Thursday, June 6, 2024, Paul Voge & Katie Hale (2024)

Seth Green

... the constructors really used their beans to come up with this theme 😀. In fact I'm surprised that they didn't include a 5th themer, e.g. EINSTEIN'S BRAIN, a rather miraculous BEAN don't you think (as are yours and mine!)?

Einstein using his BEAN

And here's my favorite BEAN using his BEAN to take a math exam ...

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Calibri, Arial, et al.: FONTS. Blogger provides a default font for these reviews plus 7 others, but as I understand it, if I change the font, it reverts back to the default at publication time.A CSO to TTP to verify this.

6. Early show featuring Robin Roberts, for short: GMA. Robin Roberts (born November 23, 1960) is an American television broadcaster. Roberts is the anchor of ABC's Good Morning America.

Robin Roberts

9. Jargon: LINGO. ARGOT fit, but didn't perp.

14. Childish retort: ARE SO.

15. Sought office: RAN. In most cases there are ALSO RANS.

16. Not just in one's head: ALOUD. Hand up if you talk to yourself? ✋ (well no one else will talk to me! 😎)

17. [Theme clue]

19. Layered dessert: TORTE. Last Thursday's TORTE was un-layered. Here's the Skinny Chick's recipe for Layered Chocolate Cream Torte.

Chocolate Cream Torte

20. Addams cousin: ITT. This guy ...

21. Visionary: IDEALIST. One of the earliest IDEALISTS was Don Quixote, a character in the early 17th Century novel of the same name by Miguel de Cervantes. Considered a founding work of Western literature, it is often labelled as the first modern novel and the greatest work ever written. Don Quixote is also one of the most-translated books in the world and one of the best-selling novels of all time. It also spawned several adaptations, the most famous of which is the musical The Man of La Mancha, which gave us this song ...

23. Source of an oil with medicinal properties: TEA TREE. Tea tree oil comes from steam distillation of the leaves of the tea tree. The tea tree grows on the swampy southeast coast of Australia.
The aboriginal people of Australia have traditionally used tea tree oil as an antiseptic (germ killer) and an herbal medicine. Today, external use of tea tree oil is promoted for various conditions such as acne, athlete’s foot, lice, nail fungus, cuts, mite infection at the base of the eyelids, and insect bites.

Tea Tree

26. Ireland's "Amhrán na bhFiann," for one: ANTHEM. Today's Gaelic lesson ...

29. [Theme clue]

32. Original Beatle Sutcliffe: STU. Apparently there are 3 extant recordings of bassist Stu Sutcliffe with the early Beatles (I believe they may have still been called the Quarrymen). From the Beatles' album Anthology 1, here is Sutcliffe on bass with the instrumental Cayenne (very hot!) ...

33. Carol contraction: TIS.

34. "Queen Sugar" creator DuVernay: AVA. Queen Sugar is an American drama television series created and executive produced by Ava DuVernay, with Oprah Winfrey serving as an executive producer. DuVernay also directed the first two episodes. The series is based on the 2014 novel of the same name by American writer Natalie Baszile.

35. Flying Cloud and Royale 8: REOS. Classic vehicles created by automotive engineer Ransom E. Olds ...

Flying Cloud Royale 8 Speedwagon

The REO Speedwagon was the inspiration for the eponymous rock band, which is still rolling and started with this hit ...

36. [Theme reveal]

39. Some amount: ANY.

40. [Theme reveal

41. North Carolina university: ELON. I'm glad it was this ELON and not the other one! 😀

42. Org. that approves cosmetics: FDA. Food and Drug Administration.

43. "U slay me!": LOL. Not IRL of course. That wouldn't be very funny. 😒

44. "I'll take that as __": ANO.

45. [Theme clue]

50. Vex: RANKLE. Yep -- there it is ...

52. "Totally fine": ITS COOL. Well, not if you LIKE IT HOT ...

53. "Give me one moment": WAIT A SEC.

56. Sat. antecedent: FRI. And FRI is the antecedent of THU, i.e. TODAY!

57. Wake-up call, for many: ALARM.

59. [Theme clue]

62. Leads: HELMS.

63. Mature: AGE.

64. Meaningless: INANE. Not always -- I've met our resident HIKER, and she is very meaningful!

65. Fine and dandy: A OKAY. All systems go -- 10, 9, 8 7 ...!

66. Walk very quietly: PAD. Or a hippy ABODE?

67. Pop-__: TARTS.

Down:

1. Sizzling serving: FAJITA. -- Our introduction to Tex Mex food was in San Antonio. Here's Robyn's recipe.

Steak Fajitas

2. Provided an address: ORATED.

3. Hummingbird's drink: NECTAR. And they drink it beautifully ...

4. Sound of shame: TSK.

5. Blubber: SOB.

6. Primo: GRADE A.

7. Spice related to nutmeg: MACE. Wow -- this word really gets around!

8. "Diana" singer Paul: ANKA. The song that made 16 year old Canadian singer/songwriter Paul Anka a millionaire, and it's based on a true story. And it's a CSO to CanadianEh!

9. Cuban woman, perhaps: LATINA. Internationally, the most prominent Cuban woman these days is probably Ana Celia de Armas Caso (born 30 April 1988), aka Ana de Armas. We first saw her in the role of nurse Marta Cabrera in Knives Out, but she has acted in many other roles in Cuba, Spain, and the United States.

Ana de Armas

10. "You beat me": I LOST. Apparently a contest where the winner wasn't disputed.

11. Water between Antwerp and Aberdeen: NORTH SEA. Kinda' sorta' -- the North Sea also lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France (not sure why Scotland and Belgium got the honors). An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than 970 kilometres (600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, covering 570,000 square kilometres (220,000 sq mi).

12. Belly: GUT.

13. Loving words: ODE. -- particularly loved by crossword constructors.

18. Property claims: LIENS.

22. Title in Tibet: LAMA. We were visited by LAMAS just last week.

24. Nashville athlete: TITAN. The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The Titans play their home games at Nissan Stadium and are building a new stadium in 2024. It will be completed in 2027.

25. Parade spoiler: RAIN.

27. Hugh Laurie's alma mater: ETON. 4 letter school for an English actor -- an EKTORP? But then Hugh Laurie, CBE (born June 11, 1959, Oxford, England), despite being a British comic actor, is perhaps best known here for his role on the television series House (2004–12), where he used an American accent. But he can do dramatic roles as well. The only thing we've seen him in is The Night Manager, a thriller series where he plays a ruthless international arms dealer. He was so terrifying that we had to stop watching it!

Hugh Laurie

28. Tousle: MUSS.

30. Hawaiian island: LANAI. Lanai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. A LANAI is also a name for a style of front porch popular in Hawaii.

31. Dartmouth, for one: IVY. Three letter, unabbreviated college? This one's definitely an EKTORP!

35. Artifact: RELIC. My favorite relic is the Shroud of Turin. While it is surely debatable whether it is the burial shroud of Christ or not, there are two things about it that are absolutely certain: (1) it is undoubtedly the most studied artifact in the world; and (2) no one has as yet discovered how it was made -- despite there being dozens of claims to the contrary. Any one who can demonstrate how it was created can make an easy million bucks by contacting these folks (there is a catch however). I've been studying this relic off and on since the 1970's, have actually seen it in Turin, and would love to have all of my questions about this enigmatic artifact answered one way or another.

36. Try, as a case: HEAR. I HEAR there's a lot of them being heard these days.

37. Radius neighbor: ULNA. All you need to know about both bones.

38. Excursion during a lunar landing: MOONWALK. The very first MOONWALKS occurred fromJuly 16–24, 1969, and inspired this video ...

39. Beverage suffix: ADE.

40. Good songs, casually: BOPS. This calls for a good song. Rolling Stone rated this one as number 26 in the 500 Best Songs of All Time. IMHO Joni Mitchell is one of the greatest songwriters of all time -- certainly the equal of the great classical songwriters Schubert and Schumann -- but then they used other people's poetry for their songs, while she wrote her own lyrics ...

42. Worry: FRET.

43. Close securely: LATCH.

45. Floppy: FLIMSY. Like the old 8" floppy disks. I once overheard a conversation on a train platform about these disks, and other storage media. One lady worked for the National Archives (much in the news these days), and she was telling another woman that an enormous number of historical documents are stored on tape, magnetic disks and other digital media and that the Archives has to maintain working versions of all of the corresponding peripheral devices for reading them. They simply don't have the resources to offload the documents to paper in anticipation of such requests.

8-inch, 5¼-inch, and 3½-inch floppy disks

46. Intermittently fasted, perhaps: DIETED. Intermittent fasting: what is it, and how it works.

47. Daredevil quality: NO FEAR. The quintessential daredevil was Evel Knievel, who, contrary to what you might expect didn't die in an accident.

48. Sign in an apartment window: TO RENT.

49. QB protectors: O LINES. Offensive linemen. The eleven players of the offense can be separated into two main groups: the five offensive linemen (Left Tackle, Left Guard, Center , Right Guard and Right Tackle), whose primary job is to block opponents and protect their quarterback, and the other six backs and receivers, whose primary job is to move the ball down the field by either running with it or passing it.

51. Factor in Hindu reincarnation: KARMA. Here's an explanation of KARMA by an Indian MD.

54. "Quickly!" letters: ASAP.

55. Video game giant: SEGA. Sega Corporation is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It produces several multi-million-selling game franchises for arcades and consoles, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Angry Birds, Puyo Puyo, and Super Monkey Ball.

Sega Headquarters Tokyo, Japan

57. "Got it!": AHA.

58. Summer fire sign: LEO. As I asked last week, has anyone seen LEO III?

60. "Scram!": GIT.

61. Molecule in some vaccines: RNA. Click on the embedded video in this link for an amazing animation on How mRNA Vaccines Work.

Cheers,
Bill

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

waseeley

A somber epilogue ...

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the World War II D-Day invasion. Teri's family lost a dear uncle in that war, and we offer the following video commemoration of those who died that day and are buried in one of several American cemeteries in Northern France ...

Teri's Uncle Vincent is buried there, as he came ashore at Normandy, but not on D-Day. A seasoned veteran at age 22, having served in North Africa and Sicily, the military saved him for the fighting further inland after the beaches had been taken. He died on August 3rd, 1944 in the La Forêt de Saint-Sever in Brittany, France.

Last year on August 3rd Teri and her sister Rose raised Vincent's flag in a ceremony at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore ...