Good Morning, Cruceverbalists! Malodorous Manatee here with another Friday recap. Does anybody remember the stage show version of Peter Pan? For some reason, after sussing out today's theme, the "I Won't Grow Up" song from that show became an ear worm for me. "I Won't Glow Up" would be such an easy spoof.
I had never heard of GLOW UP before encountering it in today's puzzle. As with most things in this life, there seem to be some worthy concepts, and some not so worthy, wrapped up in GLOW UP:
In any event, our puzzle setter, Natasha Erickson, has, in this puzzle, riffed on the Glow Up "label". At four places (all Down clues/answers instead of the far more commonly seen Across) Natasha has employed a word that is roughly analogous to GLOW. The UP gimmick is that we have to spell out the word from the bottom up instead of from the top down. Quite disconcerting, at first. We sense pretty quickly that something fishy is going on but it takes a while to sort it out. The reveal helps but comes at what would likely have been one of the last places a solver would reach:
51 Down: Positive personal transformation, in slang, and what the answer to each starred clue literally has?: GLOW UP. A synonym for GLOW is to be placed in the squares from the bottom UP.
Here are the four themed clues/answers, all starred for our convenience (or, for at least one of us, annoyance):
5 Down: *Possible symptom before a bad headache: MIGRAINE ARUA. Read ARUA from the bottom up and we get MIGRAINE AURA.
10 Down: *Quick-to-wake sorts: THGIL SLEEPERS. Similarly, THGIL becomes LIGHT SLEEPERS, and so on.
18 Down: *Small sign that things will improve: REMMILG OF HOPE. GLIMMER OF HOPE
22 Down: *Morning exhortation: RISE AND ENIHS. RISE AND SHINE.
Here is how this all looks in the grid:
. . . and here is the rest of the story:
Across:
1. CIO partner: AFL. In 1955, the two unions merged.
4. Mosey: AMBLE.
9. Literary musketeer: ATHOS. The Three Musketeers were ATHOS, Porthos and D'artagnan
14. Natori Feathers undergarment: BRA. A learning moment. That's okay. We all enjoy learning.
Natori Feathers BRA
15. "Ta-da!": DID IT.
16. __ Island: RHODE. The State.
17. Life, for one: BOARD GAME. Lots of possible answers for the clue. E.G., prison term. We have seen the answer that was used several times previously.
19. Concur: AGREE.
20. Fashion magazine that's also a French pronoun: ELLE. A frequently-referenced mag on this blog.
21. Reuben bread: RYE. Just add corned beef, Swiss cheese, thousand island dressing and sauerkraut.
22. Softball stat: RBIS. Run Batted In S
23. Thailand, once: SIAM.
24. "Same here": AS AM I. Was it going to be SO DO I?
26. Toy company based in Billund, Denmark: LEGO. It was enough to know that LEGO is a Danish company.
29. Garlicky dish: SCAMPI.
31. Ocho menos seis: DOS. Today's Spanish cum math lesson.
32. Jazz style: SCAT. Often clued with a reference to Ella.
33. Solar wind particle: ION. The solar wind continuously flows outward from the sun and consists primarily of protons and electrons in a plasma state.
34. Christmas __: EVE.
35. Hideout: LAIR. How did the canine scientist get into her secret lair? Through the labra door.
36. Serranos, e.g.: CHILIES.
40. More than willing: EAGER TO.
42. __ Kong: HONG. Was it going to be KING?
43. Courses for coll. credit: APS. Advanced Placement courseS
45. Formerly, in bios: NEE. A mom takes her young son to the doctor one day. She tells the doctor that her child's knee hurts and the doctor refers her to a nephrologist becuase it 's a kid knee problem.
46. Petrol brand: ESSO.
47. Issa of "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse": RAE. Didn't John Lennon compose a song of roughly the same name?
48. Olympian's violation: DOPING.
The All Drug Olympics
52. Utah's Capitol __ National Park: REEF.
53. Water bill basis: USAGE. The California legislature is toying with mandating an income based system for utility bills. I am not sure how that will encourage conservation.
55. Sci. that studies biodiversity: ECOL. ECOLogy
56. __ egg: vegan baking ingredient: CHIA. I had never heard of a CHIA egg. CHIA Pet, yes. Another learning moment. Thanks, perps.
58. Radar __: GUN.
Radar O'Reilly Would Not Fit
59. Silver State city: RENO. There are lots of cities in Nevada. ELKO is another with four letters.
60. Blacksmith's wear: APRON.
62. Bit of Valentine's decor: CUPID'S BOW. Also the name of a certain form of lip enhancement surgery.
64. Snuck: CREPT. Two somewhat odd past tense words.
65. Whereas, briefly: ALTHO. "Briefly"hints that the word might be truncated.
66. Canberra sch.: ANU. It's mascot should be the EMU.
67. Place to have reservations: HOTEL. Cute. Not reservations as in doubts or second thoughts about something.
68. Camera option: FLASH. On / Off / Automatic
69. Rep. group: GOP. The moniker Grand Old Party for the Republican Party first appeared in print around 1884.
Down:
1. Convent leader: ABBESS.
2. Cavort: FROLIC.
3. Playmate of Tinky Winky, Dipsy, and Po: LAA LAA.
4. Verb on a dipstick: ADD. Is your car down a quart of oil. Perhaps you should check.
6. Annual milestones, briefly: B'DAYS. BirthDAYS
7. Tart citrus drink: LIMEADE. LEMONADE was too long.
8. Summer in Monaco: ETE. A French lesson often presented in crossword puzzles.
9. Many a Yemeni: ARAB.
11. Early rail transportation: HORSE CAR. I have watched thousands of TV westerns but cannot recall any references to this.
12. Amanda Gorman's "__ to Our Ocean": ODE. Didn't know the work but it's almost always ODE.
13. "Catch my drift?": SEE. See?
25. "Get out of the way!": MOVE.
27. Pace: GAIT.
28. Other, in Mazatlán: OTRO. What was that last letter going to be? An A or an O? What will constructors do if the Latinx concept catches on.
30. Taro dish: POI. I couple of years ago I went to Hawaii where I got really sick. Upon my return my boy asked me what had caused the illness. I replied, "POI, son."
36. "If I Could Turn Back Time" singer: CHER.
37. Spigot attachment: HOSE.
38. Away from prying eyes: IN SECRET.
39. Beauty spots?: SPAS.
41. Logical start?: GEO. ECO? NEO? THEO was too long.
44. Bird that cries "Mine! Mine! Mine!" in "Finding Nemo": SEAGULL.
49. Sprain treatment: ICE BAG.
50. "You're doing it all wrong!": NO NO NO. Anything said here would be redundant.
54. Sanjay of CNN: GUPTA.
57. Like some LAX flights: INTL. LAX is the code for Los Angeles INTernationaL Airport
60. German "Drat!": ACH.
61. Whiz: PRO. Coulda' been ACE.
62. Half-__: coffee spec: CAF.
63. [Head slap]: DOH.
Well, that will Sew Up things for today. Glad that you were able to Show Up. Have a great weekend, everyone. I hope that no one gets nauseous and feels like they have to . . . oh, never mind. Maybe you can stream this flick:
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