates is a type of mind-body exercise developed in the early 20th century by German physical trainer Joseph Pilates, after whom it was named. It is similar to yoga in that both disciplines develop strength, flexibility and fitness. Pilates,
however, emphasizes core strength where yoga emphasizes flexibility.
Pilates"All Fours" Exercise
16. Half and half: ONE.
17. [Theme clue]
19. Donkey: ASS.
20. "Uncut Gems" actor Sandler: ADAM. Tomato Meter 91%, Audience Score 52%. Capsule reviews and a trailer (movie rated R, trailer PG (language)) ... 21. AirPod locale: EAR.
22. Loathes: HATES.
24. "Umbrella" singer, to fans: RIRI. As in Rhianna . Here's her song ...
55. CBS Sports NFL analyst Tony: ROMO. Antonio Ramiro Romo
(born April 21, 1980) is an American former football quarterback who
played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Eastern Illinois Panthers, where he made an Ohio Valley Conference championship appearance in 2001 and won the Walter Payton Award the following year. Romo signed with the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2003.
Tony Romo
56. Hayworth of the silver screen: RITA. RITA Hayworth
(born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an
American actress. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top
stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films in total
over 37 years. The press coined the term "The Love Goddess" to describe
Hayworth after she had become the most glamorous screen idol of the
1940s. She was the top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II. Here's a
dance number she performs as femme fatale Gilda,, perhaps her most famous role ...
57. Clear: ERASE.
59. "... and many more," for short: ETC.
61. Josh Gad's "Frozen" voice role: OLAF. OLAF is the snowman, who is of course literally -- "Frozen" ... 62. Yang partner: YIN. Yin and yang comprise a concept that originated in Chinese philosophy,
describing opposite but interconnected, mutually perpetuating forces.
The technology of yin and yang is the foundation of critical and
deductive reasoning for effective differential diagnosis of disease and
illnesses within Confucian influenced traditional Chinese
medicine. The "complementarity" of these two concepts has also resonated
in the West, especially among scientists. The great Danish quantum
physicist Niels Bohr even used it in the design of his family crest.
72. Instrument near the end of the dictionary: ZITHER. The poster child for the ZITHER is the Johann Strauss Jr waltz Tales from the Vienna Woods ... Down:
1. Seventh note in the A major scale: G SHARP. Not being a musician, and not being able to suss 1A (see above), I eventually had to look it up. Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 was written in A Major and Richard Wagner called it "the apotheosis of the dance". Here's the enchanting 2nd movement Allegretto, which you might recognize from its frequent use in movies and TV ... 2. Touring technician: ROADIE.
3. Really, really out there: ON MARS. Elon Musk is committed to colonizing MARS. We can all rest easier when he's really, really out there.
4. Goes all in: COMMITS.
5. Sonnet preposition: ERE.
6. Not so common: RARE.
7. Hieroglyph critter: SCARAB. SCARABS
are beetle-shaped amulets and impression seals which were widely
popular throughout ancient Egypt. They still survive in large numbers
today. Through their inscriptions and typology, they prove to be an
important source of information for archaeologists and historians of the
ancient world, and represent a significant body of ancient Egyptian
art.
Scarab inscribed for King Hatshepsut c. 1479–1458 B.C., MOMA, NY, NY
8. Snookums: HON.
9. Work on a wall: ART. This one is on the wall of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Woman Holding a Balance Jan Vermeer c. 1664
10. Fit well together: MESH.
11. Huge amount: BOATLOAD. It's amazing the things you discover when you are annotating crossword puzzles.
12. Improper: UNSEEMLY. The Corner review team tries to avoid UNSEEMLY annotations, but some of us are EDGIER than others. 😁
13. Knotty tangle: MESS. Probably the most tangled MESS in history was the legendary Gordian Knot, undone by Alexander the Great with a single stroke of genius. The story was memorialized in a lost Restoration play, but the incidental music by Henry Purcell still survives. Here are two movements from the suite ...
18. __ Alto, California: PALO. Palo Alto (Spanish for 'tall stick') is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. It's also the home of the HP Garage and the birthplace of the term "Silicon Valley".
23. Ibuprofen target: ACHE.
26. Swampy spot: MIRE. This clue is all wet!
27. More than one needs: PLENTY. [No politics Bill. No politics.]
30. Streaker in the sky: METEOR. These streakers periodically fly by Earth in relatively large numbers called meteor showers. If you are blessed with skies unpolluted by light (or the streaks from Elon Musk's Starlink network) you may be able to photograph them. Here are some tips for doing that.
31. Lip: EDGE.
32. Denver-to-Wichita dir.: ESE.
7 hr 20 min (520.3 mi) via I-70 E
34. "__ only known ... ": HAD I. We should always act as if we had. A song by Reba McEntire ...
40. Cube creator Rubik: ERNO. A Rubik’s Cube is an interesting puzzle invented by ERNO Rubik,
which has 43 quintillion possible configurations. But with the use of
certain algorithms, it can be solved easily. There are many variations
of the Rubix cube nowadays but the most basic one is the 3x3x3 Rubik’s
cube. Here's how to solve it. Hand up if you were ever addicted to these?
Rubik's Cube
44. Unspecified degrees: NTHS.
46. Try to bean: THROW AT. Watch Mr. Bean THROW sponges AT the Headmaster!
48. Makes right: AMENDS.
49. College military org.: ROTC.
51. "What Was I Made For?" singer Billie: EILISH. Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell
(born December 18, 2001) is an American singer and songwriter. She
first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single "Ocean
Eyes", written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell, with whom she collaborates on music and live shows. She and her brother were nominated for an Oscar for their song What Was I Made For, written for the soundtrack to the movie Barbie -- and this just in -- they won! I
had originally illustrated this clue with a scene from the movie, where
Barbie has left the doll's world and entered the real world where she
encounters an old woman at a bus stop -- very existential.
60. Bistro awning word: CHEZ. Did this one TWIST its way out of the grid? 😀
Chez Fred, Paris
64. Youngster in the Hundred Acre Wood: ROO. Here's ROO in his mother KANGA's pouch. They live in the Hundred Acre Wood with Winnie the Pooh and all his friends.
65. Ages and ages: EON.
66. Bi- equivalent: TWI. The Wiki tells us that TWI is a variety of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana
by several million people, mainly the Akan people, the largest of the
seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. I suspect however that this may
also be a slang appropriation, coding for something else. 😀
Cheers, Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
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