Thursday, September 7, 2023, Amie Walker
I Got You On Tape!
Spinning for the Cause (lyrics)
Amie Walker is making her 17th appearance on the Corner, the first on June 17, 2022 reviewed by Lemonade. Today she is spinning 3 fragments of theme fill each spanning 2 lines and unified by circles, just like last Thursday. As there are a total of 6 clues with theme elements I'll just leave them where they are and start with the reveal followed by the grid ...
56A. "I can prove you're lying!," and an instruction for reading each set of circled letters: ROLL THE TAPE. Without the circles it would be pretty difficult to figure out what's happening (Hand up if you can think of an alternate reveal without them). OTOH, it's now pretty obvious what's going on. If I didn't know better I'd think that Amie had lifted the theme from the title of the splash screen song Spinning for the Cause, by our house band I Got You On Tape. "Spinning" is of course the occupation of professional liars who are paid to cover for the foibles of public figures.
From 19A & 22A: DENTAL TAPE - this is what can happen to you if you don't floss ...
From 36A & 42A: DUCT TAPE - Once again Red Green shows why it's the handy man's secret weapon (trim)
From 43A & 47A DEMO TAPE - sometimes you just know when someone is going to be a star. Unfortunately Jim Croce's (January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) stardom was cut short when he was killed in a plane crash in 1973. This demo tape seems tragically prophetic ...
Here are the rest of the clues ...
Across: 1. Serena __: tennis achievement: SLAM. Serena Williams has 23 Grand SLAMS in tennis. In September 2022 announced that she was "evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to her. These include raising her two children, spending more time with her devoted husband, and a wide-variety of off-court activities. At age 41 she is already one of the richest women in the world and it seems that her entrepreneurial career has only just begun. A truly remarkable woman
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| Serena Williams |
8. Museum figures: BUSTS. Here's a pictorial timeline of BUSTS.
13. Hotel amenity: WIFI.
14. Wine bottle sediment: LEES.
15. En pointe: ON TOE.
16. "You've got my undivided attention": I'M ALL EARS.
18. Obstetric aide: DOULA.
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| Should You Hire a Doula? |
19. Apt occasion for flowery speech?: GARDEN PARTY. Here Ozzie and Harriet's son Ricky Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985) goes to a Garden Party ...
Ricky's life was also tragically cut short by a plane crash.
21. Racial justice movement letters: BLM. Everybody's lives matter, ergo Black Lives Matter too.
22. Delt neighbor: LAT. Also an abbr. for the Los Angeles Times.
23. Judicial org.: ABA. See 36A.
25. Stick around: STAY.
28. Professional connections: INS.
31. Oscar winner Tomei: MARISA. MARISA Tomei won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in My Cousin Vinny in 1993. I've used this clip before, but it's so great I couldn't resist ...
35. Light touch: TAP.
36. Got an attorney: LAWYERED UP. There seems to be a lot of LAWYERING UP going on these days.
38. Garfield's middle name: ABRAM. James ABRAM Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until his assassination in September 1881.
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| James Abram Garfield |
42. Nickname for Louis Armstrong: SATCH. Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "SATCH", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz. Among his many honors were a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; 12 recordings included in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and a single Grammy for Male Vocal Performance for the song Hello Dolly from the eponymous 1964 musical. This is from a live performance in Berlin in 1965 (the crowd just won't let him leave!)...
3. "Nice try!": GOOD EFFORT.
46. Shapiro of 64-Down: ARI. ARI Michael Shapiro (born September 30, 1978) is an American radio journalist. In September 2015, Shapiro became one of four rotating hosts on National Public Radio's flagship drive-time program All Things Considered. He previously served as White House correspondent and international correspondent based in London for NPR.
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| Ari Shapiro |
49. Like whiskey: AGED.
50. Distress letters: SOS.
51. First-aid subj.: CPR.
53. Prohibit: BAN.
56. [Theme reveal]
63. Muscat resident: OMANI. OMAN, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located in West Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Oman.
65. Losing fizz: GOING FLAT.
66. Cartoon fan of muddy puddles: PEPPA. PEPPA Pig lives in Paultons Park, an amusement park near the village of Ower, in Hampshire, England and you can actually visit her. Or you can just splash in some muddy puddles with her, but be sure to wear your boots! ...
67. Pro __: BONO. Free LAWYERING UP. See also 64D.
68. Forearm bone: ULNA.
69. Tangle: SNARL.
70. Explosive letters: TNT. With explosive possibilities ...
71. Streaming annoyances: LAGS.
Down:
1. Belt: SWIG.
2. Capital in the Andes: LIMA. LIMA, originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of the country, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
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| Lima, Peru |
4. In a gentle way: MILDLY.
5. Dramatic ascent: LEAP.
6. "Buona __": SERA. "Good evening". Today's Italian lesson and an ensemble piece from Act II of Gioachino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia ("The Barber of Seville"). Like all Rossini operas, the plots can get complicated, but in a nutshell tenor Count Almaviva has just bribed basso Don Basilio, the music teacher of soprano Rosina (whom the Count is pursuing) and convinced him to leave feigning illness. The Count is exhorting him to get off to bed, repeatedly singing Buona Sera ("Good evening") ...
7. Cold War initials: USSR. One day we may look back on them as the good old days.
8. Weighted rods in some fitness classes: BODY BARS. Standard BODY BARS usually weighs from 3 to 36 pounds. Weighted bars are available in sizes ranging from 4-to-6 feet. The bars are generally powder coated and feature color codes at the ends. This coding makes it easier for the lifter to identify the weighted bar.
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| 12 body bar exercises for beginners. |
10. Once-common concert memento: STUB. E-tickets have supplanted them I suppose. But we can still buy TEES.
11. E-ZPass payment: TOLL.
12. Connecting line: SEAM.
14. Protein option for vegetarian chili: LENTIL. Here's a recipe for one of our favorites dal (LENTIL) and potato stew.
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| Lentil and Potato Stew |
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| Lea DeLaria |
24. Field of expertise: AREA.
25. Bucks: STAGS.
26. Frowned upon: TABOO.
27. Garment that may say "I love cooking with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food": APRON. A CSO to our Chairman 😋. See also 47A & 55D.
29. Gullible one: NAIF.
30. Dramatic descent: SWOOP.
32. Collar clip-on: ID TAG.
33. Capital in the Andes: SUCRE. SUCRE is the capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of 2,810 m (9,220 ft). This relatively high altitude gives the city a subtropical highland climate with cool temperatures year-round.
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| Sucre, Bolivia |
37. Cosmonaut Gagarin: YURI. Sputnik in 1957 and YURI Gagarin in 1961 changed our lives almost overnight. Suddenly the US gummint decided that education was important! See also 7D.
_-_Restoration.jpg) |
| Yuri Gagarin |
40. Many a National Mall landmark: MEMORIAL. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, commonly called the Vietnam MEMORIAL honors service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The two-acre (8,100 m2) site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of the over 58,000 service members who died in or remain missing from the war. I've never been able bring myself to visit it, as the name of close neighbor is inscribed on it somewhere ...
49. Cunning: ARTFUL. The term "artful dodger" comes to us from a character in Oliver Twist. Aaron Copland immortalizes such characters in the Dodger from his collection of Old American Songs, Set 1. Originally a campaign song linked specifically with the 1884 election of Grover Cleveland, it satirizes several professions, but Copland retained only three in his version: the political candidate, the preacher, and the lover. Here's baritone Michael Preacely warning us about him ...
52. Nickname for Margaret: PEG.
53. Catchy tunes, informally: BOPS. A tune with a hook, an ear worm. We're all suckers for them.
54. "You can say that again!": AMEN. AMEN!
57. Initials before QIA+: LGBT. Abbr. for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transsexual. Crosswordese.
58. Diving bird: LOON. A CSO to Ray - O (but not for the reason you think 😀). We heard them once on Mt. Desert Island, Maine where this video was made ...
59. Shade: TINT.
60. Ristorante menu preposition: ALLA.
61. Hint of hunger: PANG.
62. Flight sked nos.: ETAS.
64. "Tiny Desk Concerts" station: NPR. Pull up a chair for BONO and The Edge on NPR ...
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
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