Thursday, July 20, 2023, Matthew Stock

 Love is a Many Splendored Thing

This will be Matthew Stock's 10th outing, both solo and co-constructed.  For a brief bio see Husker's review of his Saturday, June 25, 2022 themeless.  Today Matthew tackles one of life's greatest mysteries, cleverly hidden in the answers to these three theme clues ...

18A. Specialty concerned with player experience: GAME DESIGN.  From Adele's album 30 ...

29A. Leadership styles that encourage transparency: OPEN DOOR POLICIES.  From Frozen ...

48A. John Travolta film that won nine Razzies, including Worst Picture of the Decade: BATTLEFIELD EARTH.  Nine Razzies?  Worst Picture of the Decade?  (it won't take you long to find out why).   Here's a bit about Pat Benatar who sings this song ...

The songs above are (not the only) answers to the following question  (e.g. see line 1 of this review):

64A. 1993 dance hit, and a musical question answered by the starts of 18-, 29-, and 48-Across?: WHAT IS LOVE.  From the hit single by Nestor Alexander Haddaway ...

Wow, that was easy!  Don't you wish it was always that easy?

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Tie with a cord: BOLO.  Hand up if you started with BIND?  The History of Native American Bolo Ties.

5. Unctuous flattery: SMARM.  Masters of the art ...

10. Primary course of action: PLAN A.  Be sure it includes a plan for PLAN B.

15. "Only joking": I KID.

16. Animated garden snail who dreams of racing in the Indy 500: TURBO.

17. The MLB's Angels, to fans: HALOS.  They must be related to the NFL NOLA team.

18. [Theme clue]

20. Greek yogurt brand: OIKOS.  OIKOS is also the ancient Greek word for three related but distinct concepts: the family, the family's property, and the house.

21. Henna, for one: DYE.  Henna is a dye prepared from the plant Lawsonia inermis, also known as the henna tree, the mignonette tree, and the Egyptian privet.  My artist granddaughter uses it to draw temporary tattoos on her left arm.  For some reason she never draws one on her right arm ...

Not my granddaughter's arm

22. __ rug: AREA.

23. Par for the course: AVERAGE.  Some of you already knew the answer to this question, but I didn't: How is Golf Course Par Determined?

25. DIY publication: ZINE.  You could DIY with Blogger.  C.C. did!

27. MRI output: SCAN.  Only recently have MRI scans been taken of multiple people who are in close proximity to one another involved in social activities.  Scans demonstrating the synchronization of brain wave activity are described in "Hyperscans” Show How Brains Sync as People Interact and Cuddling brings two minds together, MRI study reveals.  Neither article describes how this synchronization occurs, but it would be logical to assume that it might be mediated by an as yet undetected form of communication.

MRI scan of cuddlers

28. Ignited: LIT.

29. [Theme clue]

34. Like slime-making kits: MESSY.  Slime, whether jiggly slime, water slime, or another variety, is always popular. I did not know this.  Here are 4 MESSY DIY slime kits.

35. Derisive laugh: HAH.

36. PC file suffix: EXE.  EXEcutable, i.e. a program or app.

37. Slalom marker: GATE.  Slalom is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline, involving skiing between poles or GATES.

Tonje Sekse of Norway
2011 Slalom event

38. "Color me exhausted": IM BEAT.  or a homophone of I'M BEET, i.e. RED.

40. Egg-shaped tomato: ROMA.  AKA plum tomatoes.  The tomato of choice for making tomato sauce and tomato paste ...

Roma Tomatoes

44. Smash (into): RAM.  Also a noun.  Used by SWAT teams in British mysteries to batter down doors.
 

Battering Ram

46. "Dude ... ": BRO.

47. Dispatches: SENDS.

48. [Theme clue]

53. "We're on __ way": OUR.

54. Single __ whisky: MALT.  Single MALT whisky is malt whisky from a single distillery.

55. Govern: RULE.  Not as easy as it sounds.

56. Free, as legal work: PRO BONO.  A CSO to Hahtoolah and Lemonade.  Also U2 FANS.  A lot of them turned up for this video.  The band may have needed some PRO BONO legal work when this was all over ...

58. "About me" bits: BIOS.

60. Rideshare alternative: CAB.  Or any or all of these (a CSO to Alan, Doug, and JzB) for giving me a lift with this one.

63. Ames resident: IOWAN.  Ames is a city in Story County, IOWA, United States, located approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of Des Moines in central Iowa.

64. [Theme reveal]

67. General tendency: TREND.  See also 23A.

68. Implant: EMBED. 

69. Niagara River source: ERIE.  Inquiring minds want to know -- Why doesn't Lake Erie get empty at the rate of which Niagara Falls gets drained into Lake Ontario?

70. Retail statistic: SALES.

71. Wanders: ROAMS. Here's baritone John Shirley-Quirk singing The Vagabond  from Ralph Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel ...

72. Chances: ODDS.

Down:
 
1. Mavs' city: BIG D.  The city where the Dallas Mavericks play.

2. So-so: OKAY.

3. Citrus shavings: LIME ZEST.

4. Lorca work: ODE.  Federico García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director.  He achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a group consisting mostly of poets who introduced the tenets of European movements (such as symbolism, futurism, and surrealism) into Spanish literature.  Garcia Lorca was assassinated by Spanish Nationalists on August 19, 1936.

García Lorca
in 1932

5. Vinyl lover's setup: STEREO.  One of my prized possessions is a vinyl recording of the album annotating clue 71A above, autographed by the singer John Shirley-Quirk.

6. Euterpe, to musicians: MUSE.  Euterpe was one of  9 goddesses, the MUSES who inspired artists.  Her sister Erato was the muse of LOVE poetry.

Euterpe         Erato

7. "Casta diva," e.g.: ARIA.  The Greeks would say that Euterpe inspired Bel Canto composer Vincenzo Bellini, to write the beautiful opera Norma about a druid priestess who was unlucky in love.  Here is the divine Renée Fleming in recital  (lyrics and translation) ...

8. Justice impersonated by Kate McKinnon on "SNL": RBG.  Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  SNL can be a bit political, so let's have Felicity Jones impersonate her instead ...

9. Grand Prix locale: MONACO.  MONACO is one of many locales where Formula 1 Grand Prix races are held in over 30 nations around the world.

Monaco Grand Prix track

10. Most populous U.S. state capital: PHOENIX.  A CSO to Lucina and the Chairman.

11. Den: LAIR.

12. Basic substance: ALKALI.  In chemistry, an ALKALI is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. The alkali metals are listed in column 1 (except for the gas Hydrogen) and the alkaline earth metals are listed in column 2 ...

13. Knuckle-headed antic?: NOOGIE.

14. Net worth component: ASSETS.  An ASSET is a resource with economic value that an individual, corporation, or country owns or controls with the expectation that it will provide a future benefit.

19. Fine and __: DANDY.

24. Driving force in fine dining?: VALET.

26. Promo with a credit card bill, e.g.: INSERT.

27. Round one?: SPHERE.

29. Texter's "Crikey!": OMG.

30. Samosa vegetable: PEA.  Here's a recipe.

Aloo Samosa

31. Unit of resistance: OHM.  A CSO to Jayce.  The OHM is one of his three favorite metrics.

32. Trix mascot: RABBIT.  See 33A.

33. Trix, e.g.: CEREAL.  In 2017 the maker of the iconic sugary breakfast cereal Trix reintroduced artificial colors and flavorings after customers complained about the all-natural option.

38. Clarifying words: I MEAN.

39. Early ISP: AOL.

41. Well-documented: ON RECORD.

42. Summer hrs. in the Navajo Nation: MDT.  The Navajo Nation is a Native American reservation of Navajos in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.

Navajo Nation

43. Light gray shade: ASH.

45. Polvorones nuts: ALMONDS.  Misty's gonna love this puzzle.  Here's a recipe.

Polvorones

47. Dr. for kids?: SEUSS.  He's back!

48. Hasbro toys that issue commands: BOP ITS.  New to me.  BOP IT toys are a line of audio games. By following a series of commands issued through voice recordings produced by a speaker by the toy, which has multiple inputs including pressable buttons, pull handles, twisting cranks, spinnable wheels, flickable switches—the player progresses and the pace of the game increases. Apparently it can get a bit extreme. Comme ça ...

49. High lights?: AURORA.  A CSO to CanadianEh! ...

50. Garden tool: TROWEL.

51. Garden bloom: FLOWER.

52. Extras in "Star Wars" films: DROIDS.  Extras?  That's a bit cold.  Here Luke Skywalker meets the indispensable R2-D2 and C-3PO ... 

57. Curse: BANE.  Misdirection and meta-clues are the BANE of crossword puzzle solvers.

58. Papa, in Chinese: BABA.  What one of my grandsons used to call my son.  Now he just calls him DAD.

59. Article: ITEM.

61. Passionate: AVID.

62. Nectar collectors: BEES.

65. Med. network: HMO.

66. Hall of Fame MLB manager Durocher: LEO.  Leo Ernest Durocher (July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991), nicknamed "Leo the Lip" and "Lippy", was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an infielder. Upon his retirement, he ranked fifth all-time among managers with 2,008 career victories, second only to John McGraw in National League history.  A controversial and outspoken character, Durocher's half-century in baseball was dogged by clashes with authority, the baseball commissioner, the press, and umpires; his 95 career ejections as a manager trailed only McGraw when he retired, and still ranks fourth on the all-time list. He won three National League pennants and one world championship.

Leo Durocher
was posthumously elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994. 

Cheers,
Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley