By Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/27/19

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

11/27/19

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2019

ACROSS
1 Roster entry
5 Opens, as a car 
hood
9 Letter-shaped 
opening
14 Foundry 
by-product
15 Army outfit
16 __ squash
17 Long tooth
18 Will of “The 
Waltons”
19 Vinaigrette 
holder
20 First, Lucky plays 
the lottery and 
buys the __
23 “Price 
negotiable,” in 
ads
24 Soft drink choice
25 Then, Lucky goes 
to court and is 
awarded a __
32 Put up, as 
preserves
33 “Winter Song” 
musician John
34 Post-quake 
rumbling
35 Bear up?
37 Pride youngster
39 “That’s that!”
40 Tennis great 
Graf
43 Goya subject
46 Second-largest 
U.S. state
47 Finally, Lucky 
joins March 
Madness and fills 
out a __
50 Lascivious look
51 Letter after phi
52 What Lucky 
got, literally and 
figuratively, when 
his alarm clock 
put an end to a 
very pleasant 
dream
58 Geeky type
60 Unresponsive 
state
61 Like a cloudy 
London day
62 “Laughing” critter
63 Pre-event 
periods
64 Old-time 
teacher
65 Giant opening?
66 Rooms with TVs
67 Fades to black

DOWN
1 “Careful where 
you open this 
link” shorthand
2 Jai __
3 Grammy winner 
Aimee
4 Yuletide mugful
5 Doglike facial 
feature
6 Universal donor’s 
type, briefly
7 Artist Mondrian
8 Not at all lenient
9 Touchdown 
preventer, often
10 Reacted to a 
scare
11 Ill-mannered type
12 Tramcar filler
13 Source of 
blowups
21 “Fat chance”
22 Future stallion
25 “Tennessee’s 
Partner” story 
writer
26 Racing family 
name
27 PC abort key
28 Rule of __
29 Put on quite an 
act
30 Large chamber 
group

31 Monopoly token 
since Mar., 2017
32 Transition point
36 Rolling in dough
38 MacLaren’s on 
“How I Met Your 
Mother,” e.g.
41 Holder of oats
42 Drink with a polar 
bear mascot
44 Jenny’s mate
45 Post-CrossFit 
woe

48 Tracked down
49 Checkers cry
52 Atoll barrier
53 Zigzagged
54 “When you’re 
right, you’re right!”
55 Caspian Sea land
56 Geeky type
57 Places with 
elliptical trainers
58 Dept. that 
includes the TSA
59 Old Faithful’s st.

6 — Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thanksgiving is the two-day-old meat in the sandwich 
of holidays that lies within the months of October through 
December. Halloween season is full of spooky stories and 
costumes. December is filled to the brim with gift-giving and 
snowmen. Thanksgiving is rooted in racism, arguing relatives 
and an underwhelming parade in New York. 
While Thanksgiving has many negative stereotypes, there is 
one thing I enjoy about it: The attitude of gratitude that resides 
in not only me, but my closest family and friends. Thanksgiving 
is a time to spend appreciating the things you would usually 
take for granted. This Thanksgiving, I want to shed light on 
something that I never thought I’d be grateful for. 
I’ve had anxiety since I was little. I started taking medicine 
for it after I graduated high school. It’s no secret that having 
anxiety is hard, especially when it comes to my art. The 
constant nagging of never being good enough in my mind 
pushes me to do better. However, this pursuit of perfection 
often turns sour quickly. This year, my perfectionism broke me 
for the first time in months. 
Have you ever cried in class? It’s awful. It’s embarrassing 
and vulnerable, but at the same time could potentially be the 
best thing to happen to you during your collegiate career. 
Earlier this year, I cried in my acting class. The tears in my 
eyes swelled up and burned hot against my cheeks. I wanted 
them to stop, but they kept falling one after the other — a 
physical manifestation of the frustration I had with myself.
We had been working on a difficult scene. The scene work 
had been going on for at least two weeks. With my anxiety, 
I often tend to extremely over-prepare or drastically under-

prepare. When I under-prepare, I lay in bed all day thinking 
about what I could be doing, but don’t have the effort or 
motivation to. When I over-prepare, I figure out everything to 
the most minute detail in an effort to ensure that all the “what 
if” scenarios flooding my head never become a reality. For this 
particular class, I was over-prepared, and it ended up being my 
downfall. I was working too hard. I had memorized the lines, I 
had read the script three times, I had done hours of research, I 
had set myself up to succeed. Yet each day, I failed. 
My 
professor 
would 
give 
me 
more 
critiques 
than 
compliments. I knew the work I was doing was not where I 
wanted it to be. Instead of taking these critiques as a learning 
experience, I started to take them personally. One day, during 
one of our end of class discussions, I let the critiques get the 
best of me. 
My head was littered with questions: What am I doing 
wrong? Why is my pacing too fast? Why am I not playing into 
the given circumstances of the scene? Why am I not listening 
to my scene partner? As I had time to anxiously stew in my own 
thoughts, my questions got bigger and less founded in reality: 
Why am I so bad? What if I’m never good enough to make a 
living as an actor? What if my professor hates me? What if 
everyone hates me? The list of questions racing through my 
brain could go on for pages. I couldn’t get them to stop. 
I sat idle as the class talked about their work, yet my brain 
was moving at a million miles a minute. My professor noticed 
I was not fully present in the group’s conversations. He made 
a joke, and I didn’t laugh because, quite frankly, I was so lost 
in my own thoughts that I didn’t hear the joke being made. He 
coyishly asked me, “Do you not think I’m funny?” To which I 
replied, “No, I was just — I wasn’t listening.”
After class he approached me. 
“Alix,” he started, “What’s wrong?”

I wanted to brush off his comment. Say “Nothing, I’m just 
tired” and walk away. But all of a sudden, every ounce of 
frustration I was feeling boiled up inside of me. I started to 
cry. 
“I don’t know, I guess — I feel like I’m doing a bad job,” I 
said, wiping away the tears.
“You’re not doing a bad job. You’re just not being present,” 
he replied. 
It was these words that sparked a groundbreaking realization 
for my artistry. Throughout my life I had thought that the 
harder I was on myself, the better I’d become. Yet, upon 
reflecting on other acting assignments, I realized it was my 
own self-deprecation that had stunted my growth. No one was 
telling me I was a bad actor except for me. Critiques were given 
to me, but the projection of my own insecurities onto them is 
what made these critiques impossible to listen to. The next day 
in class, I approached the scene with a sense of being present. 
I still knew all my lines and blocking, of course, but I tried 
my best to get out of my own head. I practiced an approach of 
self-awareness that I had never thought possible before. When 
a self-deprecating thought entered my mind, I ignored it and 
focused on the scene instead. I’ve practiced methods similar 
to this with meditation, but I never thought to apply them to 
my art. This was difficult, and it certainly didn’t happen the 
entire time, but I was trying. 
Anxiety with any art form is a hard battle to overcome. 
There are many days where I wish my brain would just shut up, 
days I want to reach into my own skull and pull out all the bits 
that make living with anxiety so hard. But there are also days 
like the one I had in class, where I experience monumental 
growth. There are days that I can see the light at the end of the 
tunnel. I’ll think of these days and people like my professor 
that help me get there this Thursday.

The anxious artist and learning to believe in my art

COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK

ALIX CURNOW
Daily Arts Writer

It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. 
Holidays are always equal parts joyous and frightening, long-
awaited and spirit-breaking. We all love our families. We also 
hate them a tiny bit, too — it’s OK to admit it, I said it first. 
But this Thanksgiving won’t be like the others. No, 
you’re going to go in prepared — defenses ready, arms 
locked and loaded. Enter upon America’s beloved day 
of justified gluttony steeled against the onslaught of 
“Are you dating anyone?” “What exactly are you going 
to use your English major for?” “I’ve never heard of 
the University of Michigan, is it any good?” And last, 
but by far the most painful: “Let’s gooooo Buckeyes!” 
Godspeed, if you’re returning home to a football 
rivalry family. 
Your secret weapon? Allow me to humbly offer this 
playlist. May your holiday be the movie montage we 
all wish we had. 
For the Pilgrimage:
You’re excited, everyone is optimistic and a good 
mood reigns free. But you know, deep, deep down 
that something wicked this way comes. To balance 
the pessimism and optimism of the pilgrimage back 
home, or the run up to the holiday if you’re staying 
put, listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad 
Moon Rising.” Shame we couldn’t listen to their 
warming, “I see a bad moon rising / I see trouble on 
the way.”
For That One Question: 
Mistakenly, you believed you had made it through the holiday 
without someone asking the dreaded question of your single 
status. Or, if you are “cuffed,” that you need to find someone 
better. Ugh, right? I suggest Lana Del Rey’s “Norman Fucking 
Rockwell.” Maybe not the exact fiery, don’t-care attitude you 
might expect — but soft fall vibes, Lana’s dreamy voice, what 

more do you need to mourn single-dome? Plus, as Lana says in 
her song, no one needs a “man-child,” so you can celebrate your 
freedom from one. It’s the perfect song for an efficient mope-
session in a borrowed bedroom. 
For When the Turkey Starts Burning: 
Tensions rise as the smoke of that crisp, brittle bird fills 
the air. You know what’s coming. Suddenly, everything starts 
to go wrong: Dinner isn’t ready yet! Mom’s nerves are on the 

fritz, the kitchen is 1000 degrees, it’s nearing 4 p.m. and people 
are getting antsy. Family member turns on family member — 
it’s survival of the fittest, every man for themselves. “Staying 
Alive” by The Funky Town will add some appreciated disco 
flair as well as motivate you to get out of the kitchen, and as 
far away as possible before the bomb goes off and Mom realizes 

someone has already stolen a slice of pie! 
For When Someone is Inevitably Injured:
Someone decides to clean the gutter, a knuckle is grated or 
a bout of good-natured wrestling among siblings or cousins 
go wrong — tears, cussing and “Another One Bites The Dust.” 
Whether you’re in the middle of the fray, or — like me — 
watching from the sidelines with a glass of wine and a snack, 
nothing will narrate Thanksgiving fumbles better than Queen. 
For When Things Get Melancholy: 
Post-dinner and everyone is lazing around the 
house, hoping that by laying, the nausea might 
go away. Grandma or Grandpa are holding court 
somewhere with a glass of something that screams 
The Great Depression. Without warning, suddenly 
you’re thrown violently down memory lane and 
the vibe check lands hard — things go melancholy 
fast. While Gramps waxes poetic on the greatest 
generation, play Willie Nelson’s “Are You Sure.” It’s 
appropriately reminiscent and slow, good for when 
you’re too tired to fight the good fight. Plus, it’s an 
oldie-but-a-goodie and without fail will cue some 
(much needed) contemplative silence. 
For the “OK, Boomer” Moment: 
The family gets a second wind over pie, and 
niceties are dropped now that dinner is over. It’s like 
the indulgence in dessert is a green light for all the 
taboo dinner table topics you shuffled around before: 
politics, religion, family gossip. Someone accidentally 
lets a “Trump” or “Obama” slip, and bam! It’s a 
plummet of no-return. All bets are off, time to use the 
random handful of intro-level political science facts 
you’ve held onto from freshman year to wage a one-
person battle. The Happy Fits’s “Dirty Imbecile” embraces our 
craziness while brushing off the buzzkill attitude of the rest of 
the world. They sing, “if I’m so smart and I’m so pretty / damn 
this town and damn this city / you never give me anything that 
I want,” like a break, or some respect, or a planet that isn’t 
trying to die on us.

A playlist of solidarity: Surviving Thanksgiving break

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

MADELEINE GANNON
Daily Arts Writer

HOLLYWOOD RECORDS / YOUTUBE

For a movie centered around a famous children’s television 
show host, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” deals with 
some heavy topics — primarily anger and how it can consume 
you. I suppose that makes sense, though, considering that is 
what the original show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” did as 

well. Just like the show, the movie frames these heavy topics in 
a way that makes them suitable for kids. And by following the 
style of the original television show, the filmmakers beautifully 
soften the harsh topics.
The film opens up by introducing us to Mister Rogers, played 
by Tom Hanks (“Forrest Gump”), who explains to the audience 
that he will be talking about his friend Lloyd Vogel (Matthew 
Rhys, “The Post”) and some of the hardships in his life. Hanks’s 
portrayal of Rogers is easily one of the most successful parts of 
the film; every time he is on-screen, he has a gentle, easy-going 
manner that matches that of the real Mister Rogers.
What is interesting about the movie, though, is that it isn’t 

really about Mister Rogers. It really follows Lloyd Vogel. The 
movie was inspired by the article written by Tom Junod, the 
man who Vogel is presumably based on. Vogel, like Junod, is a 
magazine writer who is tasked with writing a ‘hero-centered’ 
article about Mister Rogers. Initially believing the man to 
be hoax, Vogel doesn’t want to write the article. But as he 
interviews the man, he begins to learn that Mister Rogers is 
just as good a man off-screen as he is on-screen. Through the 
lessons that Rogers preaches on his television program, through 
the stuffed animals and puppets starring on “Mister Rogers’ 
Neighborhood” and through genuine conversations with Rogers 
about important matters of life, Vogel realizes that he has to let 
go of the anger he has been holding in, releasing the contempt 
he feels towards his father all his life. 
I have no shame in admitting that I cried while watching 
this film. There is something incredibly moving about pulling 
back the curtains on this children’s television host so loved by 
the world. One scene features Rogers and Vogel on the subway 
together, where a group of kids sees Rogers and begins to sing 
his show’s famous theme song. Other people in the subway 
car join in until everyone is singing. Seeing that moment of 
togetherness from a group of people who don’t know each other 
is, in many ways, what Mister Rogers is all about: kindness. 
The film makes you want to be a better person. Viewers will 
see Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers and some distant part of them 
— the part of them that remembers watching Rogers’s show, 
learning about his kindness, and wanting to be just like him, 
will awaken. The 
movie 
follows 
Vogel 
because 
we, the audience, 
are Vogel. We are 
learning 
what 
kindness 
is, 
just 
like he is. We are 
in awe of Mister 
Rogers 
just 
like 
him. We, at the end 
of the film, will be 
just as transformed 
as he is.

‘Beautiful Day’ is moving, naturally

FILM REVIEW

SABRIYA IMAMI
Daily Arts Writer

A Beautiful Day

Sony Pictures

Ann Arbor 20 + IMAX

SONY PICTURES

