Off the Grid: Sally breaks down Paste BN's daily crossword puzzle, Lip Piercing
There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! Lip Piercing
Constructor: Amie Walker
Editor: Amanda Rafkin
What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle
- AVI (39A: Author of the "Crispin" series) AVI is the pen name of Edward Irving Wortis. There are currently three books in the Crispin series: Crispin: The Cross of Lead (2002), Crispin: At the Edge of the World (2006), and Crispin: The End of Time (2010). The books are set in rural England in 1377, and the title character is a 13-year-old boy. The first book won the Newberry Medal. When I read this clue I felt like I should know the answer, but I just couldn't come up with it. That's what crossing answers are for.
Random Thoughts & Interesting Things
- ARE (23A: "All we ___ is skin and bone trained to get along" (Taylor Swift lyric)) and NAB (7D: Snag, like Eras Tour tickets) "All we ARE is skin and bone trained to get along" is a line from Taylor Swift's song, "Treacherous," which was on her 2012 album Red. If you happened to NAB Eras Tour tickets, you might have heard Taylor Swift sing "Treacherous." She sang it in Tampa, Florida (April 2023) and Paris, France (May 2024).
- NHL (29A: Stanley Cup org.) I always get a small sense of satisfaction when I know the answer to a sports question. The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy for the National Hockey League (NHL). The trophy is named for Lord Stanley of Preston, who donated the trophy to Canada. Interestingly, the NHL does not own the trophy, but uses it by agreement with the Canadian trustees of the cup. The reigning Stanley Cup champions are the Florida Panthers.
- NORWAY (31A: Country with famous fjords) A fjord is a long, deep inlet. Fjords are often situated in valleys with cliffs on either side of the water. NORWAY a country in Northern Europe, is located on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Many places in NORWAY are near fjords, as the over 17,000 miles of coastline is made up mainly of fjords. For comparison, the baseline coastline (drawn in a straight line without following the fjords) is just over 1,500 miles.
- LICORICE DROP (33A: Anise-flavored piece of candy) It was just a couple of weeks ago that I wrote about anise being the spice that gives black jelly beans their LICORICE-like flavor.
- AMY (51A: "Jeopardy!" champion Schneider) AMY Schneider is a 40-time Jeopardy! champion, and holds the show's second-longest winning streak (after Ken Jennings). She is also the most successful woman to compete on Jeopardy! In addition to her 40-game winning streak, AMY Schneider also won the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions that aired in November 2022. AMY Schneider's 2023 memoir is titled In the Form of a Question.
- ELLIE (1D: Carl's wife in "Up") Carl is the protagonist of the 2009 Pixar movie Up. ELLIE was the love of his life, his wife who died before the events of the movie take place. The opening scenes of Up, when Carl is remembering ELLIE and their life together makes me tear up every time I watch it. The last time my husband and I watched Up, I commented, "I always forget how sad this first part is!"
- MANTA (2D: ___ ray (tattoo for Grandma Tala in "Moana")) Moana is a 2016 animated movie set on a Polynesian island. The title character is the daughter of a chief of a coastal village. Moana's Grandma Tala – the one with a MANTA ray tattoo – plays an important role in the movie. There's also a special significance to the MANTA ray, but I won't spoil it in case you haven't seen the movie.
- ALOHA (5D: Hi in HI) The trick here is noticing that the letter i is lowercase in the first "Hi," which means it's referring to the word as a greeting. In the second "HI," the letter I is uppercase because it's the abbreviation for Hawaii. Therefore, the clue is [Greeting in Hawaii], or ALOHA.
- LEONE (20D: Sierra ___) Sierra LEONE is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia and Guinea, and has coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Sierra LEONE is Freetown.
- LOVE SONG (33D: Sara Bareilles' breakthrough single) "LOVE SONG" is Sara Bareilles' debut single, released in 2007. This clue has caused "LOVE SONG" to be my earworm for the moment. "I'm not gonna write you a LOVE SONG / 'Cause you asked for it…"
- CPR (35D: Procedure that can be done to the beat of "Pink Pony Club" (Abbr.)) The Red Cross recommends doing CPR at a rate of 100 chest compressions per minute. This means that songs with 100-120 beats per minute are useful tools to help you maintain the correct rate if you need to perform CPR. This includes Chappell Roan's song "Pink Pony Club," which is 107 beats per minute. This answer pairs well with EMT (1A: First responder, for short).
- ENG (53D: Part of the U.K. (Abbr.)) England (ENG.), Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland comprise the United Kingdom (U.K.).
- EVIL (56D: Like Scar or Jafar) What do we have here? Ah, a couple of EVIL Disney villains. Scar is the EVIL villain of The Lion King, and Jafar is the EVIL villain of Aladdin.
- A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
- THAT'S NICE (3D: "Love it for you, honestly")
- POWER NAP (9D: Quick snooze)
- SNAIL (14D: Pet that may have an ironic name like Turbo or Speedy)
Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis
- LITTLE HELP (18A: "Can you give me a hand here?")
- LICORICE DROP (33A: Anise-flavored piece of candy)
- LIGHTEN UP (54A: "Just be chill")
LIP PIERCING: The word LIP is pierced, in a way, by each theme answer, splitting the word so the LI- is at the beginning of the answer, and the -P is at the end.
"LITTLE HELP?" is my favorite of the three theme answers today. It is something I have certainly uttered on occasion. I also like the answer BIG IF TRUE. Thank you, Amie, for this enjoyable puzzle.