Our constructor for today is Alex Bajcz (pronounced like "badges") who last appeared here March 19th, 2018, reviewed by Lemonade. As we will see, Alex has his fingers in a lot of pies having published in the NYT, WSJ, as well as here on the Corner. Here is a more complete list of his constructions on his website. But you will also notice that he has a day job - that of a Plant Ecologist at the Drew University P.R.U.N.E Research Lab (Plant Reproduction in (Un)Natural Environments). Here is a picture of Alex giving a “lesson” on blueberry reproductive ecology to blueberry growers at Blueberry Hill Farm:
Among his other interests Alex, is an expert in a programming language called R. I'm familiar with scores of programming languages, but as my cockney relatives would say, "I never 'eard of it!". I gather that it has a lot of powerful tools for processing statistical data.
Today he will give us a lesson in 4 other pies he has his fingers in. The themers contain hints as to what he's baking up, enclosed in the fill circles (here highlighted in RED).
17A Cornell's main campus overlooks it: CAYUGA LAKE. I believe this calls for a CSO to Irish Miss, Spitzboov, and Ray - O. Which one of you is closest?
23A. Home to more than 425 US wineries: SONOMA COUNTY. Not the VALLEY, but the COUNTY wherein it lies. Looks like it might be close to JayCe and GarlicGal.
33A. "V." novelist (1963): THOMAS PYNCHON.
46A. Ham, pepper and green onion dish: DENVER OMELET.
As I'm sure by now the AROMAS of the themers have clued you in to the reveal:
54A. Pie-making scraps ... and what this puzzle's circles represent?: APPLE CORES. I'm not sure I'd call them "scraps", but rather delicious Crossword FILLING consisting of 4 different types of APPLES. I've already given away where two groups of Cornerites might buy these apples locally. The remaining two are ROME apples from Ohio (hands up anyone?) and SPY apples, also from Upstate New York. SPY apples have the additional distinction of having been recognized by the USPS in commemorative stamps issued in 2013. Clockwise from the top left we have: SPY, GOLDEN DELICIOUS, BALDWIN, and GRANNY SMITH apples:
Here's the rest of the filling:
Across:
1. Measuring tools: TAPES. Both my parents were crafts people. My mother was a seamstress who used tapes for the fitting and alteration of suits, dresses, gowns, furs, you name it. My father was a carpenter who used tapes to measure wood. He would always say "Measure it twice, cut it once".
6. They're often removed for the National Anthem: HATS.
10. Those in charge: Abbr.: MGMT. Geeks usually call them "suits".
14. "Same for me": AS AM I.
15. "Or __ what?!": ELSE. A response to an ULTIMATUM.
16. "Unfortunately ... ": ALAS. The bad news. Which do you want first?
19. TV heroine whose name is derived from the Greek for "stranger": XENA. This is where we get our word XENOPHOBIA, or "fear of foreigners". The heroine in the clue was Xena: Warrior Princess, played by Lucy Lawless, a New Zealand actress. DW and I have not seen her in Xena, but we have seen her in a new Aussie series playing the retired detective Alexa Crowe, whose old boss keeps hitting her up for free consulting in My Life is Murder. Season 2 is currently being filmed in New Zealand. Alexa is also an expert in the operation and maintenance of German coffee makers.
20. Adorns playfully, for short: TPS. I got this with perps, but I'm still not sure what it means. Is "to toilette paper" now a verb?
21. "The Maltese Falcon" genre: NOIR. It starts to get dark in the evening here on the Corner, when the groaners begin to run out.
22. Marvel's Stark: TONY. The IRON MAN. Here's but one of many portals into the Marvel Universe. Be careful not to venture in too far!
27. It's fun to skip them: STONES. I showed one of my grandsons how to skip stones when he was about 5, and then we had to do it for at least the next hour. It can be a highly addictive behavior!
And the hopelessly addicted have even turned it into a competitive sport:
29. Modern test of humanity: CAPTCHA. Since when did we start getting "humanity" tests? With the arrival of computers of course. CAPTCHA stands for the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. CAPTCHAs are tools you can use to differentiate between real users and automated users, such as bots who might co-opt them to run spam nets. Hand up if you thought that the narrator of the video sounded like a bot!:
30. Sushi fare: EEL. I love sushi, but UNAGI (Eel) is very fatty and I find it hard to digest.
31. Spicy cupful: CHAI. Read all about it from a registered dietitian. Click the Jump to Recipe button if you don't want all the foodie stuff.
32. Big name in chips: LAY. As a hypertensive, I prefer Utz No-SaltPotato Chips, made in Hanover, PA, just up the road from where I live. The only problem with them is that you CAN eat the whole bag:
39. "Typee" sequel: OMOO. TYPEEand OMOOpublished in 1846 and 1847 respectively, are based on Melville's experiences in the South Pacific.
40. Set a price of: ASK.
41. College schedule entries: CLASSES.
43. They're tapped in spring: MAPLES. A CSO to CanadianEh! Maple sugaring is such a labor and energy intensive process that I've always wondered how people can make a living at it. Perhaps they make enough money to support this labor of love when the "sap isn't rising" in Spring, Summer, and Fall. Helen and Scott Nearing made a living from it, as they describe in a remarkable book that I read many years ago called Living the Good Life first published in 1973.
48. Conks out: DIES.
49. Binge to excess, as a TV show: OD ON. If you have an addictive personality, steer clear of LINE OF DUTY on Prime. DW and I binged our way to the last season and now find that we actually have to WAIT for the new episodes, that are being released only once a week. I'm running out of fingernails.
50. Mobile __: APP.
53. Appliance appendage: CORD. First support question in the troubleshooting decision tree: "Is it plugged in?"
57. V-day note sign-off: SWAK. Clever clue I thought. I immediately thought of VJ Day 1945 when my parents were married in England. But this note is from someone to his/her Valentine 💕, Sealed With A Kiss. Of course I'm sure my parents sealed their marriage with a KISS!
58. Slide cry: WHEE. A whole lotta' slidin' on the Corner today. See also 26D.
59. Creative nuggets: IDEAS.
60. Tolstoy's Karenina: ANNA. I confess to not having read this 800 page novel, considered near the pinnacle of Western literature. A hand up from anyone who has? There are several film and TV versions based on it. DW and I saw and enjoyed the 1977 BBC version staring Nicola Pagett, which I believe is still available on YouTube. It consisted of ten 50-minute episodes, and so was able to include more of the original plot than some adaptations. Perhaps the most famous of all the adaptations is the 1935 film staring Greta Garbo. The film was ranked #42 on the American Film Institute's list of AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions.
61. Swirl: EDDY. An EDDY is a circular current of water. Eddies swirl in different directions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres due to a phenomenon known as the CORIOLIS EFFECT
62. Part of LCD: LEAST. No not Liquid Crystal Display, but rather Least Common Denominator. Today's math lesson:
Down:
1. Statesman's asset: TACT.
2. PDQ: ASAP.
3. Uses Venmo, say: PAYS. I use Paypal, which owns Venmo, and have generally found it easy to use and reliable. However I did have one experience in the early days of the pandemic where an overseas company was able to compromise it using a cleverly designed website. I'd say how, but that would be tellin'. Here is a comparison of Venmo vs PayPal( CAVEAT: I've not vetted the reviewer, theBalance.com, so who can say whether they're on the level? You can't trust anybody these days, except for Cornerites of course!). A CSO to Anon -T, who might actually have something intelligent to say about this subject. But then he's probably got enough sense not to say anything about it!
4. Aussie runner: EMU. This bird seems to catch up with me every time I blog.
5. You need a password to do it: SIGN ON. While we're on the topic of security ... I've got scores of "strong" passwords and a 20 page document to keep track of them all. What a mess. See 29A for more on this mess. A CSO to anybody who has found a good way to deal with this problem.
6. Chariot-riding god: HELIOS. The Greek god of the sun, a guardian of oaths, and the god of sight. The "Colossus of Rhodes", a 108 foot high statue of Helios stood from 280 - 226 BC overlooking the island of Rhodes, before being destroyed by an earthquake. It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
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| The Colossus of Rhodes artist impression 1880 |
7. Wake-up call?: ALARM. May simply be the clock that wakes you in the morning, or a metaphor for "trouble is brewing". We seemed to have had a lot of those in the last few decades.
8. Judgy sound: TSK.
10. Crank to 11, say: MAX OUT.
11. Actress with the most Oscar nominations without a win: GLENN CLOSE. Eight as of this writing. But she HAS won three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. She's has the distinction of being tied with Peter O'Toole for missed Oscars, she's still alive, and there is still time!
12. "I really appreciate it!": MANY THANKS. Is Elvis still in the building?
13. Org. using wands: TSA. But they've got stiff competition from the other IBM:
18. Top-notch: A ONE.
22. Focus of discussion: TOPIC. I have to admit to a tendency to go off this from time to time, e.g. ...
23. On one's own: SOLO. As in an operatic aria. Here is a performance by soprano Angela Gheorghiu of Puccini's aria Vissi d'arte from the opera Tosca. The absolutely saddest opera I know. I actually heard Ms Gheorghiu sing it just today (well 6/19/21) in a rebroadcast from Covent Garden. :
24. Hurting: ACHY. It may be your aching back, or it may be your heart:
25. "Thief" star James: CAAN. As we learned last Saturday, he has an actor son named Scott, one of the stars of the reboot of Hawaii 5-0,
26. Cry on a slide: YAY. See 58A!
27. "Chill!": SETTLE DOWN. I'll have to try "Chill!" on my youngest grandsons. SETTLE DOWN doesn't work.
28. Capital north of Doha, Qatar: TEHRAN IRAN. TEHRAN is in North central IRAN, closer to the Caspian Sea than the Persian Gulf. The latter body of water to the South is named for Persia, the old name for Iran. The Persian Empirewas an ancient civilization, dating back to Paleolithic times. It is ironic that the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great brought an end to the Babylonian Captivityin 538 BC, freeing the Israelites and helping them rebuild their nation. Today the nations of Iran and Israel are in a state of perpetual cold war.
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| Tehran, Iran |
31. USCG rank: CPO. Chief Petty Officer.
34. Noted receiver of tablets: MOSES. That is the Prophet MOSES, the most important in figure in Judaismand important to many other Western religions as well. The tablets MOSES received on Mt. SINAI are sometimes call the DECALOGUE, but are more commonly known as THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. As depicted in this painting by Rembrandt, Moses later smashed the tablets upon finding that, in his absence, the Israelites had been worshiping a golden calf, a violation of the First Commandment:
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| The Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany |
35. USA part: Abbr.: AMER. The United States of America. Here is the USA flag:
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| The Stars and Stripes |
36. Just passable: SO SO. Meh.
37. Screeching __: HALT.
38. Calculator feature, for short: LCD. Now it's Liquid Crystal Display. More than you'll ever need to know about the technology. Here's what they look like:
42. Smirnoff competitor: SVEDKA. Apparently this vodka is cheap and fruity and doesn't YELP very well; the hangovers are reportedly terrible.
43. Olympic swimming event: MEDLEY. Also a series of musical numbers, e.g. a SUITE. Handel's Water Music wasn't a swimming event, but it did involve floating down theThames River to entertain King George I. Given that it involved two barges, one for the King and a second for Handel, and keeping 50 musicians in tune on open water, the first performance of the work can certainly be described as an olympian effort:
45. Write (in) tentatively: PENCIL.
47. Scooter kin: MOPED. Looks like the PEDALS have become obsolete.
50. Region: AREA. It can cover a lot of territory.
51. Podded veggies: PEAS.
52. Hissed "Yo!": PSST.
53. Its last official capital was Richmond, Va.: CSA. Confederate States of America.
54. Wonder: AWE. Shucks!
55. Prof.'s holding: PHD. A CSO to all the PhD's on the Corner!
56. Laudatory work: ODE. For example Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn.
Here's the grid:
waseeley
And special thanks to my Dear Wife for her Eagle Eyed proof reading!
Cheers,
Bill