Thursday, May 13, 2021

Children in legalese / THU 5-13-21 / Supermodel Holliday / Food staple referred to as gold of the Incas / C.D. holders, maybe / Low pocket pair in Texas hold em

Constructor: ANDY (63A: Woody and Buzz's owner in "Toy Story") Kravis, Natan LAST (31D: Have legs, so to speak), and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Relative difficulty: Easy if you know movie titles, harder if you don't


THEME: "Quiz Show" — Theme Clues = movie titles that are also questions, Theme Answers = other movie titles that sound like appropriate answers to the questions:

Theme answers:
  • "SALEM'S LOT" (18A: "Dude, Where's My Car?" [1979])
  • "PARASITE" (24A: "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" [2019])
  • "THE USUAL SUSPECTS" (38A: "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" [1995])
  • "TRUE GRIT" (50A: "How the West Was Won" ([1969, 2010])
  • "HOME ALONE" (58A: "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" [1990])
Word of the Day: TESS Holliday (65A: Supermodel Holliday) —
Ryann Maegen Hoven
 (born July 5, 1985), known professionally as Tess Holliday and formerly known as Tess Munster, is an American plus-size model, blogger, and make-up artist based in Los Angeles. [...] In 2014, Holliday quit her day job at the dental office to pursue her modeling career full-time. In May 2014, a video was uploaded on Vimeo called #everyBODYisflawless, which featured Holliday and fellow plus-size fashion bloggers and models Gabi Gregg and Nadia Aboulhosn lip-synching and dancing to Beyoncé's 2013 song "Flawless". In September of that year, she was interviewed by Jacob Soboroff and Meghan McCain on TakePart Live. In January 2015, London-based modeling agency Milk Model Management announced that they had signed Holliday to their plus-size division, Curves. They declared that Holliday had become the largest plus-size model of her size and height to be signed to a mainstream modeling agency, and the first Curve model above a size 20. In May, she had her first agency shoot
In March 2014, Holliday became the first model over size 18 to model Monif Clarke's clothing line after she was hired as the face of the latest campaign for her swimwear line Sea by Monif C - a line that is specifically designed for women sizes 14–24. In the same month, she modeled for Torrid. She also collaborated with the plus size clothing retailer Yours Clothing for the second time when she was officially announced as the face of their high summer campaign. In May 2015, she was featured on the cover of People. (wikipedia)
• • •

This is cute, though your sense of cuteness may differ based on how much of a movie fan you are. If all the titles are familiar to you, as they were to me, then it was pretty fun. I like remembering movies. But there are three problems with the theme execution. One of those problems is probably my problem—I had no idea "SALEM'S LOT" was a *movie*. I do not think "movie" is what most people think of when they see the title "SALEM'S LOT" (famously, a novel by Stephen King). All the other clue movies and answer movies in the puzzle are very famous As Movies; "SALEM'S LOT" seems to me ... less so. "TRUE GRIT" was also famous first as a book (a much-loved book by Charles Portis), but it wasn't Stephen-King famous, and the "TRUE GRIT" movies were both very popular. When I google "TRUE GRIT," the recent movie comes up, whereas when I google "SALEM'S LOT," the King novel comes up. [Googles some more] Hey ... hey, wait ... wait a minute! "SALEM'S LOT" wasn't a movie at all; it was a TV miniseries! OK, well, my objection here just got a lot bigger, I guess. The theme is clearly movies. Miniseries are not movies. I see that the movie has been retitled "SALEM'S LOT: The Movie," and is now sort of treated like a movie (a vampire classic, I'm told), but it aired on TV and is over three hours long and yeah this isn't a movie like the other movies are movies. It just isn't. Second issue with the theme is that "How the West Was Won" is not a question. The other theme-clue titles, whether they actually contain question marks or not, read as questions. "How was the West won?" is a question. "How the West Was Won" is just a phrase. Lastly, it seems like the puzzle would've been somewhat more elegant if they'd knocked out all the interrogative words: Who what where when why how. But we only get five, which is fine, but it would be finer if they were all different. Instead, we get two "Where"s. Are there no "Why" movies? 'Cause I *know* there's a "When" movie ...

[1985] "AFTER HOURS"

The fill on this one is clean and lively. Sort of surprised that veterans like Natan and Andy would do the whole "let's put our names in the grid" thing (LAST, ANDY). Seems pretty bush-league, but it doesn't hurt the grid any, so I guess it's fine (though tbh POP / PAST > POL / LAST). I didn't really struggle anywhere. Just a bunch of small speed bumps. Didn't know TESS Holliday. Forgot COLBY existed. I never eat (or even see) the stuff. Thought the [Petulant retort] was "CAN DO!", then thought it over and decided it would have to be said *really* sarcastically to be "CAN DO!" ... then realized it was "CAN SO!". We get one of those [Step on it!] clues—this is how I think of all clues that use familiar "it" phrases to clue an answer, where the answer is the "it," though in today's case, the "it" is "this" (29D: Get a load of this! => LAUNDRY). The clue on THREESOME is ... pretty tame (33D: More than a couple), though not, I suppose, inaccurate. I had BEST before BOSS (66A: Top dog), and, in my favorite wrong answer of the day, ICE BOX before ICE AGE (64A: What was cool for a long time?). The "was" took me back in time ... but not nearly far enough back. Interestingly: THREESOME is the name of a movie. ICE AGE, also a movie. TESS, movie. TED, movie. CATS, movie. AMEN ... well, actually, that's a TV show. Kinda like "SALEM'S LOT."


Have a lovely day. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. 41A: C.D. holders, maybe (IRAS) is a financial thing—"C.D." = certificate of deposit (IRA = individual retirement account, but you knew that)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

91 comments:

  1. This was a really fun Wednesday puzzle.
    Unfortunately it’s Thursday.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:00 PM

      Agree. Too easy.

      Delete
  2. Good number of marquee answers.

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  3. Movies clued by other movies hits me just right. What can I say? Movie puzzles & dog puzzles (or any animal for that matter) will buy a lot of good will from me.

    Too bad ICEAGE, TESS, and TED crashed the party as non-themers. Perhaps not as well-known, but still movies not clued as movies in a movie puzzle, so...*sploink*

    Giving CATS a pass because it was clued as the musical and nobody wants to be reminded of the movie.

    But, the theme was fun to do and the overall fill was quite satisfactory.

    @Nancy from yesterday Glad you enjoyed the clip. SNL has always been hit or miss, but I have to admit that these youngsters today can be impressive.



    🧠🧠
    🎉🎉🎉
    LENs x 1 (purebred)
    LENs x 2 (mutts)

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  4. I crept through the NE at a WALL'S PACE because I couldn't remember a movie called SALEM SLOT.

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  5. Superfast, once I got the idea. Not really wordplay.

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  6. I really enjoyed the dog minitheme (chocolate lab crossing boss, clued as "top dog". Nice touch on a fun puzzle

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  7. Way too fast for a Thursday, and nothing tricksy, which was a disappointment. Theme was solid enough but after getting the idea, which didn't take long, it was more fun to try to guess the answer with no help from filled in letters.

    Had CA__ and wrote in CARS without thinking, probably because it's a much better movie.

    Appreciate the effort and would urge class and instructors to put a little more bite into their later-in-the-week puzzles (especially Thursdays).

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:02 PM

      Agreed. Just not Thursday caliber. Very disappointing.

      Delete
  8. marty7:18 AM

    I've learned to be disappointed when the annual JASA class is in the byline. And this year, it didn't disappoint to disappoint. I also look forward to late week puzzles and don't care to see them pre-empted by novelties like this.

    I kept trying to find some sort link between these movies. There's none. They're just interrogative movie titles and their respective solutions in the grid only vaguely attempt to answer them.

    At least this wasn't a lame tribute puzzle or multi-part punny quote, so it's got that going for it.

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  9. @Lewis - Har!

    Speaking of… Who is ever that excited to do a load of LAUNDRY. That exclamation point is total B.S.

    Unlike @Frantic Sloth and @Rex, movie titles are about as uninteresting to me as the latest innovations in autoclave technology. All I saw was a bunch of cutesy doubled PPP. This was most definitely not a puzzle for me. It wasn’t particularly hard, all the theme clues and theme answers were familiar enough, but nothing here ever had a chance of getting a smile from me. The easter egg movies will charm many, but only get an under my breath, “enough already.” I’ll let you guess where “and a healthy heaping of genocide” occurred to me. This went directly into the recycling. I’ve been busy the last few days, so I have a couple of puzzles on the clipboard that hopefully won’t be movie industry shills. (side note: One more reason that P.Berry is great: three X’s in a corner and it is smooth as silk - it was as if he decided, “if you’re going to scrabblef*#&, do it right”)

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  10. Thanks Rex, I will endeavor to make it a lovely day. Am in the midst of a kitchen/bath redo, so will require some effort! ...unlike the puzzle, which was a pleasant start to Thursday.

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  11. The long downs are the stars of this one:
    ANOMALOUS
    THREESOME
    HEAD GAMES
    PEDIGREES
    EGO BOOSTS
    (WALL SPACE, not so much.)

    Unless I’m missing an element, the theme is muy drab, and feels like a) it’s missing a “when” and a “why’ b) it cheats by duplicating “where”.

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  12. Thx Andy, Natan and J.A.S.A. for an entertaining Thurs. puz! :)

    A skosh south of med.

    Good NW start, down and around ending up in the G.L.s

    My niece introduced me to QUINOA back in the early '00s. What a marvelous food!

    Just added TED Radio Hour to my podcasts.

    Always appreciate Sanjay GUPTA's CNN contributions.

    Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Op. 55) Eroica ~ Berliner Philharmoniker

    @A (11:31 PM) last nite 👍
    ___


    yd 0

    Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊

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  13. Oddly for a Thursday, crushed the top third. But I didn't know Parasite was a movie and that Salems Slot was wrong. I was wearing Tom MCan shoes at about the same time I was begging my mother to buy me VO5 shampoo and Scan Shoes sounded just fine.

    So, went south not really knowing what was going on and it was across/down til the lightbulb went on. Went back and fixed Mcan, but didn't finish because of the Pile/Idest "I." Threw in Adest as a guess and thought rug Pale was something. Perhaps "beyond the Pale" meant beyond the rug (just digging a deeper hole here I know). Dumb.

    @Z, didn't we have a discussion about the use of an ! as a misdirect? This is what I was talking about. Illegal use of punctuation should be a foul.

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  14. Best echo of yesterday: Clue for HOMEALONE.

    Answer most anticipated since all that primping of late: PREEN.

    Best theme answer: hate to choose but the last 3 were better than those before.

    Best I see the light moment: RYE in New York is actually in Manhattan. That’s one of the Z impersonators overlooking the marina. Did you know MIchiganZ and MANhattan have the same number of letters?

    I suppose some will say it is too easy, but I found it fun and just crunchy enough. Solid amusing theme made it extra fun and crunchy. Some good clues too.

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  15. I remember seeing Salem's Lot as a movie in the cinema back in'79 as a ten year old. Scared the bejesus out of me - didn't sleep for days.

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  16. Um, Rex...When Harry Met Sally is no more a question than How the West Was Won, or do you get to make up the rules as you go along?
    I know. Stupid question. 🙄

    @Z 719am What about movies about baseball? Or Ultimate? Oh, wait...😉

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  17. Whenever there is a PPP-based theme, I will be fighting from behind the curve - especially with things like PARASITE, which is nothing more than the CrossWorld equivalent of Dark Matter - all I knew was that there was an answer there, no additional information, lol.

    I wonder if the class inserted MCAN into the grid out of necessity, or if that was mischief at the hands of the editors. I enjoyed the clue for IDEST - not only did they wing a Latin phrase at us, they presumed that we could discern whether it was abbreviated (ok, it’s Thursday - I’ll take it as a compliment that they are presuming I know anything at all about Latin other than that it is an old, archaic, dead language that haunts me by showing up in crossword puzzles on an all too regular basis).

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  18. KnittyContessa8:43 AM

    This was fun and very clever. None of the titles were obscure and the crosses were easy. I breezed through this with a smile.

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  19. Well, if you didn't laugh at loud at the idea of Roger Rabbit being framed by THE USUAL SUSPECTS, there may simply be no hope for you:)

    For me to love a puzzle that's built around knowledge of pop culture is almost unheard of. Nevertheless, I think the theme choices in this one are inspired. The movie answers to the movie questions are just SO apt and SO funny. The idea of your car ending up in SALEM'S LOT is priceless.

    Completing this is not dependent upon movie knowledge since the crosses are both fair and very helpful and the titles are very familiar.

    This class always comes up with really good puzzles and it must be an incredibly fun class. I like to picture the instructor yelling out, say, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and someone in the class yelling back "HOME ALONE". I like to envision a lot of back-and-forthing and give-and-taking between instructor and class-- though it may not happen exactly that way.

    Anyway, it's a delightful theme, gorgeously executed, and I had a very good time.

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  20. I like QUINOA too, and it may be a staple in the Andes, but here where the puzzle was published it's a trendy fad. Still, there aren't many foods starting with Q, and it's more staplish than quince honey, so no problem, really.

    The theme was cute; but I bet if I knew my movie titles, which I don't, I could think of multiple answers to each question.

    There's been 12 comments when I started writing this, probably because Rex posted late -- I bet there'll be twice as many by the time I post. Let's see...

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  21. No, still only 12!

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  22. I liked this. Not my favorite puzzle, but the Q&A movie titles appealed to my sense of humor. It didn’t bother me that were two “wheres” and no “whens”. (And BTW, Rex, I think your suggestion of “When Harry Met Sally” would have the same problem you raised with “How the West Was Won”.) But yeah, I also found the movie-related clues that weren’t part of the theme a bit jarring. In addition to @Frantic’s list, there’s also ROMA. And I agree with those who say this shouldn’t have run on a Thursday – it has Wednesday written all over it.

    Loved THREESOME beside HEAD GAMES. (Those open marriages can get a little complicated.) The wall in WALL SPACE must be painted green. But there were some other great long downs, the stand-out being ANOMALOUS. Just saying that word out loud is like a massage for your mouth.

    I don’t like DALI generally, but Swans Reflecting Elephants led me into the wonderful world of pareidolia in art. I can’t find the article I read last night, but here’s another one.

    Today’s passage is by DAPHNE DU MAURIER, born May 13, 1907.

    “I wanted to go on sitting there, not talking, not listening to the others, keeping the moment precious for all time, because we were peaceful all of us, we were content and drowsy even as the bee who droned above our heads. In a little while it would be different, there would come tomorrow, and the next day and another year. And we would be changed perhaps, never sitting quite like this again. Some of us would go away, or suffer, or die, the future stretched away in front of us, unknown, unseen, not perhaps what we wanted, not what we planned. This moment was safe though, this could not be touched. Here we sat together, Maxim and I, hand-in-hand, and the past and the future mattered not at all. This was secure, this funny little fragment of time he would never remember, never think about again…For them it was just after lunch, quarter-past-three on a haphazard afternoon, like any hour, like any day. They did not want to hold it close, imprisoned and secure, as I did. They were not afraid.”
    (From Rebecca)

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  23. Trivia fest for me - not my favorite. I usually like the offerings from this group - this was more of TV Guide type of puzzle. Simple theme - no Thursday trick and not much thought process needed.

    Not very enjoyable.

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  24. Que fun....This gets my frijoles frescos high five.
    Everything seemed to slide in like Irish butter on a piece of soda bread. I'm familiar with all the films so no problems there. My favorite - even though it wasn't part of the theme - was ROMA. I've watched it about three times and it gets better with each viewing. If you haven't seen it, do...
    I think i'd love to sit in on a J.A.S.A. class. I'm imagining pencil in hand, paper on the desk, Google in waiting and Natan calling out "TIME."...
    I have only one question....Why in the world is 6D: Children, in legalese: ISSUE? I have an issue with our child's behavior? The issue involved with parenting is like asking them if they prefer cheddar over COLBY? I don't get it.
    Isn't ANOMALOUS just fun to say? I also like EGG ON TRUE GRITs.

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  25. Canon Chasuble9:15 AM

    Another common Latin abbreviation, common in my field at least, is O.S.P., “obit sine prole” meaning “died without issue.” In other words, died without a living heir.

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  26. @GILL (8:56) -- I suppose it's because children ISSUE out of you. Anyway, I'm not a lawyer but it's something I'm quite familiar with. And, if I weren't, there's always the wonderful "Fantasticks" song. It rhymes "issue" with "kiss you" -- but I can't remember if it's ISHoo/KISHoo or ISSyew/KISS you. Go listen, and all will be clear.

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  27. Anonymous9:30 AM

    if memory serves, ISSUE is a common word in the Bible in the meaning here. Although I always looked forward to the latest ISSUE of 'Hustler'. It is said that one can find numerous quotes in the Bible against wasting seed (gay relationships tend to do that). Jews and Christians needing to pop out kiddies like an assembly line in order to staff armies against various enemies. Long before the M-16 and nucular bombes.

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  28. @Frantic Sloth - Well, actually… Ultimate has some pretty serious Hollywood bona fides. There’s also this Twitter game of posting video where ultimate is in the background. And, of course, the Domino ad with the frisbee throw of a pizza box was quite popular.

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  29. A wide-screen puzzle (16x15) with a cute and clever theme, and lively and lovely answers – ANOMALOUS! QUINOA! EGO BOOSTS! PEDIGREES! Also, all those first names (IGOR, COLBY, TED, MERYL, ANDY and TESS) casualed up the vibe.

    There’s apparently good brainstorming in the JASA classes, where all those ideas carom about like lottery balls blowing around, and out pops freshness, such as [Snazziness] for ELAN, which has been clued 777 times in the NYT but never like this, and [Codas] for ENDS, a new clue after 773 appearances.

    Crackling good puzzle that made for a crackling good time. Thank you, class and mentors!

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  30. @Barbara S.
    You don't generally like Dali.
    That explains it. He has some very good quotes. His birthday? May 11.

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  31. This puzzle was a lot of fun with a clever theme. But it should have run on a Wednesday.

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  32. Anonymous9:58 AM

    If you have a CD in your IRA you’re not doing it right. Rex, please it is early in the morning I didn’t need to see that picture of Tess Holliday - how she is a “model” is beyond me. No wonder we’ve never heard of her.

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  33. @SouthsideJohnny (8:38)

    Latin is a language
    As dead as it can be.
    It killed the ancient Romans
    And now it's killing me.


    @albatross shell (9:45)
    So you figure the ghost of Dali threw me off my game on the 11th. I wouldn't put it past him.

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  34. Lt. Kije10:18 AM

    Had to just run the alphabet on the M crossing SALEM’S LOT and MCAN. Especially weird since SALES LOT sounds like a better answer. Just a total mystery to me why I’d need another letter, and I’d never heard of the “movie” (book) as reference.

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  35. Anonymous10:22 AM

    Odd. I have always known CODA to be an epilogue, not a structural part of the tale being told. Yes, it does come after the structural part, after all, but the END of the story isn't within the CODA, but before it.

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  36. Joseph Michael10:23 AM

    I knew a dude in high school named SAL EMSLOT. Now his name IS SUE.

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  37. Hey All !
    Couldn't twist the ole brain into seeing what the heck the theme was. Stupid brain. Having the five "ask" words beginning the clues didn't, well, clue me in enough. Just knew the themers were movies related somehow to the clue movies. Not even with the quasi-meta clue for 67A, "One of a noted quintet". DANG.

    Did notice, however, grid is 16 wide. Still has the 13 as the ending square, but has an extra block in top row, so a bit of a hidden 16er.

    Didn't notice the constructors snuck their names in. But where's JASA? Har. Surprised there was never a movie called "PHAT". (In case some of you weren't around in PHAT times, it stood for "Pretty Hot And Tempting". Taboo in this "woke" society now.)

    Anyway, nice puz. No ISSUE with RYE today. I hear there's a TASTE test down there at Z's Placebo and Tentacle pub. Your choices are TRUE GRIT Blue Spit (tequila), SALEMS LOT Hot Shot (fireball), USUAL SUSPECT Hang(over) Ten (long island iced tea), PARASITE Sucker (whiskey), and HOME ALONE Single Sobber (wine cooler). So come on down, doors always open. You CAN SO get your EGG ON, too.

    One F
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

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  38. Whatsername10:26 AM

    Oh what fun! I was slow to warm to this one but then caught onto the theme and ended up a happy solver. All were fairy mainstream flicks, which shouldn’t be too tough unless you happen to be a total film flunky or movie moron like Jeff Chen who wanted a revealer and from whom I borrowed both those terms.

    Loved the clues for WALL SPACE and THREESOME and always happy to see Thom McAn who brings back memories of my single girl in the city days. Really an outstanding Thursday. Thanks to Andy, Natan, and all the J.A.S.A. students who contributed to this effort. A Plus!!

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  39. Anonymous10:29 AM

    @9:58

    well, here's a reason one might want to do that: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/business/dealbook/psers-pennsylvania-fund-fbi.html

    "The search for high returns takes many pension funds far and wide, but the Pennsylvania teachers’ fund went farther than most. It invested in trailer park chains, pistachio farms, pay phone systems for prison inmates — and, in a particularly bizarre twist, loans to Kurds trying to carve out their own homeland in northern Iraq."

    And that's the lede. The story gets worse.

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  40. The themers and their clues musta been a real hoot for the x-word class to come up with. Really like the theme mcguffin here -- kinda untricky for a ThursPuz, maybe -- but certainly lotsa fun.

    Was surprised how fast I got rollin right away in the NW, on a Thursday. QUINOA tried to slow things down, but we worked around it (or sorta thru it, actually) without a hitch. Woulda been an even faster solvequest, if I could spell GAwDY and ANOMoLOUS right. Maybe could also blame M&A slowness on the 79-word 16x15 puzgrid, I reckon.

    staff weeject pick: TED. Movie. Only 6 weejects to choose from today, btw.

    Wow lotsa great fillins in there, such as: ANOMALOUS. HEADGAMES. LAUNDRY. DANGIT. COLBY. THREESOME. PSALM. ANDY & LAST.

    But, the real big remainin un-addressed question … Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf …?

    Thanx for gangin up on us, ANDY & LAST & the JASA band. Classy puz.

    Masked & Anonym8Us

    p.s.
    … The 40-Year-Old Virgin?

    **gruntz**

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  41. Nice, Barbara S (10:06) on both your ripostes.

    FWIW, I quite possibly dislike Dali even more than you do. And, after going to your "pareidolia" link earlier (a never-before-seen word for me, btw), I dislike him with an even greater intensity than I did before. While that rock-that-looks-like-an-elephant found in Nature is both fascinating and appealing, every single one of the Dali works shown in that article is nightmarish. I feel sorry for him having had to live within his own disturbed and disturbing mind, but happily I don't have to.

    Of course, I'm someone who finds even Van Gogh disquieting. And please don't get me started on Picasso once he started putting people's eyes on the same side of their face:)

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  42. @Barbara S
    Illegitimi non carborundum
    (Great faux Latin phrase!)

    Ditto Rex comments.
    Good puzz! 🤗🧩🤗

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  43. Couldn't 31d/37a be lost/que paso? When you lose something it has legs and walks away, so to speak. I guess an a is better here, but I think both answers work. Fun Thursday.

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  44. Anonymous10:51 AM

    @Roo:

    Ran across some story about how RYE whiskey isn't always RYE whiskey. The Canadian version doesn't require any RYE in the mash, and American RYE is fungible, but at least 51% RYE mash. 'Straight American RYE' OTOH, is considered the top o the heap. It's described as dry, as opposed to bourbon/sweet. Never having partaken, I decided to give it a try. My local grainery had a dozen or so candidates, most north of $50 for a 750. I'm more of the $20 vodka crowd. Turned out there is an upstart brand, Wheel Horse, at $28. Picked it off the shelf. First shot: lighter fluid. Finally looked at the label: 101 proof. Not your normal 80 proof bourbon. I might like it. Once my mouth recovers.

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  45. Anonymous10:58 AM

    @Nancy:
    And please don't get me started on Picasso once he started putting people's eyes on the same side of their face:)

    What's wrong with that? Flounders are fundamental to the teeVee experience.

    Rocky: Look, Bullwinkle! A message in a bottle!
    Bullwinkle: Fan mail from some flounder?
    Rocky: No! This is what I really call a message.

    Cut to commercial.

    There was a time when 'hosts' of various teeVee shows also did the ads on camera in real time. Ah, those were the days.

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  46. @Gill
    Issue typically means a person's lineal descendants—all genetic descendants of a person, regardless of degree. Issue is a narrower category than heirs, which includes spouses, and collaterals (siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles). This meaning of issue arises most often in wills and trusts.

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  47. Easy. Very smooth with some fine long downs, but it took some staring to grok what was going on. The theme mostly worked for me, liked it.

    Biggest nanosecond suck was mindGAMES before HEAD.

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  48. The Joker11:14 AM

    There's a story that Louis Armstrong once met Salvador but wouldn't even say Hello.

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  49. I'll admit to feeling a little resentful when I realized there was no rebus or other diabolical Thursday trick to figure out - that lasted just past SALEM'S LOT, i.e., until I encountered the PARASITE eating Gilbert Grape. Too good! Second favorite: HOME ALONE - I felt that one nailed it like a gymnast perfectly sticking a landing. Anyway, lots of fun to solve, and I agree with others that the class must have had a ball with the theme as well. Those long Downs were terrific, too. Thanks to those who pointed out other witty details and correspondences. I liked AT HEART in the center but correctly shifted a little to the left.

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  50. Anonymoose11:18 AM

    I adore Cats but seeing CATS never appealed to me. I don't think I missed anything.

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  51. Usually I have to forage for low hanging fruit, but today’s grid filled NW—>SE like a Rex video. That alone would qualify as a reason to like this class production, but toss in film and a dad joke gambit as anchor and you CAN SO count me among fans! That I had seen all & enjoyed most of the themers added delight. Sure, I might have whined about not working in Citizen Kane for grid gravitas, but recall what Henry James said and just enjoy the tune.

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  52. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

    Puzzle was good, but easy as pie.

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  53. Wonderful puzzle. Original theme, well-executed. Terrific overall -- crunchy, sparkly, few threes.

    GAUDY! Remember Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon saying "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter"?



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  54. Nice Thursday, much faster than my usual time even though I confidently, wrongly, wrote in “organ” for 1A. This caused me to get purchase in the NE and ride the diagonal down to the SW.

    After filling in here and there around that swath of diagonal, THE USUSAL SUSPECTS begged to be filled in, then I read the clue and aha realized the cool movie answers to the queries. Love it already. Nice additions of MERYL and ROMA...

    ...and IGOR, from Young Frankenstein, of course. I took two semesters of film appreciation in college and for the horror genre chose to write my paper on the Mel Brooks parody of Frankenstein, even wrangling a movie poster from the local cinema, folding it into rectangles that just fit into my portable Brother typewriter, and pecking away on the blank back. To further the illusion, I bought a green transparent report cover to slide my poster in, because, as we learned in class, the early showings of the James Whale 1931 black-and-white Frankenstein used a green filter over the projector lens to amplify the horror.*

    Back to the NW and after seeing my error and switching to GLAND, that lovely corner fell.

    Thank you, Andy and Natan and the JASA Crossword Class for a very enjoyable solve!

    Did not notice the constructors’ names in the puzzle till reading Rex.

    @Frantic 6:37 am – good point about those three movies, which I blanked on.

    @Barbara 8:54 am –thank you for the lovely du Maurier quote! Reminds me of another favorite of mine: The House on the Strand; am always on the lookout for time travel stories. And the article about pareidolia; I see the pig and bear in those clouds!

    @Roo 10:24 am – did not know PHAT was an acronym.

    @Nancy 8:46 am – nicely said! Agree with you and @Barbara S. about Dali, and laughed aloud at your comment on Picasso’s creepy eye placement, thanks for that.


    * To hype the PR, ambulances were stationed outside theaters as occasional patrons had fainted. We viewed the original uncut version, which showed the undeveloped monster learning to play with a young girl. When he ran out of daisies to toss in the lake, he looked around and, not finding more daisies, threw her in, a shocking scene. Many later copies of the movie expunged that scene and the edited version is still sometimes seen on cable showings.

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  55. Fun puzzle - nice change from the Thursday rebus

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  56. DANG! That’s heap big woman there. She’s got her own zip code. I didn’t need to see this.

    In good news, I kicked the hell out of this puzzle.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:22 PM

      I'm not proud of it but I'm with you.

      Delete
  57. Count me among those who enjoyed this Wednesday-easy but Thursday clever puzzle. The theme made me smile and feels to me to be something that the student class likely generated. Well done!! Even though I crushed this at one second over my Wednesday average, I found plenty to enjoy along the way.

    Like @rex, I tossed in ICE box rather than ICE AGE, age being the likely determine factor for me. Indeed I am old enough to have used an ICE box. Both my parents were teachers and we had enough of everything always, but never any extra so vacations were just time off for the parents from their summer jobs and day trips to interesting places in Ohio. One year, though Mom and Dad surprised the three of us sibs with a well used but entirely serviceable travel trailer; well, serviceable after Dad got busy in his garage wood-working and etc shop. “The Can” as my brother and sister called it, had an Ice box that we quickly learned was only to be opened my Mom. Many many times a day she “reminded” us not to open it because “it isn’t a refrigerator!”

    My sibs (older brother and. Younger sister-all 2 years apart) hated camping and I adored it. We got to go places and learn things that only travel teaches - including how hard it is to keep things cool in an ICE box!

    Mom was a saint; I never asked but when my own family started camping with only one child, I was amazed at how long it took to get the three of us up and fed breakfast and get the breakfast cleaned up! Made me wish I had volunteered to help Mom more back in the day.

    Ok, ok, ok, back to the puzzle. Loved WALL SPACE, EGO BOOSTS, THREESOME and my fave of the day was LAUNDRY and it’s clever clue. Kudos constructors and special “atta students” for the JASA class. Keep constructing!

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  58. Anonymous12:26 PM

    Did no one else have SUN before RCA? (61D)

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  59. old timer1:03 PM

    As I solved this baby, I assumed each of the answer movies was an Oscar rival of the question movie. So I entirely missed the point. I often miss the point. But yeah, had I gotten the point before reading @Rex, I would have been mildly amused.

    I am more amused by the discussion of ISSUE as a legal term. I thought immediately of The Fantastiks, whose album I memorized long before ever seeing the show. An early song, the one that hooked me, is "Plant a Radish". "But if your ISSUE doesn't kiss you, then I wish you luck. For once you've planted childer-en you're absolutely stuck!"

    Knew that song 20 years before I had children, but it's true, for sure. Fortunately my three are lovely and smart young women, and two have a couple of kids of their own.

    ISSUE, BTW, refers only to children, not other heirs, plus the children's children and descendants. If you have no ISSUE when you die, and don't have a Will, and no spouse who survives you, your estate goes to collateral heirs, often cousins and their ISSUE. The same is of course true among the Royals. Whem it was apparent that George IV was likely to die without legitimate ISSUE, there was quite a race among his siblings to marry and have children. As it turned out, the Duke of Kent was the winner, having married and had a daughter, Victoria. She may be synonymous with sexual propriety, but was also much in love with her husband, and produced enough children to make it clear all future monarchs would be her descendants. There would be no repeat of the crisis that arose in 1713, when the Queen's next Protestant heir was an unknown German prince who was called to the throne as George I.

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  60. @egs (11:20) Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. And they’re having Duck Soup. 🤣

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  61. Anonymous1:07 PM

    @12:26

    tempted, very. but waited for the crosses, since I remembered that he spent most of his time with RCA.

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  62. Note to self - do not open the puzzle at night. Wait until morning. Or afternoon. AMEN.

    Didn’t know 6 of the movies, so the theme joke was lost me. Fortunately the fill gave up the answers easily - ONLY SALEMS LOT put up any resistance, and that’s just because I kept falling asleep.

    So my fun came from other sources, like reversing ANOMALOUS to get SOUL A MONA, and seeing my favorite musketeer ATHOS ATHEART.

    Enjoyed that the grid brought together these partners:
    LITER of RYE,
    ROMA & RAMA,
    the DALI RAMA,
    PSALM & AMEN,
    RCA, SONY, & MONO,
    and a TASTE of QUINOA, COLBY, ROMA RAGU, EGG ON a PILE of TRUE GRITs, and café AU LAIT.

    Thanks for the smorgasbord, construction committee!

    Happy Birthday Jane Glover, who is seen here conducting a work by Russian composer Leokadiya Kashperova, whose birthday is May 4 (16). Kashperova was a well-known pianist and composer, and teacher of Stravinsky, but her works fell out of favor with the Russian authorities and she composed only in secret in her later years.

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  63. How snobbish of several here commenting on TESS Holliday, in “Eww gross” language. You might not need to see this, but there are many many plus sized women (and men) who do. Being reflected in magazines or movies as a positive image is a good thing. Very few of us are old style model-thin, or built with great legs and six pack abs. Time to start looking at people and not the bodies they inhabit. Drop the fat shaming - it looks bad on you.

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  64. Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Gone With The Wind

    @Barbara (8:54) You couldn’t have chosen a quote I’d like better. That memorable passage from one of my favorite writers and my all-time favorite among her ISSUE. As I recall, that lazy afternoon is right before the culmination of the story when everything comes tumbling down. I discovered Rebecca one summer when I was about 14 or 15, a paperback loaned to me by a cousin. Those pages magically transported me from the angst of small-town adolescence into the splendor of Manderley. I spent hours with young Mrs. de Winter as she found her way through the shadowy halls and battled the mysterious elements that tormented her. It was wonderful. Come to think of it, summer’s almost here. Maybe I’ll go spend some time there again. I’ll bet nothing’s changed.

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  65. I finished this puzzle more than 11 minutes faster than my usual Thursday - I guess that’s evidence that this puzzle was pretty tame and not up to usual Thursday standards. I’m not faulting it as a puzzle - it was enjoyable, but it’s not what I expect from The NYT. If constructors want some new clueing, the causeway linking Cape Breton Island to the rest of Nova Scotia is the CANSO causeway. And hey just noticed ROMA and RAMA in the puzzle - one silly little vowel change.

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  66. @A from 11:31 last night - Just saw your post; glad you liked the view from those unusual bubble cars. And thank you for your links to many gorgeous musical selections. And today, 1:33 PM, for the clever partners list - there's more food in that puzzle than I thought!

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  67. @Anonymous 12:26 - I, too, wrote in SUN...then checked the crosses, wavered, reluctantly erased...

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  68. Anonymous3:16 PM

    I thought this was a pretty weak theme, but as a themeless the puzzle played fairly well.

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  69. @ Nigel Pottle 1:49 PM

    I don't like looking at pictures of ugly cars either . . .

    I think photos of properly fit people and/or pictures of me are positive images for people to dream about. There are entire porno websites devoted to fat people if you're into that sort of thing, not that there's anything wrong with that.

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  70. "Who Is Harry Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?"

    "He's Just Not That Into You."

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  71. @Whatsername & @egs-

    "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"--"Forest Gump". He shows everywhere.

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  72. @Nancy et al....thanks for the ISSUE explanation. YE Gads Gadzooks. Now I know why I understand Spanish better than the queens English. And @Nnncy...thanks for the Fantastic clip. My brother actually introduced me to them many moons ago....such fun to listen to.
    @Whatsername 1:56...."Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Gone With The Wind" made me laugh. I can only come up with one: "Who's That Knocking at My Door?" "Psycho"
    Cheers.

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  73. Being overweight by even a little is what's known as a health risk factor because it increases the chances of getting a number of diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and several types of cancer. Overweight people also are/were more vulnerable to the serious effects of COVID.

    The more overweight a person is, the more serious the health risk factor becomes. As weight goes up so do the chances/probabilities of getting the above mentioned diseases.

    Obesity has become a national epidemic whose total, in-the-long-run health consequences will be enormous and it may overtake cigarette smoking as the nation's number health risk factor.

    While I think fat-shaming someone who is overweight is uncivil and unkind, I also think that portraying overweight and obese people as being positive role models is a disservice that hides the underlying health problems associated with excess weight.

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  74. @Nancy (10:34)
    I’ll make it clear, in case it isn’t, that I didn’t make up that bit of doggerel about the Latin language. That snippet has been around since there have been students of Latin (ID EST practically forever). And, @Nancy, given your feeling about eyes, you must take care never to watch the otherwise delightful Peppa Pig.

    @sixtyni yogini (10:45)
    That’s a good one in any language, real or fake: Never Let the Bastards Grind You Down.

    @Aelurus (11:39) and @Whatsername (1:56 PM)
    Glad you enjoyed the Du Maurier. @Aelurus, an old-time travel book I liked was A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley. I think it was published in the 1930s or 40s and I’m not sure if it’s still in print. It’s a YA novel about Mary Queen of Scots and I recall it being totally gripping. @Whatsername, it sounds like you’re going to prove that passage wrong by going back to the book and recapturing all the old feelings. More power to you!

    @Nigel Pottle (1:49 PM)
    Completely agree.

    @M&A, @Whatsername, @Joe D, @pabloinnh
    Some great alternate themers. ;-)

    And @Roo, I enjoyed your elucidation of the Placebo and Tentacle’s drinks menu.

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  75. Anonymous6:42 PM

    @Anoa Bob:

    One of the more amusing aspects of certain sects of the population assert that it's their 'freedom' to do whatever they want, and that any 'rules' which prevent them from doing so is, by definition, Socialist Oppression. The health costs of obesity are not borne, by and large, by these obese folks, but by the rest of us, both private and public, in increased healthcare costs. In case that's not clear, this is Fascism: the many supporting the benefit to the few. Should the obesity epidemic get much worse, it becomes definitional Socialism: the few supporting the many. Of course, they will never admit that they're freeloading.

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  76. @Barbara S 5:09....You hit my sweet spot with Peppa Pig. Although I agree with @Nancy about DALI AND Picasso, Peppa is just delightful. My little granddaughter, Hadley Rose (She's about to turn 3) absolutely loves that program. I have the cutest picture that I posted on FB of her watching it and being completely in awe..... I think it's the soft English accent as well as the kindness the kids show each other.

    @Anoa Bob 5:03. Everything you said about being overweight is true and we all know it. I don't think overweight people want to be, but, I suppose if you can cash in on it, why not. There is big business now in oversized clothing for women. My little sister has fought her size for years. She suffered a stroke and is in a wheelchair most of the time. She has taken drastic steps to try and lose the 20 pounds she gained but without her daily exercise she's climbing an uphill weight battle. Fat shaming is awful but so is showing severely obese people as any sort of role models.

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  77. @Anoa Bob (5:03)

    "While I think fat-shaming someone who is overweight is uncivil and unkind, I also think that portraying overweight and obese people as being positive role models is a disservice that hides the underlying health problems associated with excess weight."

    Very well said!

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  78. So obese people can't be positive role models, or be presented as attractive people or have clothes that make them look chic and sexy in ads, but bone-skinny models can and steroid ripped men can, and they all have there own health problems too. You may not feel you're fat-shaming but I'm not entirely convinced. Successful business woman but not a positive role model? Hmmm... Let me ponder that a while.

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  79. Say what you like about CATS, one of the loveliest melodies came from it, 'Mamories',
    M

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  80. Excellent puzzle. Lots of fun to solve. Natan Last’s crosswords can be tough and cruel to solve at times. This one was just right.

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  81. Every time I see *Prego alternative* (RAGU) or vice versa, I feel the need to say "Wait a minute! Is there no love for Newman's Own?" Fewer carbs than the Big Two, better tasting (try especially the "Sockarooni"), PLUS, all profits go directly to charity. It's a win-win-win.

    This was a mostly enjoyable solve, with the marquee answer being the best of the LOT. (Best movie, too, BTW.) Yes, there were a few clunkers, the RMK (EFLAT) and the RPR (random playground retort). But the longer fill shines, and MERYL Streep makes a splendid DOD. Birdie.

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  82. Burma Shave11:38 AM

    TRUE TREYS PILE

    THEUSUALSUSPECTS were HOMEALONE
    to play UPTOWN GAMES within reason.
    ATHEART those CATS would END up prone
    and go ATIT as a THREESOME.

    --- MERYL COLBY

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  83. About as amusing as a xword puz gets. Good job by the class. Don't spend your share of the stipend all in one place.
    Agree with @spacey re: Newman's Own. But mostly lately I've been a sauce snob, buying only from the Italian markets. no RAGU.
    Certainly better than any rebus.

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  84. Diana, LIW3:05 PM

    Working away at it I got it all. Yeah Thursday!

    The only one I quibble with is SALEMSLOT - kinda green paintish in my book. Where's my car? No one ever said SALEMSLOT, IMO. Maybe there's a famous parking lot or car sales place named Salem - who knows? Not I!

    Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for the valet to find my car

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  85. leftcoaster5:20 PM

    Clever and cool (or PHAT), as they said. Nice work JASA Crossword Class and mentors.

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