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By Gary Cee ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 11/28/18 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis 11/28/18 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: Release Date: Wednesday, November 28, 2018 ACROSS 1 Mary Oliver, e.g. 5 Tweak 11 Obliterate in a flash 14 Prefix with sphere 15 Self-moving vacuum 16 “I __ you one” 17 High-tech classroom 19 Starchy grain 20 Bygone Persian rulers 21 Long-jawed fish 22 Present 23 Fighter at the Olympics 27 Man-horse hybrid 30 Synagogue reading 31 Country between Vietnam and Thailand 32 Quaint contraction 34 Type of coffee or whiskey 37 Congressional statute 38 Military IDs ... or what 17-, 23-, 51- and 61-Across have 41 Life highlights, briefly 42 Moby-Dick, e.g. 44 Hula strings 45 Pungent quality 46 Rice dish 49 “The Shawshank Redemption” extras 51 Court long shot 54 __ hog 55 Org. whose returns were never sales 56 Get to 60 Trellis climber 61 Astute attorney 64 Golf peg, or where it’s used 65 Long cold spell 66 Image in a botanical print 67 Make a typo, say 68 Litter box visitor 69 Pre-Easter season DOWN 1 D.C. influence gps. 2 “However,” in tweets 3 “Handsome, clever, and rich” Jane Austen character 4 Headwear with tails 5 Works on walls 6 Stag’s mate 7 Longtime Univision news anchor Ramos 8 Two dots above a vowel 9 Pizza chain in many food courts 10 Bar bill 11 Madagascar!, in the Bronx 12 In the know 13 Pan in Neverland 18 Inst. with the fight song “On, Brave Old Army Team” 22 Frost 24 Jay-Z’s “D.O.A. (Death of __-Tune)” 25 H.S. subject that covers all the angles? 26 Jewish ritual 27 Jaguar’s weapon 28 Individually 29 “Fat chance!” 33 “The Simpsons” disco devotee 35 Locale 36 Soil-clearing tools 38 Mark for omission 39 Related 40 Well-mannered man 43 Made up things 45 Reveal everything 47 Individually 48 Draw a blank 50 Nothing but 51 Done to death 52 Float in the air 53 Actor Oscar __ of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” 57 Pulitzer-winning author James 58 Close-knit group 59 Test by lifting 61 Backtalk 62 Alternative to JFK or EWR 63 Perfecta or trifecta SERVICES Classifieds Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com Way before that guy in your English class discovered NPR, audio entertainment had been amusing audiences for decades. While today it seems everyone and their mother has a podcast, the renaissance of the art form is a revival of the old time radio technology on which it is based. The rebranding of radio programs as podcasts is the best thing to happen to the medium since it was replaced by television back in the ’50s. Podcasts today have occupied every realm of entertainment that radio once had a monopoly on: There are dramas like “Serial,” news programs like The New York Times’s “The Daily” and even comedy shows like “WTF with Marc Maron” and “2 Dope Queens.” Podcasts have most certainly declared themselves the second golden age of radio and more importantly, I would say, the second golden age of radio comedy. The Golden Age of Radio was a time period in American entertainment lasting from the 1930s until televisions entered nearly every home in the country by the mid 1950s. Back in the day, families gathered around the radio weekly to tune into beloved comedy shows like “The Goldbergs” or “The Aldrich Family.” Like podcasts today, these shows survived on advertisements, but instead of ads for Blue Apron and Gillette, they were sponsored by Camel cigarettes and Pepsodent. Many comedies in the radio age were episodic and situational. “Abbott and Costello” used the medium for clever wordplay and endless puns to crack up listeners everywhere. The original “Funny Girl,” Fanny Brice, portrayed the silly young girl Snooks Higgins on “The Baby Snooks Show,” sometimes called “Baby Snooks and Daddy.” Bob Hope — usually recognized for hosting the Academy Awards a record number of 19 times and earning five honorary Oscars — was a massive part of the radio industry. For his 64-year broadcasting run he was closely associated with NBC. He performed everywhere from Broadway to US military bases. On Hope’s show he had celebrity guests like Al Jolson, Jack Benny and Doris Day. A comedian in his own right, Hope’s show, “The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope,” was wildly popular. The show boasted some 15 writers, including a young Sherwood Schwartz who would go on to create “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch.” While much of radio comedy and radio in general was superseded by TV in the ’50s, one very important radio comedy show made itself known in the peak of TV’s reign in the early 1970s. It ran weekly sketches and musical parodies from 1973 until 1974. That show was “The National Lampoon’s Radio Hour” starring the likes of John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and Harold Ramis. Like the Lampoon itself, the show was chock full of controversial and crude material, making it difficult to keep advertisers. The radio hour was even cut down to half an hour after 13 weeks. While the show only lasted a year, its alumni went on to change the history of comedy. Most of the alumni went on to work at “Saturday Night Live,” the show’s creator, Michael O’Donoghue was even head writer at “SNL” for its first three seasons. Today, the selection of podcasts is, to put it lightly, overwhelming. Comedy podcasts are no exception, as there are hundreds of pods out there with the chief goal of making you chuckle on your morning commute. Earwolf — a podcast network part of the Stitcher family — is putting out some of the best comedic content thanks to the genius of comedy podcast king, Scott Aukerman. The comedy writer and improv master started the podcast “Comedy Bang! Bang!” under the name of “Comedy Death- Ray Radio” in 2009. The show is an improviser’s dream as it runs on witty rapport and impressive character work. It is goofy, weird and sometimes downright bizarre, but always hilarious. Featuring special guests every week, “Comedy Bang! Bang!” never fails at keeping our attention. Some of my favorite recurring guests include Jason Mantzoukas (“Big Mouth”), Paul F. Tompkins (“Bojack Horseman”), Lauren Lapkus (“Crashing”) and Nick Kroll (“Big Mouth”). Aukerman and his business partner launched Earwolf in 2010; now, the network hosts over 35 different comedy programs including Paul Scheer’s “How Did This Get Made?” and Jonathan Van Ness’s “Getting Curious.” Aukerman has also recently launched a podcast with Adam Scott of “Parks and Recreation” fame. The show in question, formerly known as “U Talkin’ U2 To Me?,” is now called “R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: ME?” The hilarious pod was previously devoted to delving into the discography of the rock band U2 and has now shifted its focus to the band R.E.M. — they have amazing banter that makes you wish you could be in the studio with them. If you want to get into humorous podcasts but fear the incessant banter of improv- based and character-focused pods of Aukerman fame, have a listen to my personal favorite, “My Dad Wrote a Porno.” The British show is hosted by James Cooper, Jamie Morton and Alice Levine. Each episode, Morton reads a chapter from his father’s self-published series of erotic novels, “Belinda Blinked.” Every moment is a cringe-fest verging on tears from laughter. The three friends tear apart the novel with hilarious running commentary, making the most uncomfortable moments of the highly sexual erotica laugh-out-loud funny. The pod is now on their fourth season, as Morton’s father continues to publish his work, for which we are eternally grateful. The art of radio comedy is alive and well with the plethora of comedy podcasts in our midst; the only thing left to do now is to get listening. And with that, Dear Reader, I bid you happy listening! Oh my pod! The new radio comedy golden age DAILY HUMOR COLUMN BECKY PORTMAN Just a little over a week before dropping their long- awaited album A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, The 1975 released the music video for “Sincerity is Scary.” Departing from the moody, jazz-influenced pop sound of 2016’s I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, their sophomore effort ABIIOR seems destined for a more uplifting and radiant resonance with singles such as “Give Yourself a Try” and “TOOTIME TOOTIMETOOTIME.” However, “Sincerity is Scary” fits the bill in a different fashion. Whereas The 1975’s most recent videos veered more towards abstract visuals, “Sincerity is Scary” tells a story. Classically misanthropic, danceable and a bit condescending, the video mimics the song on an acoustic and aesthetic level. The visuals take a turn from the fluorescent pinks and blues we would expect from The 1975, and the first scene features a disheveled Matty Healy in a completely white room, the only exception being his navy forearm tattoo that reads “WEAK MESSAGES CREATE BAD SITUATIONS.” The camera then pans to a black-and- white piece of art on the wall before landing on a vivid urban scene. From then on, Healy takes to singing in the streets and adapting to the various dance scenes and street illusions he encounters throughout his leisurely stroll. While seemingly unfit for a song about a difficult relationship, the music video suits the narrative in its capacity to foster a fun, upbeat energy in the face of the various difficulties Healy faces throughout it. Though characteristically pedantic and corny in its delivery and aims, it showcases The 1975’s undeniable strength in generating an appeal and sound that is genuine and all their own. - Diana Yassin, Daily Arts Writer MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW: ‘SINCERITY IS SCARY’ INTERSCOPE RECORDS “Sincerity is Scary” The 1975 Interscope Records Self-help goes beyond the self in Havrilesky’s essays I love the genre of self-help. I love its relentless optimism, its fundamental belief in our ability to cultivate positive change and the way it encourages us to see ourselves as active participants in our lives rather than as victims. In an age of overwhelming anxiety, I love being told that the problems of the world are simple and individual, and that if only I were to meditate / journal / pray more, I would be able to insulate myself against universal human emotions like fear, anger, insecurity and loss. But I don’t entirely trust self-help, for exactly these reasons: its oversimplification, its insistence that we exorcize our uncomfortable emotions and the way it puts the onus for change on the individual rather than on the society. The “self” in self-help is important, even essential, but in a world where we are hyper-connected — our circumstances largely dictated by power structures beyond our control — it can’t be the whole story. Don’t we have a responsibility at some point to stop navel-gazing and help the world around us too? Heather Havrilesky’s latest collection of essays, “What If This Were Enough?” does exactly that, directing the introspective and philosophical tools of self-help not only at the individual, but at the society at large. Havrilesky’s project is simple in theory, but fascinatingly nuanced in practice: to diagnose our shared cultural values, anxieties, obsessions and illusions in order to better understand the way they influence our individual emotional landscapes. The essays in this collection are richly layered, emotionally evocative and often profoundly funny. Havrilesky focuses mostly on popular culture as a medium for our shared preoccupations, and moves nimbly between analytical investigations of what our cultural artifacts tell us about our priorities and deeply personal reckonings with how those priorities infiltrate our psyches. In “The Smile Factory,” she explores how the phenomenons of Disney and Buzzfeed have created a culture of obligatory cheerfulness and constant distraction. In “The Land of Heroic Villains,” she connects our narrative fascination with antiheroes to the elevation of figures like Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump. In “The Popularity Contest,” she analyzes how the numbers game of social media has warped the way we evaluate our own worth. Other essays, like “Adults Only” and “Playing House,” take a more personal turn, recounting Havrilesky’s own experiences with hard-earned wisdom and haunting vulnerability. Pulling together all these loose threads is Havrilesky’s overarching emphasis on mindfulness and gratitude — not in the shallow, gimmicky ways these terms often get thrown around in the rhetoric of self-care, but as the only logical remedies for a sick culture. She encourages us to be more cognizant of the ways we’ve internalized our society’s poisonous values and assumptions, and crusades against distraction, asking us to look closely at our difficult experiences and emotions rather than pathologically turning away from them. Havrilesky’s insistence that we face this darker side of our humanity might come across as depressing if it wasn’t such a refreshing change from the enforced perfection we so often experience, and if it wasn’t balanced with an unrelenting compassion for our shared humanity. Again and again, she comes to the conclusion that the only way for us to live full, meaningful lives is to do what we can with what we have, to live for the present and to “embrace the conflicted nature of humankind.” Ultimately, she writes, “We have to rediscover how to navigate each day. We have to learn how to embrace the imperfection of the present moment and accept the wide range of experiences that fall between happiness and sadness, success and failure, true love and hatred, popularity and invisibility.” Only when we release our belief in perfection and get comfortable with that uncomfortable middle-ground will we be able to see that what we have right now, in this moment, is enough. JULIA MOSS Daily Arts Writer BOOK REVIEW “What If This Were Enough?” Heather Havrilesky Doubleday Oct. 2, 2018 Don’t we have a responsibility at some point to stop navel-gazing and help the world around us too? 6A — Wednesday, November 28, 2018 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com