By Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
12/09/19

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

12/09/19

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Monday, December 9, 2019

ACROSS
1 “Georgia on My 
Mind” singer 
Charles
4 Party music mix, 
briefly
9 Keep from 
having kittens, 
say
13 “Big Band” and 
“Jazz” periods
15 Easily fooled
16 __-in-one: 
golfer’s ace
17 Career-boosting 
political spending 
on local projects
20 Speaker sound
21 Smitten
22 Dancer Duncan
25 Thurman who 
played The Bride 
in “Kill Bill” films
26 Chill in the air
29 Pos. opposite
30 Amateur radio 
hobbyist
33 “Cats” poet’s 
monogram
34 Chief Norse god
35 “Great” dog
36 Zeros
40 Polite address to 
a woman
43 Creme-filled 
cookie
44 Rx
47 Paltry sum
51 Madison in NYC, 
e.g.
52 Polite way to 
address a man
53 Positive vote
54 Aspen getaway
56 To a greater 
extent
59 “There you have 
it!”
60 Issue’s most 
important 
element ... and 
a hint to 17-, 
30-, 36- and 
47-Across
64 Leave out
65 Prefix with sonic
66 Sunrise direction
67 Sport played on 
horseback
68 Africa’s Sierra __
69 Sgts.’ superiors

DOWN
1 Change the wall 
color
2 Excites
3 Football play 
measure
4 Forensic 
evidence
5 Glass container
6 iPhone assistant
7 Tie, as a score
8 “I have to know!”
9 Prison knife
10 Cornmeal dish
11 “__ the 
President’s Men”
12 “I agree”
14 Slide on the road
18 Word of mock 
sadness
19 Wild hog
23 Swiss watch 
brand
24 Friends in Lyon
27 + or - particle
28 Opposite of post-
31 __ a kind
32 Commercials
36 Yukon 
automaker
37 “__ to you, 
matey!”
38 Many a techie

39 Bare-naked Lady
40 Variety show 
hosts, briefly
41 Sushi tuna
42 Postal service
44 Word before 
vows or status
45 Most wicked
46 Leaves
48 Syrup brand 
since 1902
49 Impressive sight
50 Quik maker

55 Convenient bag
57 Director 
Preminger
58 “__ be in 
England ... ”: 
Browning
60 Floor cleaner
61 Broody music 
genre
62 Geographical 
direction suffix
63 Daisy __: Li’l 
Abner’s wife

As I entered Literati, I walked by Grace Tulusan, author of “The Body 
Papers,” who sat in the back of the room with a small smile and an earnest 
glow in her eyes. The lights on the second floor of Literati Bookstore 
dimmed, and the seated audience murmured in quiet excitement as she 
weaved her way to the front. 
On her final stop on the book tour for her memoir “The Body Papers,” 
winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing author 
Grace Talusan began her talk with why she had to get these words out 
and onto a page. The catalyst was her niece’s 
eye cancer diagnosis, a reminder of life’s 
fickleness. It also served as a reminder that 
voices like hers mattered and needed to be 
heard. 
Talusan said she never considered herself 
worthy enough to be a protagonist. Growing 
up in the 1970s and 1980s in New England as 
a Filipina-American, she only ever saw her 
identity portrayed as a joke or caricature. 
As she began writing the essays that would 
eventually be compiled to become the memoir, 
Talusan wrote a story for her former and 
present self. At two, Talusan and her family 
immigrated to New England. In a mostly 
white town, the Philippines faded into a far-
away place people knew about because of the 
U.S. military bases set up there. 
In the excerpts Talusan read from her memoir, she unraveled the 
necessity detailing the immigrant experience. Otherwise, others would 
take over that narrative and misconstrue the truth. In a mixed-status 
family (having some documented and undocumented family members), 
Talusan’s family was granted a path to citizenship with an amnesty bill 
passed in the ’80s, a compassion toward immigrants she fears has been 
lost today. 
As one of the Filipina-Americans attending the lecture, it was almost 
unnerving hearing Tagalog words in public and having experiences to 
relate to. I rarely found books or any forms of art that I could culturally 
relate to. In this way, Talusan is the electrifying mouthpiece for the 

unseen and unacknowledged, especially those silenced by a society not 
made for them. Talusan, like so many other minorities in the U.S., lived 
that unwritten narrative and finally wrote it down. 
Talusan described the experience of being told that “Filipinos eat 
dogs” and discovering that Filipinos were on display at the 1904 World’s 
Fair in St. Louis. In a scrapbook during her research, she found a photo 
of her great-grandfather at the fair, playing the piccolo in a military 
parade, in what Talusan called America’s “ideal outcome of colonialism.” 
Talusan argued that assimilation becomes erasure, as even her parents 
told her to only speak English, eventually losing any Tagalog she knew. 
Talusan skillfully weaved her Filipinx identity with the anxieties of 
having her personal trauma public for the first time. 
“The Body Papers” is about the unsayable. 
Living with anxiety, depression and PTSD, 
Talusan feared the world and those she 
loved most would turn on her once the bomb 
exploded — once the truth that she was a 
survivor of abuse surfaced. She worried about 
how the people closest to her would react. 
A major support system for her, Talusan’s 
writing circle told her that there was no need 
to protect those who did not need protecting: 
Her abusers and those who didn’t believe 
her. In revealing her truth, Talusan hoped it 
helped survivors feel less alone. 
Her publisher warned her that “a book is a 
bomb.” Talusan joked that she initially heard 
“balm” instead of “bomb.” And when the 
memoir dropped, the bomb did explode and 
reverberate around the country and the world but not in the way she 
expected. Critically acclaimed but more importantly with the flood of 
love and gratitude from readers, Talusan was embraced by every person 
with a passion for words and for an understanding of the pains and joys 
of being human. 
In the process of crafting the memoir, Talusan learned to cultivate 
writing as a relationship with herself. Much of Talusan’s talk explored 
writing as a joyful and cathartic practice. An audience member asked 
what kept her writing, even if she was afraid. Talusan said her rage over 
why stories like hers are not out there fueled her. And, because, despite 
that anxiety and pain, it was writing that pulled her out of those depths 
every time, to realize the joy in living again.

In conversation with Grace Tulsan

ARTIST PROFILE

NINA MOLINA
For The Daily

It’s that time of year again — Christmas trees sit outside of 
hardware stores and string lights line rooftops. Cookies are in the 
oven and carols on the speakers. The holidays are here! 
There are many things I love about December. Soft sweaters and 
fuzzy socks top the list, along with warm drinks and cozy nights. 
Behind the generalized jubilee, however, lies another 
reason for my Christmastime affection.
It’s Nutcracker season. It’s time for Sugar Plum Fairies 
and Snowflakes to grace almost every stage of the world, 
launching a yearly resurgence in the public’s proclivity for 
dance performance. 
Nutcracker season is the only month of the year when 
my love for ballet aligns with the rest of the world’s. For 30 
days, I revel in the same classical music as everyone else 
in Starbucks who hears it over the speakers. I see images 
of my beloved art form in the windows of Hallmark stores 
and on billboards on the side of the highway. I cherish 
this opportunity to share what I love so much with an 
audience that is so big. In a report from DanceUSA, “The 
Nutcracker” makes up an average of 48 percent of revenue 
for American ballet companies — that’s almost half their 
money from only one show. 
The story of “The Nutcracker,” like many ballet classics, 
is very odd. A little girl bursts into joyful dance upon 
receiving a weird nutcracker doll from her even weirder 
Uncle Drosselmeyer. Later that evening, she encounters a 

pack of life-size rats led by an evil Rat King trying to attack her for 
reasons that are completely unclear. She then watches as her doll 
turns into a life-size soldier and she ends up killing the Rat King by 
simply hitting him once on the head with her ballet slipper. After 
the rats leave, she flies off into a land of sweets with her nutcracker, 
who has now turned into a prince. 
Needless to say, no one goes to this show for the narrative. We are 
there for the beautiful music and Christmas themes, which is why 
the production has been successfully redesigned so many times. 

This statement then begs the question: Which is the best? Which 
choreography, whose costumes and what version of the story is 
most effective? 
Well, I quite like the Waltz of the Flowers by George Balanchine, 
and the Mother Ginger costume from Pacific Northwest Ballet. The 
San Francisco Ballet drops so much snow during their Waltz of the 
Snowflakes that it’s awe-inspiring to see the dancers able to keep 
moving without slipping. The Royal Ballet has a beautiful pas de 
deux (dance for two) in the first act and their Sugar Plum adagio at 
the end of the ballet is so well-matched to the grandeur of 
Tchaikovsky’s genius music that even watching it on my 
phone makes my heart swell. 
But that’s just me. The true beauty of Nutcracker lies 
in its accessibility. By nature of its mass production, 
December is the best time of year to go to the ballet. Even 
locally, you can see the Academy of Russian Ballet at the 
Michigan Theater on Dec. 14, or there’s a performance 
supported by the Ballet Detroit Foundation at the Lydia 
Mendelssohn Theatre on Dec. 15. Randazzo Dance 
Company will perform their version at the Power Center 
on Dec. 22 and you’re only a quick Google search away 
from finding dozens more possibilities in Ann Arbor’s 
neighboring towns. 
For many dancers, the Nutcracker will be their first or 
only chance to perform. For many audiences, it will be the 
first time they’ve seen a ballet. The intersection between 
these two firsts, underneath a flurry of snow and a dash of 
sugar plum sweetness, is often what makes this production 
so special.

Battle of the ‘Nutcrackers’: The holidays are for ballet

COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK

ZOE PHILLIPS
Daily Arts Writer

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Just in case you’ve missed their steamy award show 
performances or flirty social media banter, I’ll break the news: 
Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes are an item. That’s why 
the title of Cabello’s sophomore effort, Romance, shouldn’t 
come as a surprise. Nor should the album’s content — a 
deep dive into Cabello’s rose-colored vision of love to the 
tune of anthemic pop. Luckily, however, it isn’t all lovey-
dovey as Cabello attempts to capture the dark, thrilling 
and painful aspects of romance whether you’re in it or not. 
“My emotions are naked, they’re taking me out of my 
mind,” Cabello confesses on “Shameless.” It’s the perfect 
track to plunge the listener into the emotional landscape 
of Romance and peek into Cabello’s headspace: nervous, 
overwhelmed and very much in love. The music itself feels 
heavy. Guitars close in on Cabello until she absolutely has 
to spill her feelings. 
If “Living Proof” is the aftermath of her shameless 
confession, the situation worked out in her favor. Cabello 
is blissful. Thematically, this song is the pickup line, “Did 
it hurt when you fell from heaven?” on steroids. “Where 
did you come from baby / and were you sent to save me?” 
she asks wide-eyed. In the chorus, Cabello’s voice reaches 
the heavenly heights she sings about, an impressive feat 
no matter how you feel about her gushing.
Cabello is 
more clear-
headed 
when 
fending 
off 
a 
former 
flame. 
“So you want 
me now? That’s 
funny / ‘Cause 
you didn’t give 
a … back then” 
she sings on the 
Latin 
inspired 
“Should’ve Said 

It.” It’s a much-needed dose of sass and suitable dance-alone-
in-your-room material.
“Feel It Twice” is the flip side of this poor timing. Cabello 
is sympathetic to the person she fell for “two years” ago, but 
who only just made up his mind about her now. “I know love 
is the loneliest place when you fall alone,” she sings from 
experience, but this time it’s her telling him she “doesn’t 
feel the same.” As the song builds, her voice echoes until 

Cabello and the listener both are overwhelmed by her rush 
of thoughts. 
Cabello wholeheartedly dives back into the sweet side of 
love on “Easy.” The message is straightforward — thinking 
that you’re “hard to love” until the right person makes it 
“seem so easy,” but Camila is playful about it. Her lover lists 
“her crooked teeth” as one of his favorite things about her and 
she coyly asks, “Anything else?” 
The only explicit track on the album, “This Love” finally 
gives Cabello some edge. “Fuck this love / Get out of my 
veins,” she cries. It’s the moment romance burns her and it’s 

refreshing. A subdued ode to the toxic person who plays her 
“again and again,” Cabello sounds just as passionate in love as 
in misery, if not more so. 
“I’ve known you forever / now I know you better” Cabello 
winks on “Used to This,” which chronicles Camila’s journey 
out of the friendzone with Shawn. It’s sweet, but it stands out 
for feeling real. Cabello grounds her feelings in experiences 
instead of the abstract. “No, I never liked San Francisco / 
never thought it was nothin’ 
special / ‘til you kissed me 
there” she admits. 
But out of all of the 
touchy-feely 
songs 
on 
Romance, 
Cabello’s 
song 
for her dad, “First Man,” 
takes the cake for being the 
mushiest. A piano ballad 
that follows her going on 
a date to walking down 
the aisle, she thanks her 
dad for being the “first 
man” to really love her and 
reassures him about her 
boyfriend. 
Romance is like a box of 
chocolates, 
except 
with 
each track, you kind of 
know what you’re going to 
get. Nearly every song is 
sweet and chewy, pleasant 
to listen to with excellent 
vocals. However, even a theme 
as compelling as love can get 
tiring after 14 songs. One can’t 
help but crave some saltiness, 
more 
hurt 
or 
melancholy, 
for 
balance. 
This 
isn’t 
to 
dismiss listening to the album 
altogether persay, just make 
sure you wait until you’re really 
in the mood for romance.

Camila gets cozy with ‘Romance’ in a sweet ode to love

ALBUM REVIEW

KATIE BEEKMAN
Daily Arts Writer

EPIC RECORDS

Romance

Camila Cabello

Epic Records

Romance is 
like a box of 
chocolates, 
except with 
each track, you 
kind of know 
what you’re 
going to get. 
Nearly every 
song is sweet 
and chewy, 
pleasant to 
listen to with 
excellent 
vocals.

Talusan is the 
electrifying mouthpiece 
for the unseen and 
unacknowledged, 
especially those 
silenced by a society not 
made for them.

6A — Monday, December 9, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

