Thursday, July 4, 2024, Tom Pepper & Zhouqin Burnikel
YO YO YO YO
The above clip was performed by Yo-Yo Ma's Silkroad Project and is their take on the Goin' Home theme from Antonin Dvorak's 9th Symphony ("From the New World"). I selected it for our intro as the first half of Yo-Yo Ma's surname is a homophone of the 1st syllable of the 1st word of Tom and C.C.'s 4 theme fills ...
17A. Hatha to Ashtanga?: YOGAS RANGE. By my reckoning this is the only themer that is not pulling our legs. I think RANGE here refers to the level of difficulty of the particular school of yoga, with HATHA being relatively easy, ranging through ASHTANGA which is the hardest. I believe there are also other comparison schemes for the various schools of yoga.
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| Yoga Mandala |
29A. Stuffed teddies that look like a green Jedi master?: YODA BEARS. Actually there are such creatures, but they inhabit the Amazon, not the Star Wars Universe 😀.
46A. Tex-Mex snack that improves the performance of an Alpine singer?: YODEL TACO. This was a stretch -- I don't think they're a Tex-Mex thing, but the following product might soothe a throat after consuming a TACO containing too many red hot chili peppers 😀...
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
.
Across:
1. Cronies: PALS.
5. Bird in the National Audubon Society logo: EGRET. Heron fit, but didn't perp. Apparently there has been some controversy recently at the Audubon Society.
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| Augsburg, Germany |
14. With 43-Down, "M*A*S*H" star: ALAN. See 43D.
15. Writer Mary who specializes in popular science: ROACH. Mary Roach (born March 20, 1959) is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. She in known for her offbeat titles, on curious subjects, e.g.
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| Stiff Bonk Gulp Spook |
The only one of these I explored in any depth was the last: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. As it turns out a copy of the entire book is available online at Google Books (see below). This is a topic that I have read extensively about, and I expected that Roach would be skeptical about it, as most modern scientists base their beliefs on a metaphysics of philosophical materialism. However this was not the case. During her research for the book she eventually encountered the writings of Dr. Ian Stevenson, a tenured Psychiatrist at the University of Virginia. Roach's discussion of Stevenson's writings begins around page 24 in the Google books edition. Her account of his findings concludes with this statement on page 30 -- "If you take the work of Ian Stevenson at face value, it would be hard to reach any conclusion other than this: Reincarnation happens". If you're interested in this topic see the Stevenson link above for an extensive bibliography of his researches.
16. Party with glow sticks: RAVE. Back in the 60's our RAVES used strobe lights and lava lamps. 😀
17. [Theme clue]
19. Change the locks?: SNIP. You could change someone's locks (hair) by snipping it.
20. "I said ENOUGH!": STOP NOW.
21. Insta, X, TikTok, etc., informally: SOCIALS. Social media. Although quite a few of them seem to be 31D-SOCIALS.
23. Runs smoothly: PURRS. Like a contented kitty.
25. Wilson of Heart: ANN. Ann Dustin Wilson (born June 19, 1950) is an American singer and songwriter best known as the lead singer of the rock band Heart, which is still going strong. Here she sings These Dreams ...
26. TMZ subject: CELEB. TMZ seems to be updated hourly, but I'm sure you'll find a few "items" of interest today.
29. [Theme clue]
34. Anxious feeling: UNEASE.
36. Headlight part: LENS.
37. Toe bean locale: PAW. Pawmestry: the art of reading toe beans. And a CSO to Hahtoolah.
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| Toe Beans |
39. In flight: ALOFT.
41. Mother of Clytemnestra: LEDA. In Greek mythology the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces (make that RAPES) Leda, a Spartan queen. Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. Clytemnestra would later marry Agamemnon, a Greek leader of the Trojan War. Clytemnestra would subsequently die at the hands of her son Orestes for the slaying of Agamemnon. All of this violence is powerfully compressed in William Butler Yeats' 15 line poem: Leda and the Swan.
42. Storefront sign abbr.: HRS.
43. Java spot: ASIA. No, not a CAFE, nor a sweat where programmers write CODE, but an island in the Indonesian Archipelago.
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| Java |
44. "Yeah, there is a resemblance there": I SEE IT.
46. [Theme clue]
49. Anaheim team, to fans: HALOS. AKA the Los Angelos Angels.
51. Flower at the center of a financial bubble in the 1630s: TULIP. The crash of 1637 may have been more fiction than fact.
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| Tulip field in Holland |
57. Artificial surface sports injury: TURF TOE. No, it's not an injury caused by artificial turf. It can happen on any kind of turf.
61. "lol 2 funny": HA HA.
.
62. [Theme clue].
64. Dollar alternative: AVIS. EURO fit, but HERTZ didn't, but both would have been wrong. 😀
65. Moved stealthily: SLUNK. The past tense of SLINK.
66. __ Spunkmeyer cookies: OTIS.
68. Mournful verse: ELEGY. This is a poet's elegy for another poet, the one who wrote Leda and the Swan at 41A.
69. Unit that might be edited or spliced: GENE. A GENE is a segment of DNA that codes for one or more proteins -- it is analogous to a set of records in a database. However doing anything with that data, such as editing it or splicing it, requires the use of enzymes (proteins) and RNA (which also can function as an enzyme). RNA is the unsung hero of molecular biology and in this book by Nobel prize winning biochemist Thomas R. Cech, he gives credit where credit is due for the vital role that RNA plays in catalyzing all that goes on in life ...
1. Is worth it: PAYS.
2. Tons: ALOT.
3. Italian lake: LAGO. Today's Italian lesson. In 1927 heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post built a winter retreat in Florida called Mar-a-Lago, but it has since changed hands.
4. Stir-fry ingredient: SNAP PEAS. You can either stir-fry them or just snack on them fresh from the garden.
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| Sugar Snaps |
5. Overthrow, e.g.: ERROR. OUST was too short, but an OVERTHROW is scored as an ERROR, at least in baseball.
6. Fall apart, as plans: GO AWRY.
7. Operated: RAN.
8. Heart charts, for short: ECGS. Electro Cardio Gram --You're more likely to see this abbreviated as EKG -- this is why.
9. James of "The White Lotus": THEO. The White Lotus is an American black comedy drama anthology television series created by Mike White for HBO. It follows the guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus resort chain, whose interactions are affected by their various psychosocial dysfunctions. It must be a lot of fun to act in.
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| Theo James |
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| Boo Boo Smokey |
12. Not good at all: EVIL.
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| The Three Wise Monkeys |
18. Gives the cold shoulder to: SNUBS. Being SNUBBED at the Oscars is a term we've seen a lot of lately. But the recognition of just receiving a nomination is considered a reward by some.
22. Semi areas: CABS. Or some RED wines.
24. One-person project: SOLO ACT. Here's one everybody knows ...
26. Like an easy job: CUSHY.
27. First calendario page: ENERO.
28. "Bring it on!": LETS DO THIS.
30. Dict. entry: DEF. Hand up if you still use a paper Dict?
31. Start to matter?: ANTI. The Big Bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter in the early universe. But today, everything we see from the smallest life forms on Earth to the largest stellar objects is made almost entirely of matter. So what happened?
33. Whacks: SWATS.
35. It's right there on the map!: EAST. And WEST is left there on the map!
40. NCAA champion swimmer Thomas: LIA.
41. Jump ahead of: LEAPFROG.
43. See 14-Across: ALDA. Né Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo (January 28, 1936), ALDA did play a few other characters besides Hawkeye Pierce.
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| Alan Alda |
47. Mercedes luxury line: E CLASS. 2024s starting at $63,350.
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| 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class |
52. Like the number eight, in China: LUCKY. I wonder who came up with this clue? 😀
53. "Kapow!": WHAM.
54. Icicle holder: EAVE.
55. Big Board abbr.: NYSE. New York Stock Exchange.
56. Woody of "Toy Story," for one: DOLL.
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| Woody |
59. Lena of "The Reader": OLIN. The Reader is a 2008 German-American romantic drama film about the events of the Holocaust and its aftermath. The film tells the story of Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes), a German lawyer who, as a 15-year-old in 1958, has a sexual relationship with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet), a prison guard in one of the death camps. Lena Olin plays a Holocaust survivor named Llana. I found the plot of this film to be very difficult to understand (see Wiki article above). Here is a scene that occurred many years later in New York, where Llana and Michael are discussing a secret he knew that Hannah took to the grave, but which he seems unwilling to reveal. Two great actors ....
60. "Anyone __?": ELSE.
63. Regret: RUE. Could also be clued "French street" or "Bitter herb'".
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
As you read this Teri and I will have left town for a visit to Ohio for a week to be with family and friends and ending with a concert on July 6th at the Blossom Music Festival near the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. And then we'll be Goin' Home.
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