Quiet on Set!

I told myself I should watch more movies this year, and so far I’m achieving that goal. I’ve caught a few big release movies like "Project Hail Mary" that I would have normally glossed over, but I’ve been especially enjoying seeing more niche movies. Cult classics, so-bad-they’re-good, and ones that I just happened to miss during their initial run. Luckily, my local indie cinema, Metro Cinema (not a paid ad, though they do sponsor the print version), plays all those for me. The next one on my docket is Annihilation, a 2018 movie that I missed when it came out, but is based on a trilogy of cosmic horror books I greatly enjoyed, so I’m willing to roll the dice. Maybe I’ll see you there on May 6th!

This week’s puzzle is movie-related, but in that beautiful way where you need zero movie knowledge to enjoy it.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

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Quiet on Set! by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

This puzzle had been cooking for a few weeks in my half-finished ideas folder, as I was having a lot of trouble finding clean fill for the grid. This theme constrained the grid more than most others by the fact that all theme answers are full- (or almost full-) width, and they need to be in a specific order. The final product is not my cleanest by any means; however, after coming back to it a few times, I got it to a point that felt challenging in places, but not unfair, for casual solvers.

This puzzle features a funny little music block I’ll talk about below, but here I have to highlight a song I didn’t realize was by Elton John for a long time. Truly an incredible song.

Today’s Theme

Today’s theme is a “three phrases described by another phrase” sort of theme. The revealer is 34-Across [Film set phrase - or the starts and ends of 12-, 16- and 29-Across]. Solving this gives PLACES, PEOPLE, so we know that this somehow describes our theme entries in italics.

The pattern that emerges is that each theme answer is a compound title for a person, where the first part is a "place" (first, second, third), and the second part makes the phrase a person (or people). The answers are, in order,

FIRST GRADER
SECOND COUSIN
THIRD BASEMAN

PLACES, PEOPLE :)

Behind the Clues

1A. I was very happy to start the puzzle off with [One in a black suit], a clever little misdirect that reads like you’re looking for a person who wears a black suit. However, it’s referring to a card in a black suit - a SPADE. ;)

23A. ["Moving right along..." (and yes, this is the accepted spelling)] is ANYHOO, which I felt the need to call out, since most people (myself included, until I started doing crosswords) thought it was ANYWHO, which is also accepted but as a variant spelling. I recently learned it’s actually a casualization of "anyhow," which makes more sense in the context it’s used.

40A. The clue for [Terra ___] was, in the first pass, "Banana banana banana terra ___ / banana terra ___ terra ___ pie" (lyric from "Vicinity of Obscenity" by System of a Down). However, though a banger, the rest of that song is very, uh, not appropriate for children, and I know young people see this crossword. So I played it safe 😅

3D-7D. This section of clues was affectionately and succinctly named the "Music sandwich on Pirate bread" during construction, for reasons which will hopefully become obvious as I list them out:

• 3D: Common interjection of one sailin' and plunderin' the salty seas

• 4D: Genre of "Le Freak" by Chic

• 5D: John who wrote, but I would not describe as, "Tiny Dancer"

• 6D: 🎵 "I'm the ___... (duh)"

• 7D: Common affirmation of one sailin' and plunderin' the salty seas

13D. I was having trouble cluing GOD, because it has both SO much potential for interesting angles, but I also wanted to make sure I didn’t give anyone the ick with a goofy clue that came off wrong. So I kept it simple with [What's "up dog"? This answer!], playing off the old joke "Man, it really smells like updog in here" / "What’s updog?" / "Not much, how about you?" which always hits.

21D. This was another clue I knew I wanted to nail, but couldn’t quite find the right phrasing for it. [Time when the club is empty but hands are still up?] is NOON, and I knew I wanted a “hands up” pun. It went through 3-4 clunky iterations before my partner suggested this club angle - and I immediately loved it.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon