Thursday, October 17, 2024, Bryant Shain
IT's ALL Really Simple!
Today's constructor Bryant Shain rejoins us today after a long absence (recapped by a beloved reviewer) to treat us to a relatively uncommon vertical theme. He gives us these 3 down clues and a down reveal indicated by asterisks. If you don't see the embedded words in each of the themers (I didn't) IT's ALL given away by the reveal ...
3D. *Party boss: POLITICAL LEADER. As we are in the thick of an election year, and as the Corner doesn't generally do politics, I decided to go to a great General who later became a great President, whom I trust most will agree was one of the best political leaders in American history -- Dwight D. Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969).
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| President Dwight D. Eisenhower |
9D. *Runs out of free content, in a way: HITS A PAYWALL. In 1989 computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, who was working at the CERN particle accelerator in Switzerland at the time, invented the World Wide Web (WWW) as a means of organizing and distributing research papers to interested scientists around the world. At the time, access to the underlying Internet was largely supported by grants and was restricted to universities, and thus the information transmitted over it was generally considered to be in the public domain. Eventually the WWW spread to the world of commerce and other means had to be found to support the development of content, e.g. advertising and PAYWALLS. Here is a visualization by the Opte Project showing the explosive growth of the Internet between 1997 and 2021 ...
And the theme reveal ...
11D. Explains in meticulous detail, and what the answer to each starred clue literally does?: BREAKS IT ALL DOWN. Some of us reviewers tend to break IT ALL down into a bit too much detail, but I'm not naming any names. 😀
Here's the grid ...
Across:
1. In the know about: HIP TO. A modern adjective.
6. Tub sessions: BATHS. While a lot of people take showers these days, in the past these people didn't.
11. Troop gp.: BSA. Boy Scouts of America.
14. Novel format: EBOOK. As the traditional format of many novels was the TOME, older readers are turning to EBOOKS because they are generally lighter and many have novel features such as the ability to search the book for specific passages, look up related content on the Internet, and bundled subscriptions to content.
16. Shofar horn source: RAM. A shofar is an ancient musical horn typically made of a ram's horn, used for Jewish religious purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player's use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth. The shofar is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur; it is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah.
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| Shofar by Alphonse Lévy The caption says: "To a good year". |
18. Food regimens: DIETS. Hand up if you know one that works?
19. Wane: EBB.
20. Omega preceder: PSI. May also be clued "Meas. of tire pressure".
21. Comes to: EQUALS.
23. Like a 16-Across: MALE.
24. Protein option: TOFU. What is TOFU, and is it healthy? If you decide it's for you, here's a recipe for Garlic Sesame Tofu.
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| Garlic Sesame Tofu |
28. Old-timey theaters: DRIVE INS. I'm told that they were a great place to neck, but that was way before my time. 😁
32. Dutch ovens, e.g.: POTS. A Dutch oven, Dutch pot (US English), or casserole dish (international) is a thick-walled cooking pot with a tight-fitting lid. You can buy this one from Amazon for only $49.99.
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| Dutch Oven |
33. Houston university: RICE. Rice University, officially William Marsh Rice University, is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It sits on a 300-acre (120 ha) campus adjacent to the Houston Museum District and the Texas Medical Center.
34. Naval destroyer, in slang: TIN CAN. And they used ASH CANS (depth charges) to destroy submarines.
36. Chapel vow: I DO.
39. In the distance: AFAR.
40. Like most fish: SCALY.
41. "No more of that!": STOP.
42. Glycerin-based goop: GEL.
43. Eschewed cooked foods: ATE RAW. On alternate Friday's we eschew cooked foods ...
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| Sushi Platter |
45. Novelist Scottoline known for legal thrillers: LISA. Lisa Scottoline was born in Philadelphia in 1955 and earned a B.A. in English magna cum laude (in three years) from the University of Pennsylvania, then graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She clerked for judges at the state and federal appellate courts and later became a litigator in Philadelphia. After the birth of her daughter, she left the law firm and started writing. Final Appeal received an Edgar Award, for excellence in crime fiction. She has since written 30 bestselling novels, including Look Again and Don't Go, both which reached number two on The New York Times Best Seller list.
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| Lisa Scottoline |
47. Like some cast-iron 32-Across: ENAMELED. Our 32-Across is just plain old stainless steel.
49. Target of a strike, perhaps: CUE BALL. This is for all you pool sharks out there ...
52. Lounge: LOLL.
53. Dutch semisoft cheese: EDAM. The crosswordese cheese.
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| Edam Cheese |
57. Pops: DAD. A CSO to Tony's father.
60. Do sums: ADD.
61. One who goes for the gold?: MINER. Mining rare earth elements may be more profitable.
62. Fern-to-be: SPORE. How to grow ferns from spores.
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| Ferns showing sporangia containing developing spores |
65. Natives of Pre-Columbian Peru: INCAS. The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu, lit. "land of four parts" centered in the Andean Mountains), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 AD and by 1572 AD, the last Inca state was fully conquered.
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| Inca Empire circ 1525 AD |
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| Edwin Diaz |
68. Go-between: AGENT.
69. Stray adopted by Annie: SANDY. All I ever heard him say was ARF!
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| Annie and Sandy |
1. Rope fiber: HEMP. Hemp (Cannabis sativa) was grown extensively throughout the world during the days of wooden sailing ships to make rope. As it turns out, the leaves of some strains of the hemp plant are also used for the cultivation of marijuana, an hallucinogen. Thus the legality of growing the plant has fluctuated over time: it was legal in the 18th and 19th centuries, then production was effectively banned in the mid-20th century, and it returned as a legal crop in the 21st century. By 2019, the United States had become the world's third largest producer of hemp, behind China and Canada.
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| Two uses for Hemp |
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| Sacred Ibis Lake Ziway, Ethiopia |
4. Approximate weight of the Liberty Bell: TON. Perped.
5. Michael of "Caddyshack": OKEEFE. Michael O'Keefe (born Raymond Peter O'Keefe Jr.; April 24, 1955) is an American actor, known for his roles as Danny Noonan in Caddyshack, Ben Meechum in The Great Santini, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Darryl Palmer in the Neil Simon movie The Slugger's Wife.
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| Michael O'Keefe |
7. Setting for Best Picture winners "The Last Emperor" and "Parasite": ASIA. The Last Emperor is a 1987 epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the final Emperor of China. Here's a trailer for the first film ...
Incidentally the Academy Award winning soundtrack for the film was co-written by Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Cong Su. You may remember Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Byrne from the new wave band The Talking Heads.
Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who co-wrote the film with Han Jin-won. The film follows a poor family who infiltrate the life of a wealthy family ...
8. Infection fighter: T CELL. T cells are a type of white blood cell called lymphocytes. They help your immune system fight germs and protect you from disease.
9. [Theme clue]
10. Bro kin: SIS.
11. [Theme reveal]
12. Fine fur: SABLE. The sable (Martes zibellina) is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kazakhstan, China, North Korea and Hokkaido, Japan. Here are some pictures ...
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| Before |
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| After Sable Bomber Jacket $6,300.00 |
13. Yellow shade: AMBER. Named for the gem AMBER, the petrified sap of prehistoric trees.
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| Baltic Amber Pendant |
23. Pilates roll: MAT. MAKI was too long.
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| Sushi Roll |
27. Chaney of classic horror: LON. Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces". Here's a trailer from the Hunchback of Notre Dame ...
28. Downer: DRAG.
29. Lousy (with): RIFE. A bit of a stretch, but ...
31. Catch: SNARE.
35. Family: CLAN. A clan is an extended family. Your clan might include your parents and siblings, but also your cousins and second cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. Families that are related to each other, whether through marriage or as distant cousins, are members of the same clan.
37. Nod off: DOZE.
38. Opinion piece: OP ED. An op-ed piece is a short newspaper column that represents a writer's strong, informed, and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted audience. It is a written prose piece that expresses the opinion of an author or entity with no affiliation with the publication's editorial board. The term is short for "opposite the editorial page", referring to the practice of newspapers placing op-eds on the opposite side of their editorial page.
41. "Falling Up" poet/illustrator Silverstein: SHEL. Sheldon Allan Silverstein (September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer and musician. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended university before being drafted into the United States Army. His illustrations were published in various newspapers and magazines, including the adult-oriented Playboy. As a children's author, some of his most acclaimed works include The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and A Light in the Attic. His works have been translated into more than 47 languages and have sold more than 20 million copies. As a songwriter, Silverstein wrote the 1969 Johnny Cash track "A Boy Named Sue", which peaked at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
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| Shel Silverstein |
46. PC pioneer: IBM. IBM's PC, released in 1981, was indeed a pioneering computer, but it was not the first commercially successful personal computer. That PC is generally considered to be the Altair 8800, introduced in 1975. This was followed by the Apple Computer II in 1977 (the Apple Computer 1 was really just a prototype), and the Radio Shack TRS-80 also in 1977. IBM's contribution to the PC world was two-fold: 1. Their name -- they were giants in the mainframe and mini-computer fields, and were in effect endorsing the idea of a "personal computer"; and 2. And more importantly, as they had previously done in the mainframe world, they introduced a standardized operating system called MS-DOS. IBM had purchased the latter from the nascent Microsoft Corporation, who had in turn purchased it from Seattle software engineer Tim Patterson -- whom they didn't bother to inform that they were currently negotiating the sale of MS-DOS to IBM! The IBM PC, introduced in 1981, would then go on to revolutionize computing and networking throughout the world.
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| The IBM PC |
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| Clumps of moss on the ground and at the base of trees Allegheny National Forest, PA |
50. Calf's suckling spot: UDDER. "Did you hear the one about the cow that jumped over the barbed wire fence? -- UDDER destruction!" 😀
51. Medieval Times prop: LANCE. The LANCE is also used in Modern Times as a prop in jousting, Maryland's state sport ...
55. Noodle: BEAN. Mr. Bean is really off his noodle on this one ...
56. Once, in the past: ERST.
58. Cactus-friendly: ARID.
59. Refuse: DENY.
61. Soccer great Hamm: MIA. Here's a short bio-pic of MIA's career ...
63. Activity that might elicit stares, for short: PDA. -- or the comment "Get a room!"
Well, that wraps IT ALL up for this review!
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
And thanks for the help, C.C. You made IT it ALL come together!
And thanks for the help, C.C. You made IT it ALL come together!
waseeley
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