Name-Dropping
◆ · By Bird Lives · Published 2024-09-09T11:14:51.269Z
Meta Prompt
The answer is a TV personality.
|Nudge 1 Five symmetrically placed entries are the surnames of people in the arts. Each clue for these cites one or more ore of their contributions in their respective fields.
Nudge 2 Those are their surnames. But what are their given names? You might not know. But you probably do know what they use in place of given names. (That’s the idea behind the title of this puzzle.)
Nudge 3 What to do with these substitutes for the dropped names?
Nudge 4 Look for them elsewhere in the grid. You won’t find them together. Instead they will be sandwiching other letters.
Nudge 5 All you need to do now is to string those sandwiched letters together.
Checking for previous play data...
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(My main instrument is actually the flute, although funnily enough I did play the OBOE (rather mediocrely) for a few years in high school!)
1A
It can be grand in baseball and tennis
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Across
- 1AIt can be grand in baseball and tennis
- 5AMuse of poets (and crossword constructors)
- 10AWt. meas.
- 13A"___ little love in your heart"
- 14APolitician who was "not a crook"
- 15AProfound
- 16ASch. K-5
- 17ATake potshots
- 18ASmall ending
- 19AUS poet ("may i feel said he")
- 21AScotto or Tebaldi (though neither was in "The Sopranos")
- 23AAndean tubers
- 24AUK novelist ("Howard's End," "A Passage to India")
- 25AFunnyman who often performed at the palace
- 28AAngler's enticement
- 29AAlternatives to tacos or burritos
- 32ATom Hanks movie
- 35AOccasion for insult humor
- 36AUS architect (Louvre Pyramid)
- 37A44
- 39AConsecutive letters often seen at Schiphol
- 40AFemale factotum
- 42A"Let's go, dude."
- 44ALentil or lima bean
- 45AUK novelist (Harry Potter)
- 48A"Who's Who in the Cast" entries
- 49AMilitary penetration
- 50AUS actor ("12 Angry Men," "Superman II")
- 54A"___ mio!"
- 55A1960s images like those of Vasarely and Albers
- 57AThe orchestra tunes to its A (played by schmidzy)
- 58AAnnouncer's last word on an upper-deck shot
- 59AApres-ski hangout
- 60ABig brass
- 61AChang's conjoined twin
- 62ADid the math
- 63APrevent
Down
- 1DSome screenplays are written on this
- 2DFats Waller said she was back in town
- 3DUp and ___
- 4DWooly bullies of the ice age
- 5DTangle up
- 6DThey're often exchanged at the altar
- 7Dx, y, or z in geometry
- 8DBest
- 9DBurdensome
- 10D"___ c'est moi"
- 11DThe Divine Miss M
- 12DKind of fishing or mint
- 15DUnlikely to solve metas
- 20DRecommendation for a sprain
- 22DThrow wildly
- 24DSwing wildly
- 25DAnnoying nitwit
- 26DOrganic compound
- 27DNigerian prince or Trump University
- 30DMaking like
- 31DArticle for Spiegel or Stern
- 32DErykah ___
- 33DIslamic priest
- 34DMarvin who asked "What's Going On"
- 37DConstructors favorite cookies
- 38DVIPs
- 40DVenice transport
- 41DBantered, but with sexual overtones
- 42DSeal the deal
- 43DFarrow or Hamm
- 45DTopographical high line
- 46DKitchen tearjerker
- 47D[Bzzt!]
- 48DFreight carrier on the river
- 50DGp. backing "Sober to Start" vehicle systems
- 51DCome up against
- 52DWolf of the Southwest
- 53DTake the plunge
- 56DWhale group