Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
ACROSS
1 Civil __
4 Tropical fish with
large peepers
10 Add to the staff
14 Jungle swinger
15 Rapper whose
professional
name sounds like
a candy
16 Sport, for ports:
Abbr.
17 Kindled
18 Churchgoer’s “If
it’s meant to be”
20 Explorer Ericson
22 Kitchy-__
23 Blame taker
24 Curtain material
26 Another name for
the gladiolus
30 Cable box display
32 Dispensable
candy
33 High bond rating
34 Geological epoch
in which
mammals arose
37 Leave __: reward
the waiter
38 Post-Cold War
hierarchy ... and
what is literally
contained in the
circled squares
42 Mortar carriers
43 __ Fables
44 Nonprofit URL
ending
45 Adherent’s suffix
47 Muscat residents
51 Out-of-the-office
assignment
55 Point of view
56 Peau de __:
satin-weave cloth
57 Wide shoe width
59 In any way
60 They’re often
passed on the
road
64 Holiday threshold
65 Starting course
66 Austrian capital
67 “__ Misérables”
68 Chris of “The
Good Wife”
69 First female
Shuttle pilot __
Collins
70 H.S. 12th-graders
DOWN
1 NYSE locale
2 Per unit
3 Head to bed
4 Brussels’ land:
Abbr.
5 “Don’t worry
about me”
6 Copter
predecessors
7 Provide with
funding
8 Evergreen that’s
a homophone of
a vowel
9 Political refugee
10 Judaism : kosher ::
Islam : __
11 Start
12 Took part in a
marathon
13 Cake mix need
19 City southwest of
Warsaw
21 Reporter’s
quintet of
questions
25 Ask for Whiskas,
perhaps
27 Opinion
columns
28 Lion’s den
29 Jabber
31 Prefix with
friendly
35 Muse of poetry
36 Marlins’ MLB div.
37 Source of media
revenue
38 “Me neither”
39 Barely beats
40 Valentine card
hugs
41 LP measures
42 Baseball inst. in
Cooperstown
45 “__ it my way”
46 Turn sharply
48 Orange
choices
49 “Well, __!”:
“What an
outrage!”
50 Blood pressure
elevator
52 Acid test
outcome, possibly
53 Party hearty
54 Nancy Drew
creator Carolyn
58 White-tailed
coastal bird
60 Nine-digit ID
61 Lav, in Bath
62 Three on a
sundial
63 __ Antonio
By Lonnie Burton and Nadine Anderton
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/27/16
09/27/16
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
xwordeditor@aol.com
WWW.CARLSONPROPERTIES.-
COM
734‑332‑6000
FOR RENT
6 — Tuesday, Septemer 27, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THE CW
Hey, I’m pretty sure that poster behind the vase came from The Daily.
TV REVIEW
GENDER & MEDIA COLUMN
The first time I heard the
premise of “Jane the Virgin,”
I rolled my eyes. A virgin gets
artificially inseminated with
some guy’s sperm? That sound-
ed like it would be hard to take
seriously. Then I hit finals week
before Christmas vacation and
needed a new show to help me
procrastinate. It was on Netf-
lix, and I needed to practice my
Spanish anyway, so I figured I’d
give it a try.
It instantly became one of
my favorite shows. A few weeks
ago, I finished the second sea-
son.
I love “Jane the Virgin”
because it never allows people
to make snap judgments about
the role feminism plays in it or
in the lives of its characters.
It’s one of the most nuanced
shows regarding intersectional
feminism, specifically as it
deals with sex, virginity and
religion. Today, thanks to femi-
nists and time, women can now
have sex — even premarital
sex! — without worrying about
ruining their entire reputation,
or you know, their lives. Yes,
it’s still complicated and there
are social consequences, and
it isn’t the same everywhere in
the world, but it’s inarguably
better for women now than it
used to be.
But as more people — spe-
cifically women, as virgin-
ity is a much more weighted
symbol for women than for
men — recognize virginity as a
social construct, we’re seeing
increasing backlash the other
way. It often has less to do with
the semiotics of sex and more
with the sex-obsessed and
exploitative media industry.
Either way, virginity is now
something people actively try
to leave behind on their college
campuses. The possession of it
is ridiculed in popular media,
in stories about high school,
college and even real adults.
Sometimes sex positivity is
taken too far and used as a tool
to shame people — again, espe-
cially women — who aren’t hav-
ing sex, for whatever reason.
When this reason is religion,
discussions about feminism
get even more complicated.
There are some feminists who,
forcefully rejecting the sexual
suppression of women, are so
sex positive that women who
choose to wait until marriage
or the “right person” or what-
ever can be subject to their
condescension, disdain and
ridicule.
“Jane the Virgin” pokes
holes in that brand of femi-
nism (there’s a penis joke in
there somewhere, I’m sure,
let me know if you find it).
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t
take me a minute to get over
the virginity thing — not that
Jane Villanueva is a virgin, but
that she’s a virgin because her
abuela told her firmly when she
was younger to “protect her
flower” because once she’s lost
it, she can never get it back. I
immediately mentally recoiled
at that part while watching this
show for the first time. I was
raised Catholic — Irish Catho-
lic, not Venezuelan Catholic,
but the ideas about virginity
are the same. I went to an all-
girls Catholic school and loved
parts of it, but by the time my
friends and I hit 10th grade, we
were starting to wonder about
things, like why women’s vir-
ginities were being sold by their
fathers to passersby and things
like that. (Then we learned
about the misogyny inherent
in the Bible and several girls in
my grade became atheists, but
I digress.)
So there was a day or two
where I asked myself if the
show was as feminist as I first
thought, if part of the premise
revolved around an antiquated
value placed upon virginity.
It’s a valid question, but any
single-word answer is bound
to be incorrect. As this show
reminds you over and over
again, agency is more compli-
cated than that. The show offers
everyone another fresh and dif-
ferent perspective on virginity
while still being a sex-positive
and anti-slut-shaming show. By
complicating the narrative, it
broadens our scope and forces
us to remember that feminism
means respect for all people,
and all women, both those who
have sex whenever, wherever,
and those who decide to wait —
for any reason.
And the writing of the vir-
ginity plot isn’t the only reason
“Jane the Virgin” is such a femi-
nist TV staple. While there are
love triangles — most notably
the triangle with Michael and
Rafael, who are both basically
good guys — the true love sto-
ries in this show center around
the Villanueva women, Jane and
her work and Jane and her son.
And maybe it’s because it’s a
telenovela, or maybe it’s because
the writers decided that it’d be
nice to have a happy ending for
once, but at the height of con-
flict between Jane’s love life and
her work life, she gets to have
both. The show also devotes a
story to the often faceless issue
of deportation. I’d bet that this
show has done more to make
people empathize than any lib-
eral pundit on the news.
Incidentally, I was reading
random blog posts about “Jane
the Virgin” a while ago, and
read a self-proclaimed conser-
vative feminist’s praise that
“Jane the Virgin” was pro-life.
But it isn’t. It’s pro-choice,
because it isn’t anti-choice.
When Jane first finds out that
she’s pregnant and is sent into
a tailspin, her mother seriously
asks her if she would consider
an abortion. Pro-choice doesn’t
always have to mean abortion;
it simply means women get to
choose. I love this show because
it affords women respect, no
matter what their sexuality sta-
tus or beliefs.
Given our current political
situation, it can be hard to for-
get that it’s never as simple as
“liberal” or “conservative,” pro-
life or pro-choice, even virgin
or non-virgin (not that that one
should matter, but in some ways
regrettably it still does). People
aren’t composed of checkboxes,
and like sexuality, ideologies lie
on a spectrum. Few shows right
now encapsulate this as per-
fectly as “Jane the Virgin.”
Kaufman is still procrastinating
on those Christmas finals. To
make sure she’s still enrolled,
email sophkauf@umich.edu.
Let’s talk about (a
lack of) sex
‘Jane’ upends a
condescending
brand of
feminism.
SOPHIA KAUFMAN
Daily Gender & Media Columnist
IT’S OKAY THAT YOU DIDN’T
SHOW UP TO OUR MASS
MEETINGS.
JUST DON’T DO IT AGAIN.
If you missed us, email ajtheis@umich.edu and
katjacqu@umich edu for information
on applying to Daily Arts.
What does the afterlife look
like? Is it dark and barren? Do
we get to see our loved ones
who have passed
already? Are any
religions correct
in
determining
what it’ll be like?
These
kinds
of
questions
have
been asked and
thrown
around
for years in philo-
sophical debates,
college
class-
rooms and laid
back stoner ses-
sions. But in the
world of NBC’s clever new com-
edy “The Good Place” — created
by “Parks & Recreation” and
“Brooklyn
Nine-Nine”
mas-
termind Michael Schur — the
afterlife might simply be a place
that mirrors our own flawed
society, except with a few thou-
sand more frozen yogurt shops.
Without
ruminating
too
much on the complicated, reli-
gious-heavy nature of Heaven
and Hell, “The Good Place”
pulls no punches in establish-
ing an amiable yet thought-
provoking idea of the world
to come. Even more so, the
show offers an intriguing plot
about grappling with past mis-
takes and working to become
a “good” human being, even in
the afterlife.
The hapless female lead Elea-
nor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell,
“House of Lies”) attempts to
be this better person after her
tragicomic death sends her to
the Good Place, a paradisal,
corporatized hereafter filled
with millions of deceased do-
gooders. Enter Michael (Ted
Danson, “Bored to Death”), the
befuddled,
bow-tie
wearing
architect of the Good Place, who
explains to Eleanor that she’s in
the Good Place due to her good
deeds of getting innocent people
off death row and helping starv-
ing children in Ukraine. Prob-
lem is, Eleanor didn’t do any
of that — there’s been a mixup,
and she’s been put in the Good
Place by mistake. Now, Eleanor
must avoid being
found
out
and
subsequently sent
to eternal damna-
tion, known as the
Bad Place.
For
a
tradi-
tional sitcom with
a
high-concept,
supernatural
twist, “The Good
Place”
is
fasci-
nating and even
quite
cerebral,
thanks to Shur’s
assured direction, writing and
talented collaborators — “The
Martian” screenwriter Drew
Goddard directed the pilot.
The witty dialogue alone makes
“The Good Place” stand out as a
comedy aiming to take risks and
often hitting the targets. At one
point in the pilot, Eleanor asks,
“Who’s in the Bad Place that
would shock me?”
“Mozart, Picasso, Elvis, basi-
cally every artist ever. Every
U.S. president, except for Lin-
coln,” Michael deadpans.
“That sounds about right,”
Eleanor responds.
The main plot, though some-
what formulaic, also proves
to be an effective and intelli-
gent story, tracking Eleanor’s
journey from being a horrible,
insufferable person on Earth,
showcased
through
darker
toned flashbacks, to someone
with a slightly improving moral
compass in a utopic eternity.
Along the way, Eleanor gets
reluctant help from ingenious
ethics professor and chosen
soulmate Chidi Anagonye (Wil-
liam Jackson Harper, “True
Story”), who has promised to
keep her secret from Michael
and the rest of the Good Place
townsfolk. Bell and Harper’s
banter and chemistry is also
surprisingly
pleasant
and
refreshing,
propelling
“The
Good Place” into something
that’s more than just an ordi-
nary comedy about the afterlife.
In the midst of the show’s
brilliant writing and storytell-
ing, the acting is what truly
certifies the brilliance of “The
Good Place,” which makes sense
considering how Schur has
incorporated similarly talented,
diverse casts in his other shows.
Following her comedic lead-
ing part on Showtime’s now-
defunct “House of Lies,” Bell
returns to the small screen to
deliver yet another nuanced and
charming lead performance.
Danson also makes a welcome
comeback to network televi-
sion, still hilarious and sharp at
68 years old. Additionally, Jack-
son Harper performs admirably
in what might be his breakout
role, along with Michael’s Siri-
like assistant Janet (D’Arcy
Carden, “Broad City”), Elea-
nor’s beautiful, uppity neigh-
bor Tahani al-Jamil (newcomer
Jameela Jamil) and her mute
monk soulmate Jianyu (Manny
Jacinto, “Once Upon a Time”).
While “The Good Place”
certainly delivers, a part of me
fears for its fate. It reminds me
of another somewhat similar,
high-concept sitcom that I used
to watch: ABC’s promising,
short-lived “Samantha Who?”
That show, which lasted only
two seasons, followed a blonde-
haired female lead (Christina
Applegate), who wakes up with
amnesia and seeks to make a
fresh start to separate from
her past mean self. Fortu-
nately, “The Good Place” pos-
sesses a much stronger position
in this newly emerged era of
“peak TV.” But considering the
crowded network schedule and
the tendency for networks to
cancel shows with middling rat-
ings despite high acclaim, let’s
hope the NBC heads keep “The
Good Place” from going six feet
under.
SAM ROSENBERG
Daily Arts Writer
Bell and Ted’s excellent adventure is a hilarious, inventive comedy
A-
“The Good Place”
Series Premiere
(First three
episodes watched)
NBC
Thursdays at 8:30
‘The Good Place’ is a good
place to be on Thursdays
“Jane the Virgin” shows how feminism is really about choices
TV REVIEW