Today's constructor is Damon Gulczynski, a real blast from the past, who last visited us on February 18, 2010
and was reviewed by none other than C.C. Burnikel. Her review is worth
reading if for no other reason than to see some commenters who were
members of the fledgling Corner, some whom I know and some I do not.
While he was away it seems that Damon was spending a lot of time at that other newspaper (and thanks to them we have this capsule bio).
Today Damon wants to ask us some
Questionable Questions
using
2 word clues, which are questions about the question we're asked to
fill in. There's no reveal, but these and only these 5 Across clues end in ?:
17. Trick question?: WAS THIS YOUR CARD?
A question a card sharp might ask: shuffle and cut the deck, ask the
mark to "pick a card, any card", have he/she insert it back in the deck,
shuffle again, pick a card, and pop the question. Don't ask me how it
works?
38. Burning question?: WHERES THE FIRE? A question a cop might ask a speeder. The real burning question might be "how much is the fine?".
49. Leading question?: WHO'S WINNING? Everybody was asking this question about the World Cup until December 18th. In case you were living in a cave, it was Argentina.
58. Probing question?: FIND ANY THING YET?. Grandma asks this from time to time on Easter afternoon as the kids are probing the bushes for eggs in the back yard.
Here's the grid:
More questions for you to answer:
Across:
1. Young chaps: LADS.
5. Methodology: Abbr.: SYST. SYSTEM. I found many
definitions for these two terms and they seemed vague, inconsistent,
contradictory and sometimes circular. In my experience a METHODOLOGY is a formal, documented approach to defining the requirements and designs of INFORMATION SYSTEMS. There are many such methodologies. YMMV.
9. Played over: RERAN.
14. Samoa's biggest city: APIA. Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono and Apolima); and several smaller, uninhabited islands. APIA is on Upolu island. Not to be confused with American Samoa, which is located 64 km (40 mi) Southeast of Samoa. IIRC D-O served in the military in America Samoa. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
16. Prenatal test, for short: AMNIO. Short for Amniocentesis, which is a diagnostic test that may be recommended by your health care provider following an abnormal triple test result. Inherited or genetic concerns lead some parents to choose amniocentesis to determine if specific genetic disorders may be present in their baby.
[Theme clue].
20. Role for Flockhart: MCBEAL. Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy drama television series starring Calista Flockhart and originally aired on Fox from September 8, 1997, to May 20, 2002.
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| Calista Flockhart |
22. "That's it!": AHA.
[Theme clue].
29. Fictional Wolfe who was born in Montenegro: NERO. Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. The character also appeared in a 2011 TV Series on A&E:
31. Netflix's "__ White People": DEAR. Dear White People is an American comedy-drama television series on Netflix that follows several black college students at an Ivy League institution (the fictional Winchester University), touching on issues surrounding modern American race relations through a progressive lens.
32. By way of: VIA.
33. "Battle of the Sexes" loser: RIGGS. In tennis, "Battle of the Sexes" describes various exhibition matches played between a man and a woman, or a doubles match between two men and two women in one case. The term is most famously used for an internationally televised match in 1973 held at the Houston Astrodome between 55-year-old Bobby Riggs and 29-year-old Billie Jean King, which King won in three sets. What was he thinking? The match was made into a movie starring Steve Carell Emma Stone:
35. Like dried rose petals: PAPERY.
[Theme clue]
41. Bumps: RAISES.
42. "__ Meenie": Kingston/Bieber hit: EENIE.
43. "CODA" communication method: ASL. American Sign Language. CODA is a 2021 coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Sian Heder. It stars Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi, the titular child of deaf adults (CODA) and only hearing member of her family, a teenager who attempts to help her family's struggling fishing business while pursuing her own aspirations of being a singer. The movie uses deaf actors to play the deaf characters, who, along with Jones, communicate in ASL.
44. Blues singer Thomas: IRMA. Irma Thomas (née Lee; born February 18, 1941) is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans." Here's her cover of Jerry Ragovoy's Time Is On My Side:
45. Soaks (up): SOPS.
[Theme clue]
54. Currency of Laos: KIP. KIPS were trading for 17,296.782 for a dollar on the day this was written. This will tell you if that number has changed.
55. Roth investments: IRAS.
56. Screenwriter Cody who won an Oscar for "Juno": DIABLO. Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is a fairly typical 16-year-old teenager with attitude and a quick tongue. She decides to experiment with sex with her friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). This results in an unwanted pregnancy.
Diablo Cody, is the pen name for Brook Maurio (née Busey; born June 14, 1978), an American writer and producer.
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| Diablo Cody |
63. Hawaii or Alaska, on many a map: INSET.
64. Bread served with mattar paneer: NAAN. Peas and paneer is our all time favorite Indian dish. You can substitute cottage cheese for the paneer, buy it in Indian food stores, or make your own. Here's a recipe for the mattar paneer:
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| Mattar Paneer |
66. Grind, as teeth: GNASH.
67. Fail suddenly, with "out": CONK.
68. Turn down: DENY.
Down:
1. Wyatt Earp, for one: LAWMAN. Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys.
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| Wyatt Earp |
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| Apachean tribes, c. 18th century WA: Western Apache N: Navajo Ch: Chiricahua: M Mescalero J: Jicarilla L: Lipan Pl: Plains Apache |
4. Fill until full: SATE.
5. Places to recover after going downhill fast: SKI LODGES. A CSO to MalMan. When he's not frolicking in tropical lagoons, he spends his time going downhill (but I understand not as fast as in former days).
6. "Sweet!": YES.
7. Farm pen: STY.
8. Over the line: TOO FAR. For some reason, this hit by Brewer and Shipley was the first thing that popped into my head. DNK the railway station. Hand up if you do?
9. Like more expensive art, often: RARER.
10. Awards show host: EMCEE.
11. Genetic molecule translated into protein: RNA. DNA would have fit as well, so you have to wait for perps. Here's a simplified view of the translation process. PET PEEVE: I have a lot of problems with orthodox explanations of this process because they employ circular reasoning, a logical fallacy formally known as petitio principii and commonly called "begging the question". For example, a key component of the translation process involves a large enzyme (a type of protein) called a ribosome, which is a complex assembly of various proteins and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). Thus proteins and RNA are precursors to the synthesis of proteins and RNA.
Thus the premise assumes the conclusion. Scientists have been trying
to explain how this process originated (was "bootstrapped") ever since
Francis Crick formulated his famous central dogma in 1958. So far the explanations all boil down to this:
13. Go-ahead: NOD.
18. Conned: HAD.
19. Short address: URL.
24. Photo sources: NEGS. NEGATIVES, a term which might seem a little negative to any Gen X,Y, or Zers reading this, i.e. anyone who was raised taking digital pictures with cellphones. This article will give you much more than you'd ever want to know about the ancient analogue world of film photography, but it does have a lot of pretty photos.
25. Conference of Magic and Wizards: EASTERN. That is the NBA conference of the Orlando Magic and the Washington Wizards. As near as I could tell it has nothing to do with Harry Potter.
26. Assert as true: AVER.
27. Bleak: DIRE.
28. "Woot!": YAY. A CSO to Anonymous -T. I hope he's way better by the time he reads this.
30. Rich deposits: ORES.
34. Intense anger: IRE.
35. No-frills drawing style: PEN AND INK. This is MC Escher's "No-frills" pen and ink sketch,
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| Hand with a Reflecting Sphere MC Escher, 1935 |
36. "100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time" org.: AFI. I think we can all guess #1 - here are all them from the American Film Institute.
AFI is also an abbreviation for A Fire Inside, an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock. Here's their emo hit Leaving Song Pt. II from their Platinum album Sing the Sorrow:
38. Break-even proposition: WASH.
39. Oldest city in Hawaii: HILO. Around 1100 AD, the first Hilo inhabitants arrived, bringing with them Polynesian knowledge and traditions. Although archaeological evidence is scant, oral history has many references to people living in Hilo, along the Wailuku and Wailoa rivers during the time of ancient Hawaii. Oral history gives the meaning of Hilo as "to twist", no doubt the origin of everybody's favorite crosswordese dance. Hilo was about 800 years old when this picture was taken in 1907 (not bad for a film camera).
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| Hilo, Hawaii 1907 |
40. Half up front?: HEMI. HEMI as in "half"; "up front" as in "prefix", as in HEMISPHERE:
44. Thinking alike: IN SYNC.
46. "No objection here": OK BY ME. Sounds like these conversers are IN SYNC.
47. Enter en masse: PILE IN. This clue was last seen on the Corner in a DAB puzzle on October 20th, 2022, reviewed by -T (who co-incidentally illustrated his theme title with a lithograph by MC Escher).
48. Like bad cell reception: SPOTTY.
50. Teams: SIDES.
51. Intense anger: WRATH. As in DIES IRAE ("Day of WRATH"), the Latin poem used in the Catholic Office for the Dead. Here's Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting a commemorative performance of Verdi’s Requiem on the 20th anniversary of 9/11:
52. McKellen who plays Gandalf: IAN. Here's Ian McKellen in what is for me the most memorable scene in the Lord of the Rings. It expresses not only WRATH, but intense SADNESS: (spoiler alert: don't watch this if you haven't seen LOTR; you owe it to yourself to see the whole saga first):
53. Martini ingredient: GIN.
57. Matured: AGED. I didn't know that GINS could be AGED. You might have to give away your AGE to get into this site.
58. Newton fruit: FIG.
59. Overnight option: INN.
60. DOD intel arm: NSA. No Such Agency is just down the pike from where we live.
61. Living-in-harmony principle: TAO. Good advice whatever your beliefs.
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism. waseeley
