Thursday, October 10, 2024, Gary Larson

 

 An Ode to Dogs

Gary Larson's theme for this puzzle was service animals, which all happen to be dogs. But let's face it -- have you ever seen a seeing eye cat? 😀. 

Jimmy Stewart's famous Ode to Beau was probably my best option for a splash screen -- Old Shep is a bit maudlin (but a favorite of my Dad's) and Who Let the Dogs Out is positively manic.  No asterisks, no circles, no reveal -- just 5 punny clues that fill to a two word in the language phrase, the second word being a wet-nosed canine (see also 15A for a slobbering comic Easter Egg). The fills are illustrated here with definitions of the full phrase, followed by the canine ...

17A. Service animal for a heavy-metal musician?: ROCK HOUND.  Someone who collects rocks and minerals.  For anyone with a passing interest in this subject I cannot recommend enough the Golden Nature Guide to Rocks and Minerals by Herbert Zim.  This brief book is beautifully illustrated and chock full of info ...

 

There are many breeds of HOUND, but one of the most popular is the ... 

Basset Hound

25A. Service animal for a neighborhood cop?: BEAT BOXER. Beat boxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.  Here French Beatboxer/Singer MB-14 wins the Golden Buzzer on Britain's Got Talent 2023!  Check out curmudgeon Simon Cowell's stunned expression ...

The American Kennel Club lists fewer variants of the BOXER breed and cites their loyalty, affection, intelligence, work ethic, and good looks: 

Boxer

50A. Service animal for the Energizer mascot?: BUNNY CHOW.  Surprise -- this actually turns out to be a South African street food made with aromatic spices, meat, chickpeas and potatoes served in hollow bread.  Here's a recipe ...

Bunny Chow

The Chow Chow, often shortened to CHOW, is one of the oldest dog breeds, according to the Chow Chow Club. Historians have pinpointed the Chow Chow’s origins to China’s Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE). They later gained popularity in Europe and, eventually, the U.S.

Chow Chow

35A. Service animal for an airline pilot?: JET SETTER.  Entertainers and politicians mostly -- but aren't they the same thing -- people who distract us from what's really going on? 😀 

There are many breeds of  SETTER, but my favorite is the Irish Setter, a high-spirited dog known for grace, swiftness, and a flashy red coat. They are famously good family dogs: sweet-tempered companions for the folks, and rollicking playmates and tennis-ball fetchers for the children. 

Irish Setter

59. Service animal for a swindler's victim?: MARK SPITZ.  MARK being slang for the victim of a scam.  Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is of course an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, winning seven gold medals, each in world-record time.

Mark Spitz and Suzy Weiner
 on their wedding day in May 1973

This lively Finnish SPITZ, the flame-colored, foxy-faced breed from the “Land of 60,000 Lakes,” is a small but fearless hunting dog whose unique style of tracking and indicating quarry has earned him the nickname the “Barking Bird Dog.”

Finnish Spitz

Here's the grid ...
 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

 1. Cheerless: GRIM.

5. Expression: TERM.

9. Language of "The Rubáiyát": FARSI.  The Rubáiyát is a poem written by Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia".  It is a religious work and is 178 pages long, but the stanza you hear most often is

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,

A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread—and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness—

Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

In FARSI (Persian)  this would be rendered as

کتاب آیات زیر شاخه،

یک کوزه شراب، یک قرص نان - و تو

کنار من در حال آواز خواندن در بیابان -

آه، بیابان ها بهشتی بودند!

This passage reminds me a bit of the Song of Songs from the Old Testament.  

14. "Mazes and Monsters" novelist Jaffe: RONA.  Rona Jaffe (June 12, 1931 – December 30, 2005) was an American novelist who published numerous works from 1958 to 2003. During the 1960s, she also wrote cultural pieces for Cosmopolitan.  In 1981, Jaffe published Mazes and Monsters, which depicted a Dungeons & Dragons-like game that caused disorientation and hallucinations among its players and incited them to violence and attempted suicide.  In 1982 the book was adapted by CBS into a made-for-TV movie of the same name, featuring a 26-year-old Tom Hanks in one of his earliest appearances. 

Rona Jaffe

15. Yellow-and-brown comics dog: ODIE.  Definitely not a service dog, but he is a Beagle.  Odie is a frequent foil for Garfield the comics cat ...

Odie

16. Folding words: I'M OUT.

17. [Theme clue]

19. Club rule: BYLAW.

20. Courtroom event: TRIAL.  Purportedly the most famous criminal trial in U.S. history was The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Former NFL player and actor O. J. Simpson was tried and acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, who were stabbed to death outside Brown's condominium in Los Angeles on June 12, 1994. The trial spanned eight months, from January 24 to October 3, 1995.

21. Family girl: SIS.

23. Esports event with fighting games, familiarly: EVO.  The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as EVO, is an American annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournaments are completely open and use the double elimination format.  Here's an Evo 2022 trailer 

24. Legitimate-looking facade: FRONT.  One of the most famous false fronts was the World War II Allies' elaborate disinformation campaign in the run up to D-Day 1944, codenamed Operation Bodyguard.   It was a multi-faceted ruse designed to convince Hitler that the invasion would take place across the English Channel to Pas-de-Calais in Northwestern France rather than the Normandy beaches, and that it would be later than the intended date of June 6th.   The plan relied on coordinated deceptions aided by fictitious reports by flipped German double-agents feeding false information back to Hitler; Allied general look-alikes appearing in unexpected places; radio reports of British troops massing in Scotland; dummy aircraft and an armada of decoy landing crafts, composed only of painted canvases pulled over steel frames; and even inflatable tanks that could be easily moved during cover of darkness ...

Dummy Sherman Tank

When the Normandie invasion actually began the Germans were convinced that it was a diversion and that the short route across the Channel was still the intended invasion route.  As a result they maintained their formidable Panzer divisions in Calais for at least 48 hours before realizing that they were needed far South of there.  

25. [Theme clue]

28. Setting for climbing hills: LOW GEAR.  IN A VALLEY was too long.

30. Portable writing surface: LAP DESK.  As a modern form the lap desk is meant primarily for use in bed and other similar circumstances, and is also known as a bed desk. There are a variety of forms available, but as a rule it is much smaller and simpler than the antique lap desk, having at the most a small drawer or holding area for a ballpoint pen and a pencil. Lap desks have been around for a while -- here is one dating from the 18th or early 19th century ...

Antique lap desk

31. Income statement abbr.: YTD.  Year To Date.

32. Browser subwindow: TAB.

34. Settles in for the night: ROOSTS.

38. One who may be up a creek with a paddle: CANOER.  Without one you'd be outta' luck. 😀

41. Part of BTW and FTW: THE.  By The Way and For The Win.

42. Minor player: COG.  An easily replaceable component?

45. Theologian Thomas: AQUINAS.  St. Thomas Aquinas OP (Order of Preachers; c. 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, an influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist in the tradition of scholasticism.  He devoted himself to synthesizing Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity and he has been described as "the most influential thinker of the medieval period".  English philosopher Anthony Kenny called Aquinas "one of the greatest philosophers of the Western world".

St. Thomas Aquinas
Altarpiece from Ascoli Piceno, Italy,
by Carlo Crivelli (15th century)

47. Event where sculptures move?: ART SALE.   All these poor folks were trying to do was take a wefie ... 

Moving sculpture

50. [Theme clue].

52. Chipmaker: INTEL.  Intel was incorporated in Mountain View, California, on July 18, 1968, by Gordon E. Moore (known for "Moore's law"), a chemist; Robert Noyce, a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated circuit; and Arthur Rock, an investor and venture capitalist.  Intel supplies microprocessors for most manufacturers of computer systems (albeit not the one this review is being written on!), and is one of the developers of the x86 series of instruction sets found in most personal computers (PCs).  

 

Intel Headquarters
Santa Clara, CA

53. Outlaw: BAN.

54. Make use of: TAP.

55. Service order?: SEALS.  A very clever clue.  The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, ju😟ngle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or kill high-level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines.  It was Seal Team Six who took out 911 mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Navy Seals Insignia

56. Bumbling: INEPT.

59. [Theme clue]. 

62. Unsettling: EERIE.  That scary lake just north of Cleveland, Ohio.😟

63. Aweather's opposite: ALEE.

64. Some pickled pods: OKRA.

65. Jule who composed many Streisand show tunes: STYNE.  Jule Styne (December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994)[2] was an English-American songwriter and composer widely known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became successful films: Gypsy, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Funny Girl.  Here's Barbara Streisand singing People from Funny Girl ...

66. Inappropriate at the office, briefly: NSFW.  Not Suitable For Work.

67. Half-moon tide: NEAP.

Down:

 1. "So mad!": GRR.

2. Tree trauma: ROOT ROT.   How to identify, treat, and prevent root rot.

Plant afflicted with root rot

3. Exclusive group: IN CROWD.  No COGS in this group.

4. Bringing in: MAKING.

5. 49-Down product: TOOL.  E.g. a ratchet wrench ... 

6. UPenn's domain: EDU.

7. Hose off: RINSE.

8. In the center, in anatomy: MEDIAL.  The practice of medicine requires precise terms for the location of anatomical entities.  Here are some of the main terms.

9. White lie: FIB.

10. "Vice" Oscar nominee Adams: AMY.  Vice is a 2018 American biographical political satire black comedy film directed, written, and produced by Adam McKay. The cast of this film include Christian Bale as former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, with Amy Adams as his wife Lynne. The film follows Cheney on his path to becoming the most powerful vice president in American history.

11. Pricey watches: ROLEXES.  This one can be yours for only $117,399 ...

12. Most sophisticated: SUAVEST.  ... and you'll be the SUAVEST person in your neighborhood. 

13. "I guess that's acceptable": IT WORKS.  In my experience IT often doesn't work! 🙄

18. Detest: HATE.

22. Sourdough need: STARTER.  Lisa Bass will show you how to make a sourdough starter from scratch.

24. Fruit __: FLY.  Who knew that the lowly FRUIT FLY, AKA Drosophila Melanogaster, the tiny pest that shows up in the Fall when fruits start to ferment, would turn out to be a lynchpin of modern genetics.   In 1910 Thomas Hunt Morgan began using fruit flies in experimental studies of heredity at Columbia University in a laboratory known as the Fly Room.  Several factors make them ideal for studying genetics: 

1. their simplicity -- they have only 4 chromosomes, compared with 23 in humans;
2. their reproduction rate -- a single pair of flies can produce hundreds of offspring within a couple of weeks, and the offspring become sexually mature within one week;
3. the large size of the chromosomes in their salivary glands -- making them easy to study with a microscope.

Drosophila Chromosomes

Morgan and his students eventually elucidated many basic principles of heredity, including sex-linked inheritance, epistasis, multiple alleles, and gene mapping, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for his discoveries elucidating the role that the chromosome plays in heredity.

25. Garments with cups: BRAS. Or 236.59 ccs when measured with the metric system. 😀

26. Fraternal gp.: BPOE.  The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City.  Remember, like the word deer, ELK is never pluralized.

BPOE Logo

27. Smell: ODOR.  The dark side of the other crosswordese term AROMA.

29. Draw in: ATTRACT.  E.g. fruit ATTRACTS 24Ds.

33. Stake: BET.

35. Enlist: JOIN.

36. Li'l: EENY.  Like 24Ds.

37. Become friendlier: THAW.

38. Taxi drivers: CABBIES.

39. Hair spray brand: AQUA NET.  Use it to playfully nag your locks ... 😀

Aqua Net

40. Convent: NUNNERY.  A cloister where NUNS live and pray.  SISTERS pray, but live and serve in the secular world.

42. Gracefully stealthy: CAT LIKE.  Garfield is a CAT (see 15A), sometimes stealthy, but never graceful. 

43. Fat substitute: OLESTRA.  Olestra (also known by its brand name Olean) is a fat substitute food additive that adds no metabolizable calories to products. It has been used in the preparation of otherwise high-fat foods, thereby lowering or eliminating their fat content.

Olestra 3D structure

Starting in 1996, an FDA-mandated health warning label reads "This Product Contains Olestra. Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools. Olestra inhibits the absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients. Vitamins A, D, E, and K have been added".  YMMV.

44. Set: GEL.

46. High priest who heals the sick: SHAMAN.  A practitioner of Shamanism.

Buryat (Mongolian) shaman
 on Olkhon Island, Siberia

48. Knots: TIES.  Both words can be a verb or a noun.

49. Wisconsin manufacturer founded as a wrench company in 1920: SNAP-ON.  Snap-on Incorporated,  headquartered in Kenosha, Wisconsin is an American designer, manufacturer, and marketer of high-end tools and equipment for professional use in the transportation industry including the automotive, heavy duty, equipment, marine, aviation, and railroad industries. Snap-on was founded as the Snap-on Wrench Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1920 by Joseph Johnson and William Seidemann -- the business manufactured and marketed ten sockets that would "snap on" to five interchangeable handles (see 5D).  Anyone who tinkers with car engines or other machines finds socket wrenches indispensable.

51. Milky gems: OPALS.

55. Misrepresent, as data: SKEW.  The misrepresentation of data by skewing is common in the advertising industry and is taken for granted.  Misrepresentation of data in science is much more serious and may be the result of either unintentional error or outright fraud.

57. ATM code: PIN.  Personal Identification Number.

58. Comfy top: TEE.

60. Field worker?: REF.  As in the REFEREE on a football field.

61. Nuke: ZAP.

Cheers,

Bill

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

waseeley