Tonkatsu coating / THU 10-16-25 / What allows Neo to disconnect from the Matrix / Certain Windows hard drive malfunction / Horned creature in "Pan's Labyrinth" / Novelist Charles who wrote "The Cloister and the Hearth" / Prefix with botanist / Performed amazing, in slang
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Constructor: Kareem Ayas
Relative difficulty: Easy
- BENTO (5A: *Treat with kindness) ("be nice to")
- PRY (24A: *Expensive) ("pricey")
- SLR (48A: *Deli device) ("slicer")
- DROLL (62A: *Risky endeavor, idiomatically) ("dice roll")
- NOTABLE (3D: *Conspicuous) ("noticeable")
- OFF HOURS (10D: *Chance to meet one-on-one with a professor) ("office hours")
- APPENDS (41D: *Book addenda) ("appendices")
Charles Reade (8 June 1814 – 11 April 1884) was a British novelist and dramatist, best known for the 1861 historical novel The Cloister and the Hearth. (wikipedia)The Cloister and the Hearth (1861) is an historical novel by British author Charles Reade. Set in the 15th century, it relates the travels of a young scribe and illuminator, Gerard Eliassoen, through several European countries. The Cloister and the Hearth often describes the events, people and their practices in minute detail. Its main theme is the struggle between man's obligations to family and to Church.
Based on a few lines by the humanist Erasmus about the life of his parents, the novel began as a serial in Once a Week magazine in 1859 under the title "A Good Fight", but when Reade disagreed with the proprietors of the magazine over some of the subject matter (principally the unmarried pregnancy of the heroine), he curtailed the serialisation with a false happy ending. Reade continued to work on the novel and published it in 1861, thoroughly revised and extended, as The Cloister and the Hearth. (wikipedia)
Griffith Gaunt, or Jealousy is an 1866 sensation novel by Charles Reade. A best-selling book in its day, it was thought by Reade to be his best novel, but critics and posterity have generally preferred The Cloister and the Hearth (1861).Is there a Charles READE fandom out there? Where's my Charles READE hive at? Should I bother with the guy? Lemme know.
Bullets:
- 35A: Practice chiromancy (READ PALMS) — one of the best answers in the grid. So funny to have a long answer sitting dead center and not have it be part of the theme. "Chiro" = "hand," "mancy" = divination or magic. [some fun TRIVIA: No one knows what Charles READE's palms looked like.]
- 40A: "Central Park in the Dark" composer (IVES) — I know IVES but do not know this work. Gonna listen to it today. A Charles READE novel seems like a big undertaking, but IVES I can do.
- 25D: What allows Neo to disconnect from the Matrix (RED PILL) — this term has found its (unfortunate) way into modern political discourse. "Individuals who identify as "red pilled" often espouse conspiracy theories, antisemitism, white supremacy, homophobia, and misogyny" (wikipedia)—you see, these chuds believe they're enlightened (i.e. disconnected from the oppressive and conformist "matrix" of ... I don't know, human decency, I guess), so they identify with Neo, which is a wild and flagrant misreading of the movie's politics (a movie made by two trans women), though no one ever accused these folks of being particularly literate.
- 28D: Whom you might greet with open arms, for short? (TSA) — this made me laugh a kind of grim laugh. "Well if it isn't my old friend, Big Surveillance! Give me a hug!" But yeah, you do have to hold your arms out (open) when you go through that scanner dealie, so ... nice wordplay.
- 54D: Performed amazingly, in slang (ATE) — def a younger (than me) thing. I think I learned it from crosswords. I was familiar with the term "cooking" (slang for doing a great at something); then at some point "eating" followed. Seems logical.
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