Thursday, September 19, 2024, Nancy Stark, Will Nediger

  Living in the
Material World

Lyrics

Today's constructors, Nancy Stark and Will Nediger, tell us a short story via their theme clues -- fabricated out of whole cloth, and revealed in the end to be told in the first person ...

17A. The shady lawyer tried to __ a client's eyes, ...: PULL THE WOOL OVER.

33A. ... and was confident nobody would __ the scheme ...: COTTON ONTO.  As in the phrasal verb.

.

43A. ... and sure the client would __, ...: GET FLEECED.  

60A. ... but I saw everything, so I'm the __!: MATERIAL WITNESS.  Here's the Legal Information Institute's definition for our reveal.   But our favorite dinosaur seems to agree with our constructors, WITNESSING to 3 other synonyms related to MATERIAL: 

I thought that WOOL and FLEECE might be two different fabrics made from the same fiber, but these folks from Montana (who ought to know) inform us that that not the case.

Here's the grid ... 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Vodka cocktail, familiarly: COSMO.  Here's a recipe.  COSMO is also the first name of a famous comedian ...

6. Land area unit: ACRE.

10. Lose one's footing: SLIP.

14. Surfer's place: OCEAN.

15. Word after sonic or baby: BOOM.  I suspect that many Cornerites were born during the Baby Boom, so we will start with them, especially since many are retiring and there are big changes afoot in the workforce ...

And the Supersonic Transports (SSTs) that caused sonic booms were another phenomenon familiar to Boomers.  Operating only for approximately 25 years their usage was eventually abandoned after 2003 due to regulations against sonic booms over land masses.  But while Boomers may be on their way out, SSTs may be on their way back in if companies like Boom Technology have anything to do with it.

16. Most common number in a data set: MODE.  The MODE is measure of central tendency.  Small data sets may not have one.  Here's a brief video explaining measures of central tendency ...

17. [Theme clue]

20. Street in a Wes Craven title: ELM.  A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Johnny Depp in his film debut.  Since it's only 42 days until Halloween I thought you might enjoy this trailer ... 😁

21. Ships' frames: HULLS.  A CSO to Jinx.

22. Store for folks who like to assemble: IKEA.  Some might call this just an EKTORP, but IKEA is also an acronym of founder's initials -- Ingvar Kamprad; Elmtaryd, the family farm where Kamprad was born; and the nearby village of Agunnaryd, Kamprad's hometown in Småland.

23. Jeweled ornament: DIADEM.  This word occurs often in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) and is roughly equivalent to a crown or tiara, although it can also connote a turban or a mitre ...

25. Healer of all wounds, so they say: TIME. And they also say "Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana." 😀

27. John Quincy __: ADAMS.  John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, politician, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. 

John Quincy Adams

30. Exodus figure: MOSES.  Here's a two-part story of MOSES in a nutshell ...

 

33. [Theme clue]

37. Curmudgeon: CRAB.

39. Expect: AWAIT.

40. 2016 Olympics city: RIO.  Today's Portuguese lesson: "Rio de Janeiro = River of January" -- the name that was given to the city's original site by Portuguese navigators who arrived on January 1, 1502, and mistook the entrance of the bay for the mouth of a river.  Here is the view of the city from behind Christ the Redeemer, an Art Deco statue of Jesus overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, created by French-Polish sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot ...

Rio de Janeiro

41. Operate a car: DRIVE.  Did you hear the one about the two contentious golfers: "You drive me crazy! -- It's not a DRIVE, it's a short putt!"  😀

42. Migratory bird: TERN.  "Did you hear the one about the butcher who used seagulls for making sausages? --  He took a TERN for the wurst." 😀

43. [Theme clue].

45. Not-to-be-questioned beliefs: DOGMA. Unquestioned DOGMAS are not worth believing. But peace of mind requires that the questions they raise be answered eventually.

47. Smooth and confident: SUAVE.

48. Sounds of grief: SOBS.  If we heard all the sounds of all the SOBS being made around the world at this very moment, we would all collapse in grief.

50. Musician with pipes: SINGER.  This brings to mind a movie ...

... the closing credits to a film
starring 4 musicians with great pipes ...

54. Food that might be soft-shelled: TACO.  It turned out to be this ...

Soft Tacos

... not this Chesapeake Bay delicacy ...

Soft Shell crab sandwich

... see also 37A.

56. Ice dancer Virtue: TESSA.  Tessa Jane McCormick Virtue (born May 17, 1989) is a Canadian retired ice dancer. With her partner Scott Moir, she is the 2010 and 2018 Olympic champion, the 2014 Olympic silver medalist, a three-time World champion (2010, 2012, 2017), a three-time Four Continents champion (2008, 2012, 2017), the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final champion, an eight-time Canadian National champion (2008–2010, 2012–2014, 2017–2018).  And a CSO to CanadianEh!  Here are Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's Moulin Rouge at The Thank You Canada Tour ... 

59. Single-stranded molecule: RNA.   Ribonucleic Acid is the single-stranded relative of Deoxyribonucleic Acid.  Here the Amoeba Sisters explain the difference ...

60. [Theme reveal]

63. Noodle variety: UDON.  One of two varieties of noodle crosswordese -- the other being SOBA.  What's the difference?

64. "La Bohème" character: MIMI.  A beautiful soul. In the touching aria Mi Chiamo Mimi ("They call me Mimi") we find out that her real name is a CSO to Lucina ...

65. Evaluate visually: EYE UP.

66. Intent look: GAZE.  This and the last clue border on OGLING. 

67. Event for seniors: PROM.

68. Guys: DUDES.  Here's All the Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople ...

Down:

1. Got by: COPED.

2. Eyes, in Latin: OCULI.  Today's Latin lesson -- where we get our adjectives OCULAR and BINOCULAR.

3. Alabama River city: SELMA.  Selma, located on the banks of the Alabama River, is in south central Alabama, extending westward. The city has a population of 17,971 as of the 2020 census. About 80% of the population is African-American.  The city was planned and named Selma by William R. King in 1820, a politician and planter from North Carolina who was a future vice president of the United States. The name, meaning "high seat" or "throne", came from an old Scottish poem called The Songs of Selma.  Selma was an early center of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.  This iconic bridge was the site of a brutal attack on civil rights marchers known as Bloody Sunday ...

The Edmund Pettus Bridge

4. Bad start?: MAL. A CSO to our Friday tag teamer Malodorous Manatee ...

Manatee
The sweet smelling variety 😀

5. Precisely: ON THE DOT.

6. Brother of Cain: ABEL. Despite the fact that Cain slew his brother ABEL, God protected the former from premature death by "the mark of Cain". 

7. Billowy cloak hood: COWL. A typical monk's garb -- robe and cowl ...

8. Bird's perch: ROOST.

9. Mopey rock genre: EMO.  Wired Magazine recently reported that, with 87 percent of the world's population expected to have become "emo" by the year 2020, a team of English newscasters delved into the phenomenon to find out more about this intriguing musical subculture ...

But the craze is expected to be over by 2025, so it looks like we won't be seeing EMO much longer, except of course in crossword puzzles. 😀

10. Deceptive tactic: SMOKESCREEN.

11. Lyricist's subject, often: LOVE.  Here's Andy Williams with Love is a Many Splendored Thing (lyrics by Sammy Fain) ...

... and for an encore here's -- All You Need is Love (lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney)

12. Possible solution: IDEA.

13. As ordered by: PER.

18. Dog's best friend: HUMAN.   How the greatest pair of symbionts of all time evolved together.

19. 67-Across conveyance: LIMO.

24. Milieu for single people: DATING SCENE.  E.g. the apps Tinder and Grindr.

26. Texter's qualifier: IMO.  IMO = In My Opinion. Those who are really qualified use IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) 😀

28. Seconds or thirds: MORE.  Famously requested by Oliver Twist ...

29. Huffy moods: SNITS.

31. "The Boys" developer Kripke: ERIC.  The Boys is an American satirical superhero television series developed by Eric Kripke for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, it follows the eponymous team of vigilantes as they combat superpowered individuals (referred to as "Supes").  The trailers were a little too weird for my taste, so I decided to use this song instead ...

32. Goalie achievement: SAVE.  Here are some of the greatest saves in NHL history ...

33. "__ got your tongue?": CAT.  The curious origin of this phrase.

34. Was in a red state?: OWED.  Red ink is used in ledgers to indicate debts.

35. Edible purple corm: TARO.  What is Taro?

Taro Corms

36. Stir-fry protein: TOFU.

38. Cot, for one: BED.

41. Colored outside the lines, say: DEVIATED.  I'm sure that a lot of us prided ourselves for not coloring outside the lines in elementary school. Those who did DEVIATE became artists.

43. Talk on and on: GAB.

44. Cold yogurt drink: LASSI.  Here is the Perfect Sweet Lassi Recipe.  And if you add just a little bit of collie fur, it also makes the perfect cure for a hangover. 😀

46. Habitat for heather: MOOR.  Northumberland is renowned for its wide open moorland, which covers about 70 per cent of the National Park. Such heather moorland habitat is internationally significant, as it only occurs in Britain.

Northumberland National Park

49. Help on the way to the top?: STAIR.

51. Generosity opposite: GREED.  One of the Seven Deadly Sins, but by tradition only -- the list does not actually appear in the Bible.  It is perhaps best personified by King Midas, who eventually died of hunger, when he was granted his wish that everything he touched be turned into gold.

King Midas

52. Come after: ENSUE.

53. Shop class tools: RASPS.

54. "Behold my brilliance!": TADA. Cornerites who solve online eagerly await this TADA!

55. The whole shebang: A TO Z.

57. Muppet host of "The Not-Too-Late Show": ELMO.  Live from New York! ...

58. Do laps in a pool: SWIM.

60. Make silly faces, maybe: MUG.  Here's a collection of MUGS with silly faces from Royal Doulton China in Staffordshire, England ...

Mugs

61. Nanny's handful: IMP.

62. Tisch Sch. of the Arts home: NYU.  The New York University Tisch School of the Arts  is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of NYU.  Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the arts, and filmmakers. The school is divided into three Institutes: Performing Arts, Emerging Media, and Film & Television -- teaching acting, dance, drama, performance studies, design for stage and film, musical theatre writing, photography, record producing, game design and development, and film and television studies.

Cheers,

Bill

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

waseeley