Thursday, August 24, 2023, Susan Gelfand
Choose Your Weapon!
Today marks veteran constructor Susan Gelfand's 28th appearance on the Corner. She challenges us with a simple, playful theme with three clues that hearken back to a 1950's TV show set in the early 1800 hundreds when Southern California was still a Spanish territory. It was an era when lawless men roamed the land unopposed by duly appointed law enforcement officers.
But there arose a masked swordsman, a fox cunning and free, who swashbuckled his way thru the land righting the injustices of local petty tyrants. Zorro was a good humored soul and he never seemed to actually skewer anyone, preferring instead to humiliate them by autographing their clothing with his first initial ...
So how does this relate to Susan's theme? Her reveal challenges us to determine his weapon of choice ...
56A. Art of fencing, and a hint to the starts of the answers to the starred clues: SWORD PLAY -- also a hint that she is PLAYING with different types of SWORDS. The first word of each themer is an anagram for a type of sword, but only one of them can be the weapon that Zorro used to make his mark.
Can you guess which one?
17A. *Baklava base: FILO DOUGH. This unscrambles to FOIL, which is used in the Olympic sport of fencing, but it's really too light for swashbuckling ...
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Italo Santelli and Jean-Baptiste Mimiague foil fencing at the 1900 Olympics |
28A. *Gives testimony: BEARS WITNESS. This unscrambles to SABRE, a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. But this one is much too heavy for Zorro to make his mark ...
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Sheathed French sabres of the sailors of the Guard, First French Empire |
42A. *Fix-it guide: REPAIR MANUAL. Which leaves us with RAPIER, a type of sword with a slender and sharply pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. And in the hand of a master, it is perfect for signing autographs!
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Rapier first half of the 17th century |
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. State gem of Wyoming: JADE. Wyoming is home to one of the largest and purest troves of nephrite jade in the world, prompting jade to be named the state gemstone in 1967. Wyoming jade was used in the creation of this church window ...
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North Shore Baptist Church Chicago, Illinois 6.5' high x 3.5' wide |
5. Strongly suggest: URGE.
9. Make self-conscious: ABASH.
14. Really excited: AGOG.
15. Horn output: TOOT. See 25D.
16. Brown shade: COCOA. Teri uses COCOA to make Zucchini brownies using this recipe. Instead of icing them she adds chocolate chips to the batter. With all the hot weather and rain around here the zucchini have been growing wild, so she's been making boatloads ...
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Zucchini Brownies |
19. Spiral-horned antelope: ELAND. The common ELAND (Taurotragus oryx), also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a large-sized savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa.
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Young bull Eland |
21. No more than: UP TO.
22. Part of a process: STEP.
23. Taylor Swift album with the hit "All Too Well": RED. Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Recognized for her songwriting, musical versatility, artistic reinventions, and influence on the music industry, she is a prominent cultural figure of the 21st century. RED is her 4th album, released in 2012. Here is "All Too Well" ...
24. "C'est la __!": VIE. That's Life!
25. "Don't move a muscle": STAY PUT.
28. [Theme clue]
30. Den fixture: TV SET.
33. Accessory with a Lego Riddler minifigure: CANE. The Riddler is one of Batman's nemeses. He began in the D.C. comic universe, morphed into a series of action movies, which morphed into animated action movies, and then descended into the Legoverse ...
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The Riddler Leaning on a Question Mark? |
36. Core-strengthening exercise: PLANK. Here's how it's done ...
The Plank
38. Result of fogged-up glasses: BLUR.
39. Touchdown stat: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival. Also the 7th letter of the Greek alphabet ...
40. Twofold: DUAL.
41. Axels and lutzes: LEAPS. There are others. This live action and animated video seems to cover most of them ...
42. [Theme clue]
46. Words of wisdom: PROVERB. The terms "wisdom" and "proverbs" derive from the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) wisdom literature, which includes the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom is enduring and survives today, even in popular culture ...
47. Kimono accessory: OBI. An OBI (帯) is a belt of varying size and shape worn with both traditional Japanese clothing and uniforms for Japanese martial arts styles. Originating as a simple thin belt in Heian period Japan, the obi developed over time into a belt with a number of different varieties, with a number of different sizes and proportions, lengths, and methods of tying.
48. "Way cool!": RAD. Or as Tony would say Woot!
51. Make the grade: PASS.
52. Cabinet dept.: ENER.
53. Sunny Day Real Estate genre: EMO. This oxymoronically named band Sunny Day Real Estate hails from Seattle, Washington and formed in 1992. Here's their In Circles (lyrics) ...
54. Land of the Minotaur: CRETE. CRETE is also the land of Theophilos, the fictional father of the Evangelist Luke in Michael O'Brien's beautiful novel of the same name ...
56. [Theme reveal]
58. Out in the country: RURAL.
59. Inheritance factor: GENE. An organism's genome (all of its GENES) defines the structural proteins that make up our bodies as well as those that control our metabolism (enzymes). However it has been discovered in recent decades that various environmental factors can alter our genes, without changing the actual DNA sequences that define them. Collectively these changes are called the EPIGENOME (literally "on top of the GENOME") and can be inherited by subsequent generations. Inherited epigenetic modifications seem to primarily affect the expression (i.e. activation) of genes related to behaviors. For a deeper dive into the actual mechanisms for epigenetic changes see this article.
60. Bulldoze: RAZE.
61. Trips around the sun: YEARS.
62. Trampled (on): TROD.
63. Plow pullers: OXEN.
Down:
1. "Aladdin" villain who transforms into a giant cobra: JAFAR. Nasty dude ...
2. Quick and nimble: AGILE. Also the name of one of an interminable number of software development methodologies. Now that AI has finally arrived it's probably obsolete too. Maybe.
3. Parceled (out): DOLED.
4. Swelled head: EGO.
5. Perfect place: UTOPIA. Samuel Butler's 1872 novel Erehwon (an acronym of the word Nowhere) is about a fictional UTOPIA discovered and explored by the protagonist, and is a satire on Victorian society. The novel is one of the first to explore ideas of artificial intelligence as influenced by Darwin's then recently published On the Origin of Species (1859), and the machines that developed out of the Industrial Revolution (late 18th to early 19th centuries). Specifically, it concerns itself, in the three-chapter "Book of the Machines", with the potentially dangerous ideas of machine consciousness and self-replicating machines. Very timely!
6. Network device: ROUTER. So what's a ROUTER and how do they work?
7. Disco era adjective: GO GO.
8. Horn of Africa country: Abbr.: ETH. Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and southeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest.
9. Transparent overlay: ACETATE.
10. Second wife of Henry VIII: BOLEYN. Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
11. Like Pentatonix performances: A CAPPELLA. I was turned on to their music by my granddaughters, who love to sing A CAPPELLA. This is my favorite, a song from their debut album called White Winter Hymnal. I hope it brings a little relief to what has been an oppressively hot summer ...
12. Dad's lad: SON.
13. Possessed: HAD.
18. Comforter: DUVET. According to this article they're not the same.
22. Perform abysmally: STINK.
25. The ugly duckling, eventually: SWAN. In the finale of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony (1919) there’s a magnificent melody the composer called his “swan hymn.” In his diary, he identified his inspiration for the theme: the sight of sixteen swans flying in formation overhead: “One of my greatest experiences! Lord God, that beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a gleaming, silver ribbon…”. The theme is played by the horns and if you listen carefully you can count all sixteen ...
26. Exhaust: USE UP.
27. Rulers before the Bolsheviks: TSARS.
28. Turning in place?: BED. If it's cold you might need a comforter or a DUVET.
29. Milan's La __: SCALA. "The house that Verdi built". Here's the aria Tacea la notte placida ("Silence the placid night") from his opera Il Trovatore ("The Troubadour") sung at LA SCALA by the great Maria Callas (lyrics) ...
30. Pipsqueak: TWERP.
31. Polling booth user: VOTER.
32. Serialized drama: SOAP OPERA. This one is in its 19th season. It sounds like it's about as SOAPY they get ...
36. Good vibrations?: PURRS. A CSO to Hahtoolah. She brings us good vibrations every Tuesday!
37. Ewe kid: LAMB. Here's a recipe for LAMB chops with garlic mint sauce.
38. "The Fresh Prince of __-Air": BEL. Where
Will Smith
got his start.
40. Some trucks: DIESELS.
41. Highlands title: LAIRD.
43. Gamer's game face: AVATAR.
44. "What are you doing!?": NO NO NO.
45. Got a ride through an app: UBERED. A verbified noun.
48. Kick back: RELAX.
49. Astonish: AMAZE.
50. Senior member: DOYEN. Some bon mots from the DOYENNE of Downton Abbey ...
52. Washstand accessory: EWER. Here's an old EWER and washbowl I made some years back. We don't use it anymore ever since we got inside plumbing ... 😀
54. React to onion fumes: CRY. You'll never shed another tear with
Vidalia onions
...
55. "You will __ the day!": RUE. In addition to meaning REGRET, Teri informs me that the medicinal herb RUE is the national plant of Lithuania and symbolizes maidenhood. Lithuanian brides wear a crown made from the herb during wedding ceremonies.
RUE is also French for "street", as in The Murders of the RUE Morgue, a short story by Edgar Alan Poe, which has been described as the first modern detective story. C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it.
56. PD rank: SGT.
57. Tennis club expert: PRO.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
39. Touchdown stat: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival. Also the 7th letter of the Greek alphabet ...
41. Axels and lutzes: LEAPS. There are others. This live action and animated video seems to cover most of them ...
46. Words of wisdom: PROVERB. The terms "wisdom" and "proverbs" derive from the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) wisdom literature, which includes the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom is enduring and survives today, even in popular culture ...
47. Kimono accessory: OBI. An OBI (帯) is a belt of varying size and shape worn with both traditional Japanese clothing and uniforms for Japanese martial arts styles. Originating as a simple thin belt in Heian period Japan, the obi developed over time into a belt with a number of different varieties, with a number of different sizes and proportions, lengths, and methods of tying.
|
|
Back of a woman wearing a kimono with the OBI tied in the tateya musubi style |
51. Make the grade: PASS.
52. Cabinet dept.: ENER.
53. Sunny Day Real Estate genre: EMO. This oxymoronically named band Sunny Day Real Estate hails from Seattle, Washington and formed in 1992. Here's their In Circles (lyrics) ...
54. Land of the Minotaur: CRETE. CRETE is also the land of Theophilos, the fictional father of the Evangelist Luke in Michael O'Brien's beautiful novel of the same name ...
58. Out in the country: RURAL.
59. Inheritance factor: GENE. An organism's genome (all of its GENES) defines the structural proteins that make up our bodies as well as those that control our metabolism (enzymes). However it has been discovered in recent decades that various environmental factors can alter our genes, without changing the actual DNA sequences that define them. Collectively these changes are called the EPIGENOME (literally "on top of the GENOME") and can be inherited by subsequent generations. Inherited epigenetic modifications seem to primarily affect the expression (i.e. activation) of genes related to behaviors. For a deeper dive into the actual mechanisms for epigenetic changes see this article.
60. Bulldoze: RAZE.
61. Trips around the sun: YEARS.
62. Trampled (on): TROD.
63. Plow pullers: OXEN.
Down:
1. "Aladdin" villain who transforms into a giant cobra: JAFAR. Nasty dude ...
2. Quick and nimble: AGILE. Also the name of one of an interminable number of software development methodologies. Now that AI has finally arrived it's probably obsolete too. Maybe.
3. Parceled (out): DOLED.
4. Swelled head: EGO.
5. Perfect place: UTOPIA. Samuel Butler's 1872 novel Erehwon (an acronym of the word Nowhere) is about a fictional UTOPIA discovered and explored by the protagonist, and is a satire on Victorian society. The novel is one of the first to explore ideas of artificial intelligence as influenced by Darwin's then recently published On the Origin of Species (1859), and the machines that developed out of the Industrial Revolution (late 18th to early 19th centuries). Specifically, it concerns itself, in the three-chapter "Book of the Machines", with the potentially dangerous ideas of machine consciousness and self-replicating machines. Very timely!
6. Network device: ROUTER. So what's a ROUTER and how do they work?
7. Disco era adjective: GO GO.
8. Horn of Africa country: Abbr.: ETH. Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and southeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest.
 |
| Ethiopia |
10. Second wife of Henry VIII: BOLEYN. Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
 |
| Ann Boleyn |
11. Like Pentatonix performances: A CAPPELLA. I was turned on to their music by my granddaughters, who love to sing A CAPPELLA. This is my favorite, a song from their debut album called White Winter Hymnal. I hope it brings a little relief to what has been an oppressively hot summer ...
13. Possessed: HAD.
18. Comforter: DUVET. According to this article they're not the same.
22. Perform abysmally: STINK.
25. The ugly duckling, eventually: SWAN. In the finale of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony (1919) there’s a magnificent melody the composer called his “swan hymn.” In his diary, he identified his inspiration for the theme: the sight of sixteen swans flying in formation overhead: “One of my greatest experiences! Lord God, that beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a gleaming, silver ribbon…”. The theme is played by the horns and if you listen carefully you can count all sixteen ...
27. Rulers before the Bolsheviks: TSARS.
28. Turning in place?: BED. If it's cold you might need a comforter or a DUVET.
29. Milan's La __: SCALA. "The house that Verdi built". Here's the aria Tacea la notte placida ("Silence the placid night") from his opera Il Trovatore ("The Troubadour") sung at LA SCALA by the great Maria Callas (lyrics) ...
31. Polling booth user: VOTER.
32. Serialized drama: SOAP OPERA. This one is in its 19th season. It sounds like it's about as SOAPY they get ...
36. Good vibrations?: PURRS. A CSO to Hahtoolah. She brings us good vibrations every Tuesday!
37. Ewe kid: LAMB. Here's a recipe for LAMB chops with garlic mint sauce.
|
|
Lamb chops w/garlic mint sauce |
40. Some trucks: DIESELS.
41. Highlands title: LAIRD.
43. Gamer's game face: AVATAR.
44. "What are you doing!?": NO NO NO.
45. Got a ride through an app: UBERED. A verbified noun.
48. Kick back: RELAX.
49. Astonish: AMAZE.
50. Senior member: DOYEN. Some bon mots from the DOYENNE of Downton Abbey ...
 |
| Ewer and washbowl |
|
|
Vidalia Onions |
55. "You will __ the day!": RUE. In addition to meaning REGRET, Teri informs me that the medicinal herb RUE is the national plant of Lithuania and symbolizes maidenhood. Lithuanian brides wear a crown made from the herb during wedding ceremonies.
RUE is also French for "street", as in The Murders of the RUE Morgue, a short story by Edgar Alan Poe, which has been described as the first modern detective story. C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it.
56. PD rank: SGT.
57. Tennis club expert: PRO.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
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