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Thursday, March 27, 2025, Joe Rodini

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  Numbers   Fibonnaci Sequence Nautilus shell cross section Smithsonian Institution The polymath Carl Friedrich Gauss once said that "Mathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics".  Veteran Joe Rodini 's theme today is about numbers, but a slightly different kind of number, that is musical numbers -- but as the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras discovered there is a close relationship between mathematics and music .  Let's look at Joe's themers, which are all song titles ... 18A. One-hit-wonder by the New Zealand band OMC:  HOW BIZARRE .  OMC , or Otara Millionaires Club , was a New Zealand music group best known for the 1996 hit How Bizarre , named one of the greatest New Zealander songs of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association. The full name of the band is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Ōtara's status as one of th...
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Thursday, March 20, 2025, Ricky J. Sirois

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Osterizers     Today's constructor, veteran Ricky J. Sirois , presents us with four themers for another scrambled word game ... 17A. *Noisy yard implement:  LEAF BLOWER .  We have a lot of trees on our yard, and we use a LEAF BLOWER to collect them and blow them onto a tarp, which we drag to the back of our lot for composting.  We use a RYOBI leaf blower.  This looks like a better one ...  24A. *Like a skier without goggles, perhaps:  SNOW BLIND .  You can buy a pair of these for $55 from REI ... 51A. *Hobnob (with):  RUB ELBOWS .  Yep -- the pigeons agree ... 40A. *Path through Oz:  YELLOW BRICK ROAD .  The road that Dorothy and Toto follow to meet the wonderful  Wizard ... 64. Kitchen prep essential, and what can be found in the answer to each starred clue:  MIXING BOWL .  Here's an assortment of bowls that we use for kitchen prep ... Here's the grid ... Here's the rest ... Across: 1. Carousel riders...
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Thursday, March 13, 2025, Catherine Cetta

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    The Sounds of Music   Today our constructor Catherine Cetta presents us with a reveal that tells us all we need to know about her clever, elegant, musical theme ... 56. "By the way ...," and a hint to this puzzle's circled letters: ON A SIDE NOTE .  That is, the circles each contain a NOTE  of the musical scale in descending order along on the left then right SIDE  of the grid -- represented by the syllables TI , DO , SOL , LA , MI , FA , DO , and RE .   This system has been around since the 11th Century and is called Solfège  -- the use of mnemonics in teaching the sounds in a musical scale.  Here's the grid ...   Here's the rest ... Across:  1. "Casablanca" heroine: ILSA .  Here she cajoles Sam into playing As Time Goes By ... Judy Dench and Geoffrey Palmer cajoled that tune into a delightful 10 series romcom -- I think this is episode 1 . 5. Is generally positive...
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