Friday, April 19, 2024, Rebecca Goldstein (2024)

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE ?

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. It is Friday and it is time for yours truly, Malodorus Manatee, to present a recap of today's puzzle by veteran (and that's an understatement) constructor Rebecca Goldstein.

Today's solve was no walk in the proverbial park as there were several elements in this eclectic mixture that challenged this solver and, perhaps, you, too.

Depending on what one wishes to include, there are roughly fifteen proper nouns in this puzzle. Proper nouns are great if you know the answer but they can be trouble if you don't. There are several foreign-language answers in the grid and several answers that, again depending on what one wishes to include, consist of more than one word (e.g. does I-beam count?). Toss in a couple of references of the wurst kind, two (or three) Greek alphabet references, and some obligatory oblique (Friday) cluing and the head scratching becomes inevitable. . . and that's before we deal with the clever theme.

Upon completing the puzzle, and for some time thereafter, this solver was not able to identify a theme. A unifying clue/answer would have helped - but there was none. I saw the "international" two-word clues, each punctuated with a question mark, but failed to put the pieces together. Perhaps I was a bit word weary from the solve itself or maybe I just could not see the forest for the trees. In any event, I reached out to the Crossword Corner blog staff and, with their assistance, the fog lifted. Each themed clue is a common expression in English which includes a country name. Each themed answer fits the clue but requires that we re-imagine the expression as being defined in terms of something other than its common meaning. The theme is not in the answers. It is to be found in the clues themselves.

Here are the themed clues and their answers:

17 Across: American cheese?:POTUS. Not as in what you might have used last Friday on National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day. As in the idiom the "Big Cheese". ThePresidentOfTheUnitedStates is a "Big Cheese".

19 Across: Irish cream?:EUROS. Not Baileys. Cream can be used, apparently, as a slang term for money. Irish money. See #27 in100 Slang Words For Money

7 Down: Australian open?:G'DAY MATE. Not a tennis tournament reference. Open as in an opening comment/greeting, I suppose.

43 Down: English channel?:THE BEEB. Not as in what we just now crossed to get to Great Britain from 41 Down (the English Channel). A television channel. Slang for the BBC. British Broadcasting Corporation

Let' take a look at the completed grid. Its symmetry is elegant even without the placement of the themed answers. With the placement of those answers it is even more impressive:

Here are the rest of the clues and answers:

Across:

1. AMC car known as "The Flying Fishbowl":PACER. If you knew yourAmericanMotorCorporation models then this one was fairly easy. If not, you had to wait for the perps which is a tough way to start a puzzle especially, in this instance, where the crossing with 1 Down might have formed a Natick.

6. "Saltburn" studio:MGM. As a further sign of the "updating" of our puzzles, a 2023 film was chosen to clue this instead of one of hundreds of classic MGM flicks.

9. Office characters:STAFF. Because of the obligatory leading "cap", the clue might have been thought to refer to the cast of the TV show. The answer did not require that degree of specificity.

14. Meaty flavor:UMAMI. One of the five so-called basic tastes (together with Salty, Bitter, Sweet and Sour), UMAMI has been defined as "savory - characteristic of broths and cooked meats".

15. Nev. neighbor:IDA.IDAho What did Ida Ho? She hoed her Mary Land while wearing her brand New Jersey.

16. Undefeated Ali:LAILA. A frequent visitor.

18. Goldin of "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed":NAN. A reference to the subject of a 2022 documentary about the activist named in the clue (and who's first name is the answer).

20. Uncertain syllables:UMS. The topic of the inclusion of thesesounds-people-might-make answershas previously, and extensively, been debated on The Corner.

21. Long-horned grasshopper:KATYDID. A funny word and a funny-looking insect.

24. Captcha capture:BOT.

25. Slip through the cracks:SEEP. The clue might have been taken as the idiom but that would have thrown one off the scent.

27. Ramblin' man, maybe:NOMAD. Well, Rebecca and Patti did tee it up

Allman Brothers Band - 1972

28. Root vegetable with purple-flecked flesh:TARO. A starchy vegetable frequently served up in our puzzles.

32. Arterial insert:STENT. Today's let's-pass-on-the-graphic moment.

39. Some charcuterie slices:SALAMI. One of the wurst clues.

52. Pinnacle:ACME. Sometimes it turns out to be APEX.

53. Alfa __:ROMEO. Wherefore art thou? Nah. An automobile reference.

1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint

54. "Ja" opposite:NEIN. Today's German lesson.

62. Part of building bridges:I BEAM. Named for its shape when viewed in cross section.

64. Boss (around):ORDER.

65. "For shame!":TUT. Thisisyet another one of thosesounds-people-might-make answers. It mighthave been clued as yet another proper noun.

Down:

1. Food with a national holiday in El Salvador:PUPUSAS. If you started the puzzle at 1 Down then it might have been a rough start. Oddly, while working on this recap I asked Valerie what I might snack on. She served up a PUPUSA that she had recently purchased at that temple of Salvadoran cuisine - Costco. It was delicious.

2. Terse request to chat:A MOMENT. The only way this one seems to make sense to this solver is as a request to talk to someone and not as a request to chat electronically. As in "Have you got A MOMENT?"

3. Reflective effect in some gemstones:CATS EYE.

4. Bird in a eucalyptus forest:EMU. Eucalyptus tells us to conjure up something Australian.

10. Letter after sigma:TAU. Another one of today's Greek (alphabet) lesson.

11. Big whiff:AIR BALL. A basketball reference.

12. "Go! Go! Go!":FLOOR IT. As we move into the electrified automobile future, FLOOR IT might survive whereas "Step On The Gas!" probably will not. She's real fine my 400 NM?

28. "That may never be funny":TOO SOON. Often posed as a question: "Is it TOO SOON?"

33. "Top Chef" judge Colicchio:TOM. Thanks, again, perps. Often clued with a turkey reference.

35. Pt. of Loran:NAV. Long Range NAVigation.

37. Prefix with economics or biology:MICRO.

38. Attach:TIE ON. As opposed to a Liger? (well, it was close)

39. Fame and fortune:STARDOM. I always thought that I was destined for STARDOM but then I realized that my mass was below 0.08 solar masses.

44. Kuwait or Qatar:EMIRATE. People in Qatar don't like "The Flintstones" but people in AbuDhabi do.

45. Real powerhouses:DYNAMOS.

48. Turn:ROTATE. A clue to be taken literally. Not as in, for example, a baseball game at bat or a time to spin/roll the dice when playing a board game.

50. Many of the founding fathers, religiously:DEISTS.Deism is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation of the natural world are exclusively logical, reliable, and sufficient to determine the existence of a Supreme Being as the creator of the universe.

That includes our international tour for this Friday. Have a great weekend, everyone. If you go exploring, please travel safely!

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