Good morning, cruciverbalists. Ed Sessa follows up his Wednesday October 7th puzzle with a Thursday offering featuring some challenging clues/answers and an interesting grid. The entries at 55 and 58 Across combine to reveal the theme. Candidly, even with the reveal, it took this mulling marine mammal many more moments to make sense out of Ed's machinations. By that time, the theme answers were all in place but I had not the slightest idea that that had already occurred.
THEME: JUMPING JACK FLASH
55. With 58-Across, cardio exercise ... and what's hidden in three puzzle rows?: JUMPING.
58. See 55-Across: JACKS.
58. See 55-Across: JACKS.
Okay, so JUMPING JACKS is the theme. Now, just what the heck does that mean? Ed has a reputation for presenting solvers with challenging (puzzling?) themes and today is no exception.
There are several possible ways to begin to interpret the theme. Jack B. Nimble leaping over candlesticks would certainly be a Jumping Jack. Jumping Jack Flash would be a gas. Jack Rabbits could provide some hip-hop fun. Perhaps, though, it is a reference meant to be taken at face value. Jacks who jump.
On three puzzle rows, JACKS are JUMPING across the black squares to combine the final letters in the first answer with the opening letters in the second answers. The results form the JACKS' surnames and all, of course, share the same first name, JACK.
It is probably a good idea today to start off with a look at the grid rather than waiting until the end of the write-up. Ed elected not to use circles so this will make the theme's mechanics easier to see.
As can be seen, in red above and below, here are the JUMPING JACKS :
20. Across - Showing shock: A GASP and
21. Across - Squalid quarters: RAT HOLE.
AGASPRATHOLE - SPRAT, Jack Sprat
THE SPRATS
35. Across - Like a pendulum's motion: TO AND FRO and
37. Across - Light at some roller rinks: STROBE.
37. Across - Light at some roller rinks: STROBE.
TOANDFROSTROBE - FROST, Jack Frost
JACK FROST
42. Across - One of the Magi: CASPAR and
45. Across - Sidewall-sharing abode: ROW HOUSE.
CASPARROWHOUSE - SPARROW, Jack Sparrow
CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW
Across:
1. Radio toggle: AM FM. As Chairman Moe rightly pointed out last Friday, AM FM radios have become a bit archaic in our digital world.
5. A minor, for one: CHORD. A bit of misdirection. A person less than eighteen years old? Something of lesser importance? No, and no. A musical triad. A CHORD in the key of A Minor, the relative minor of C Major.
10. Animal shelter sight: CAGE. Clear The Shelters is a nationwide ongoing campaign to reduce the number of animals in CAGEs.
14. Big do: GALA. In this case do means a social event. GALA, or Fete or Ball. These choices have been offered to us many times before. AFRO would have fit but would not have worked out.
15. Place where fast bucks are made: RODEO. Here, fast bucks is not a slang term for easy money. A bucking bronco, or a bucking bull, or .... a bucking tortoise?
16. Team that pulls for its driver: OXEN.
OXEN PUT BEFORE THE CART
17. Delivery made by mouth: ORAL REPORT.
19. Tear apart: REND. REND means to tear something into two or more pieces.
23. Surrealist Tanguy: YVES. YVES Tanguy (1900 - 1955) was a French surrealist painter.
REPLY TO RED - YVES TANGUY - 1943
25. Color in four-color printing: CYAN. The four colors are CYAN, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The inks can be combined in various proportions to form a vast array of colors.
26. Open, in a way: UNCAP.
29. Fraternal order member since 1868: ELK. The Benevolent and Protective Order of ELKs (BPOE).
31. Blocks that lock: LEGOS LEGOS are plastic toy building blocks but they have been used to build some amazing things. It's difficult to say how these particular buildings will hold up in the next big earthquake.
38. Critical hosp. area: ICU. The Intensive Care Unit.
39. Going up in smoke: AFIRE. On fire or burning. Or, as Ray might put it:
41. Ref. whose first edition took decades to complete: OED. Volume One of the Oxford English Dictionary, covering only A and B, was published in 1888. Volume 10/2 which covered V to Z was not published until 1928! The OED started an online version in 2000. A completely revised Third Edition is expected to be completed in 2037.
48. Warn: ALERT.
49. Business VIP: CEO. Chief Executive Officer.
50. Engrave?: INTER. The answer is not meant to be the prefix meaning among or within. This time, taken as the bad pun of a clue intends, INTER, with the accent on the second syllable, is used to mean place in a grave or a tomb.
51. Scintilla: IOTA. How did the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet come to represent a very small amount? Some etymologists say that it came about because IOTA is the smallest letter of that alphabet.
53. Carry-on item: TOTE. As with OREO, ACAI, APSE, EURO, ASTA, ODIE, AGUE, ELAN, etc., etc., etc., TOTE is a short, vowel-rich word that can be a big help to constructors.
61. Court loser, maybe: PERP. Short for PERPetrator.
62. "You had your chance": TOO LATE NOW. I will pass on the possible Carole King link and go with the Chuck Willis song from 1956.
65. What a slight favorite has: EDGE.
66. Satchel Paige's first name: LEROY. LEROY Robert Satchel Paige was a baseball player who pitched in the Negro Leagues and in the Major Leagues. He began his career in 1924 with the Mobile Tigers. In 1965, the then 59 year old Paige pitched three innings of one-hit ball for the Kansas City Athletics.
SATCHEL PAIGE
67. The Big Easy, informally: NOLA. New Orleans, LA. This clue/answer likely put a smile on the face of one of our Cornerites.
68. Motley: PIED. In this case, both the clue and the answer are synonyms for varied in color. The Motley Piper? Pied Crue?
69. Shangri-las: EDENS. EDENS are (mythical) delightful places where one dwells in a state of happiness and contentment. We've got to get ourselves back to the Garrrrrrdennnnn. Or, perhaps, to Woodstock.
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
70. Pairs: TWOS.
Down:
1. In the past: AGO. One of the most well-remembered uses of AGO was employed by the gentleman referenced at 47 Down. Bill & Ted's ORAL REPORT was far better than Bart Simpson's.
FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN...
2. "Mary Magdalene" star Rooney __: MARA. You'd think that MM would be familiar with a 2018 movie called "Mary Magdalene" but that is not the case.
3. Symbol on a pole: FLAG. Fun With FLAGs was a recurring bit on The Big Bang Theory.
4. Kuala Lumpur native: MALAYAN. Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia. In graduate school, the MALAYAN students would casually refer to "K.L." in conversation the way I would refer to "L.A." It was a good lesson in the shortcomings of parochialism.
KUALA LUMPUR
5. Thin pancake: CREPE. Oh, to be in Paris snacking on a CREPE with Nutella and bananas.
6. Old school dance: HOP. A perfect fit for today's theme. Is this Ed sharing a little joke with us?
AT THE HOP
7. Sign of some gas leaks: ODOR. The natural gas that we use has no ODOR. Mercaptan, which does have a distinctive, rotten egg ODOR is added to the gas to make leaks easier to detect.
8. Set up again, as pool balls: RE - RACK. The RACK is the frame that holds the balls before they are broken up to start the game.
9. Slightly touched: DOTTY. Slang for somewhat mad or eccentric.
10. Forensic team member: CORONER. A CORONER is the public official who investigates violent, sudden, or suspicious deaths. Here, a CROSSWORD CORONER.
11. Feat on ice: AXEL. Another bit of whimsy from our constructor.? An ice skating JUMP, the AXEL is named for it's creator, Norwegian figure skater Axel Paulsen.
TANYA HARDING
12. Code carrier: GENE.
What did the DNA strand say to the other DNA strand?
Do my GENEs make me look fat?
13. Close: END. If you look up the difference between Close and END, both as nouns and as verbs, you might encounter the word "ergative".
13. Close: END. If you look up the difference between Close and END, both as nouns and as verbs, you might encounter the word "ergative".
18. Got back to, in a way: RSVPD. It is a bit odd to see the way that "Respondez S'il Vous Plait" has morphed into a verb. The "D" stuck on the end is something that Ed is probably still trying to figure out how to tweak.
22. Stop: HALT.
24. Feudal laborer: SERF. A SERF was an agricultural laborer bound under the feudal system to work on his lord's estate.
26. Erie Canal city: UTICA. Because of the large amount of both political corruption and organized crime in the city, UTICA was known as "The City That God Forgot".
27. Diet drink spec: NOCAL. I first put LO CAL into the grid but UNCAP made it clear that I needed to cut out even more calories. NO CALories.
28. Something to believe in: CAUSE. St. Jude is referred to as the Patron Saint of Lost CAUSEs.
ST. JUDE
30. Longest river in France: LOIRE. The LOIRE River is the longest river in France but, at a length of approximately 1,000 kilometres, it is only the 171st longest river in the world.
32. Date, with "with": GO OUT.
33. More than a little plump: OBESE.
34. Meal with matzo: SEDER. At the traditional SEDER meal, the story of the Jewish People's miraculous Exodus from slavery in Egypt is retold so that it will be remembered from generation to generation. Matzo, AKA "the bread of affliction" is the unleavened bread served as a reminder that in their hasty departure there was insufficient time to allow bread to rise.
MOSES PARTING THE RED SEA
36. A long way: FAR.
37. Verb that becomes its homophone by changing its vowel: SEW. So, is it going to be Sow or Sew? It could have been Sow and, if so, it could have been clued with wild oats. It turned out to be SEW. Sew what?
40. Trunk supporter: ROOT. Oh, a tree reference.
43. Groomed oneself fastidiously: PRIMPED.
44. At the pinnacle of: ATOP.
46. Try to belt: HIT AT.
47. Words engraved under the Lincoln Memorial?: ONE CENT. I first tried to think of a quotation etched into the Memorial, itself. The question mark at the end of the clue should have alerted me to skip that thought.
49. Paddled, perhaps: CANOED.
52. Book list listing: TITLE. I went to a book store for their sale which was "One Third Off on All TITLEs". I picked up a nice copy of The Lion, The Witch.
54. "Love Train" singers, with "The": OJAYS. Released in 1972, Love Train reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100.
55. Sci-fi good guys: JEDI. A Star Wars reference. The JEDI Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Galactic Empire. Dark Helmet, from Space Balls, is not a JEDI.
MAY THE SCHWARTZ BE WITH YOU !
56. Encourage: URGE.
57. "It's My Party" singer Lesley: GORE. This one was a gimme. So was the choice of the audio/video clip.
LESLEY GORE - 1964
59. Recognize: KNOW.
60. Without help: SOLO. ALONE would not fit. We'll save the "Han Solo crashes his airplane" jokes for another time.
61. Word with rally or talk: PEP. A PEP Rally is sometimes held before a big game. A PEP Talk is sometimes given to the team by a coach at halftime.
63. Actor Chaney: LON. LON Chaney, Jr. appeared in many movies and television shows. His most famous role was as The Wolf Man.
64. "Where __ I?": WAS. Honestly, at this point, I really cannot remember.
Have a great Thursday, everyone, and let's stay safe out there.
MM OUT
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