WHISPER

SUBMIT A 
WHISPER

By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/10/20

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/10/20

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Monday, February 10, 2020

ACROSS
1 Depletes, with 
“up”
5 Pod in Creole 
cuisine
9 Theme park 
that retired its 
IllumiNations 
show in 2019
14 Tall and skinny
15 Umpire’s call
16 Greek played by 
Anthony Quinn
17 Bit of insurance 
paperwork
19 Earlier offense
20 Series-ending 
abbr.
21 Set as a price
22 Accumulates
24 Letters shown 
in the “Wheel of 
Fortune” bonus 
round
26 PC panic key
27 No longer in style
34 Public tantrum
37 Hydroplaned
38 Writer Ferber
39 Novelist Levin
40 Charge card 
charge
43 Tarzan player 
Ron
44 Owlet’s home
46 With everything in 
place
47 ER images
49 Work out regularly 
at the gym
52 __ ring: foot 
jewelry
53 Postgame 
rundowns
57 Domed hall
61 Watergate pres.
62 Sigma follower
63 Soft palate part
64 Fungus on an 
old loaf
67 Latish wake-up 
hr.
68 James of “Elf”
69 Charitable 
offerings
70 Catch by trickery
71 Prefix with formal 
or final
72 Potter’s material 
associated with 
the end of 17-, 
27-, 49- and 
64-Across

DOWN
1 Worrier’s 
stomach woe
2 Seasons with 
crystals
3 Make official
4 Tackle moguls
5 Cancel out
6 Eccentric sort
7 Capek 
play about 
automatons
8 __ mater
9 Toll-paying 
convenience
10 Sports car that 
has two syllables 
in German
11 NFL analyst 
Collinsworth
12 Slender wind
13 Seasoned 
sailors
18 “Hamilton” 
creator Lin-__ 
Miranda
23 Victor at 
Gettysburg
25 Chaney of 
silents
28 Bone: Pref.
29 Pet peeves?
30 Saks __ Avenue

31 Mental flash
32 “I’m __ human”
33 Negative votes
34 Act the fink
35 First Nations 
tribe
36 “__ of Eden”
41 Paid for a hand
42 Use, as energy
45 In name only
48 DVR button
50 Like a generic 
brand

51 Designer Giorgio
54 Ring-shaped reef
55 Director Brian 
De __
56 Like dishwater
57 Boring routines
58 Baking appliance
59 Fish in cat food
60 Preschool basics
61 Paper quantity
65 Grammy winner 
Corinne Bailey __
66 PC alternative

CLASSIFIEDS

734-418-4115 option 2
dailydisplay@gmail.com

WORK ON MACKINAC 
Island

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The Island House Hotel 
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meals.

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www.theislandhouse.com

HELP WANTED

WHISPER

60 Characters. 
Bare your soul.

Introducing

“Bernie 
won Iowa” 

“Music 
is just 
wiggling 
air”

“Always 
fight fire 
with fire, 
unless 
you’re a 
freshman.”

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

SUDOKU

“Do you know what a harlequin 
is? A harlequin’s role is to serve. 
It’s nothing without a master.”
That’s not the case anymore. 
Margot 
Robbie’s 
(“Suicide 
Squad”) Harley Quinn is much, 
much more than that, as she 
proves in the new movie “Birds 
of Prey and the Fantabulous 
Emancipation of One Harley 
Quinn.” 
I had the opportunity to see 
a pre-screening for this movie 
along with several other U of 
M students, and I wasn’t sure 
what to think initially. I hadn’t 
seen “Suicide Squad,” so most of 
my knowledge of Harley Quinn 
was 
from 
Batman 
cartoons, 
“The 
LEGO 
Batman 
Movie” 
and the internet. However, this 
movie reveals so much more of 
her character. Most people only 
really knew her as the “Joker’s 
girlfriend” before this, but in 
this film we find out that he is 
inconsequential in her new life. 
She is truly emancipated from his 

hold on her. She is a new woman, 
doing what she wants to do, living 
with her hyena as company. 
In “Birds of Prey,” we follow 
Harley’s journey in finding a 
diamond for Roman Sionis (Ewan 
McGregor, “Star Wars Episode 
I: The Phantom Menace”). She 

soon learns that a young girl 
named Cassandra Cain (Ella 
Jay Basco, “Teachers”) posseses 
the diamond … and isn’t exactly 
able to just hand it over. To keep 
an eye on Cassandra, Harley 
begins to teach the younger girl 
all about being Harley Quinn. 
She’s like a hilariously psychotic 

older sister. Their blossoming 
relationship is easily one of the 
best things to watch in the film. 
Harley’s plotline is intertwined 
with that of other women, namely 
Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez, 
“Untamed Heart”), Dinah Lance 
(Jurnee Smollett-Bell “One Last 
Thing”) and Helena Bertinelli 
(Mary Elizabeth Winstead, “10 
Cloverfield Lane”), aka the soon-
to-be-dubbed Birds of Prey. 
The fight scenes in this movie 
are incredible. Harley’s unique 
style of hitting people with 
baseball bats and using glitter and 
paint bombs is an amazing way 
of meshing together femininity 
with strength. She doesn’t have to 
give up her glitter in order to kill 
people. It is truly inspirational. 
The other top-tier performance 
in this movie is without a doubt 
Ewan McGregor’s. He manages 
to 
play 
a 
hilarious 
villain 
without making himself seem 
incompetent. 
His 
character, 
Roman Sionis, is always sharply 
dressed, 
utterly 
despicable 
and sinister while wearing an 
innocent smile.

Next chapter of the Harley 
Quinn story empowering

WARNER BROS. 

SABRIYA IMAMI
Daily Arts Writer

The genre of indie pop has 
always 
maintained 
a 
code 
of 
individuality, 
given 
its 
roots within the psychedelic 
movement of the ‘60s and 
early ‘70s. It was celebrated 
at the time of its inception for 
introducing a new sound in 
pop, while also preserving the 
“transcendence” mantra that 
stems from the psychedelic 
movement. Its focus was on 
connecting with nature in a 
spiritual 
and 
life-affirming 
manner. 
By the new millennium, 
however, artists like Death Cab 
for Cutie and The Decemberists 
shifted the aims of the genre 
to be about the relationship 
humans have with themselves. 
They began to ask questions 
about the fragility of humanity 
in the face of a world that was 
looking more and more hostile. 
In effect, they changed the 
values of indie pop from being 
outwardly oriented and nature-

driven to introspective and 
individualistic. It seems that 
most people have forgotten the 
original roots of the genre; it 
hasn’t always been about self-
reflection.
Enter Dan Deacon. Though 
the Baltimore-based musician 

first became known as a highly 
subversive, electronic artist 
(the video of him performing 
on local news from 2006 is 
proof), he has since thrust 
himself into the underground 
pop scene. With his newest 
record Mystic Familiar, Deacon 
manages to craft an album 

that brings back the earthen 
spirituality of early indie pop 
while also diving deep into his 
own personal anxieties.
Throughout 
the 
record, 
there 
is 
an 
emphasis 
on 
impermanence, 
particularly 
death and old age. With Deacon 
nearing his 40s, it isn’t all that 
surprising that these matters 
are occupying his thoughts. 
Mystic Familiar acts as a sort 
of 
therapeutic 
solution 
to 
these ideas that have been 
tormenting him. The spiritual 
essence 
of 
nature 
combats 
the questions that haunt him. 
He’s trying to, as the opening 
track title states, “Become a 
Mountain.” If he can convince 
himself that the memory of his 
existence is indomitable like 
a mountain, then old age and 
death become less threatening 
inevitabilities. This idea of 
combating impermanence with 
transcendentalism is a perfect 
marriage between the two 
iterations of indie pop. Deacon 
is looking outward to look 
inward.

Dan Deacon embraces all 
of indie pop on his new LP

DREW GADBOIS
For the Daily

Birds of Prey

GQT Quality 16

Warner Bros.

FILM REVIEW
FILM REVIEW
ALBUM REVIEW

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Mystic Familiar

Dan Deacon

Domino Recording 
Company

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

6A — Monday, February 10, 2020
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

