I'll bet no one got 1-Across (Theme of this puzzle) today...unless they had started with the downs.The envelope, please.
And the answer is...The Oscar.
Nancy Joline's Sunday puzzle was both timely and clever. Each theme answer contained two Academy Award winners...the first as the theme answer itself, and the second in the circled squares within that answer.
It took me longer to crack that than I'd like to admit. I totally skipped the six across theme answers...but managed to figure it out on the first down.
And the theme answers are:
23A: Film (1954), actress (2003) (ON THE WATERFRONT)...with my girl crush, Charlize Theron, in the circles for her chilling portrayal of murderer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster."
37A: Director (2003), actor (1962) (PETER JACKSON)...with Gregory Peck for his role in "To Kill a Mockingbird."
61A: Film (1992), actor (1958) (UNFORGIVEN). David Niven won for "Separate Tables"...unfamiliar to me.
71A: Actor (1934), actor (1995) (CLARK GABLE). As much as I love Nicolas Cage, "Leaving Las Vegas" is not a movie I'd watch again. We had a discussion about it on this blog in the last week or two.94A: Actress (1986), director (1962) (MARLEE MATLIN)...she for "Children of a Lesser God" and Sir David Lean for "Lawrence of Arabia."
112A: Actress (1983), supporting actor (1999) (SHIRLEY MACLAINE). Talk about tearjerkers...she was excellent in "Terms of Endearment" and I loved Michael Caine as the doctor in "The Cider House Rules." Incidentally, that's when I fell in love with Charlize Theron.17D: Film (1993), actress (1987) (SCHLINDLER 'S LIST)...a powerful film. Cher was at her best playing Loretta Castorini in "Moonstruck"...which is when I fell in love with Nicolas Cage. This is the theme answer that I was able to crack.
46D: Song (1942), supporting actress (1994) (WHITE CHRISTMAS)...with Dianne Wiest for "Bullets Over Broadway."
Favorites include 15A: Is afflicted with sigmatism (lisps), 25A: Nothing, to Nero (nihil), 42A: Low tie (one all), 49A: Places for runners (sleds), 53A: Granny, in Gelsenkirchen (Oma)...I haven't a clue how I knew that, 73A: Destination of the Bounty in "Mutiny on the Bounty" (Tahiti)...its third appearance in the last few weeks, 79A: Troll dolls, once (fad), 120A: Jerks (spasms)...oh, those jerks, 15D: Jay that chatters (Leno), 16D: At first (initially)...a gimme, 29D: One flying over Hawaii (nene), 33D: Villa in Mexico (Pancho), 74D: "Didn't we just have that?" (again), 77D: Make the beds, dust, etc. (keep house), 88D: Late news? (obit), and 93D: Mother of Paris (Hecuba)...just because I like her name.
I have never heard of 33A: Fish in fish and chips (plaice), but I confirmed it in my trusty dictionary.Also didn't know Lum and Abner...or their radio show...appearing as connected clues at 109A and 113D.
I do love the way 47D: Capital known as the Venice of the East (Bangkok) looks in the grid...that GK combination.
I remembered 104A: Kwik-E-Mart owner on "The Simpsons" (Apu)...wouldn't have had a clue BNYT (before New York Times).
I thought of several answers for 20A [Emphatic refusal] before I could bring myself to write no no no no...but it sure made me laugh every time I looked at it later.
It was a busy day at home, and I'm beat...so it'll be early to bed for me.
Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
9 comments:
I love showbiz but didn't care at all about this theme as executed. Don't know why ...
One oddity I noticed - the use of what seemed to be really dated words or expressions: KEEP HOUSE (who does that anymore, or says that, more to the point?) and DINETTE. Maybe there were others. I suppose you could argue that LUM and ABNER qualifies. Wha'?
Linda,
Cage/Mooonstruck/love -- yes, but haven't you fallen out of love since? Think motorcyclist with flaming skull-head (name escapes me) from last year...
Is the Clark photo from "It Happened One Night"? Don't know my gables from my gambrels.
I agree about Caine/Cider House/Charlize.
Oh, "Bullets over Broadway", I had assumed one of Hannah's sisters.
Thanks for all the movie insights, made the theme more enjoyable for me.....
Which reminds me - my favorite line Cher ever uttered in a flick was in Moonstruck: "Snap out of it!" I do love her, despite her various body image issues.
karmasatre, I neglected to identify Gable's Oscar-winning film, "It Happened One Night." The picture is from that one.
I don't watch anything horror and very little that has heavy action or gore...so I missed that one (intentionally), as well as Face Off.
Wendy, Orange mentioned in her comments section that she hadn't seen "Moonstruck." I quoted that very line, saying the film was worth seeing if only for that. You and I are certainly aligned (var: alined) this week ; )
Linda, Wendy -- Help me snap out of it. I get the bakery, I get the Olympia suitor on his knees in the restaurant, I get the Opera...just can't remember Cher's "Snap out of it" scene. When/where was that? Probably time to put it in my NETFLIX queue.
SPOILER ALERT...don't read this if you want to be surprised.
Ronnie has a hard time dealing with what's going on...Loretta is still engaged to his brother, but they're in love. He's going on and on...she slaps him across the face, says the famous line...and he gets it together.
Maybe that scene is more memorable to women...or to those who secretly wish they had done it to someone they thought needed it ; )
But it's also just *the way* she says it that is so memorable - I often mimic it in appropriate situations. ;) I liked how she inhabited the part dialect-wise (was it Brooklyn? Queens? I'm trying to remember where it was set).
You're right, Wendy, about "the way" she says it. I've said it to my girls...minus the slap.
It was Brooklyn...and I think I need to watch it again.
Just barely related to "Snap out of it", but something I loved: the nine-year old son of a friend saying to his step-mother "Don't have a mid-life cow!"
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