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