WHISPER


By Robin Stears
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/11/20

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/11/20

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2020

ACROSS
1 Catch sight of
5 Nudged with 
one’s snout
10 Come clean, with 
“up”
14 Escape
15 Greek 
marketplace
16 Ski resort near 
Salt Lake City
17 *Expensive flying 
option
19 Greenish-blue
20 Egg: Pref.
21 Warning word 
often preceded 
by a color
22 Scarlett of Tara
23 Chemical reaction 
named for its two 
processes
25 Rhoda’s sister
26 __ of Capricorn
28 *Space for home 
projects, e.g.
30 Old fast jets
31 Augusta National 
signature shrub
33 __ Titanic: ill-
fated ship
34 Of the seventh 
planet
35 Snake’s sound
38 Red wine choice
39 Atomizer output
43 *Collaborative 
activity
45 1920s-’30s 
“Blonde 
Bombshell” Jean
47 Let out, as fishing 
line
48 Vodka brand, 
familiarly
49 Group of musical 
notes
50 Lauder of makeup
54 Auto title ID
55 Word after King 
or Hong
56 *Payment method 
being replaced by 
mobile banking
58 Impulse
59 Prepare, as 
Parmesan
60 Et __: and others
61 Bridge “no bid”
62 After, in French
63 Aussie pal, or 
what can follow 
each word in 
the answers to 
starred clues

DOWN
1 Serious attempts
2 Thin fragments
3 August 
birthstone
4 Cry of success
5 Table salt, to a 
chemist
6 Look at rudely
7 Skyrocket
8 Once, once upon 
a time
9 Some govt. 
lawyers
10 Priest’s title
11 __ Roosevelt, 
first lady for 12 
years
12 Celebrity status
13 Respectful bows
18 Curbside cry
22 Like Mindy’s 
alien husband
24 Covert missions
25 Inhalation
27 “The Office” star 
Steve
28 Without vigor
29 Miscellany
32 Swedish singer 
Larsson with 
the Top 20 hit 
“Never Forget 
You”

34 Called balls and 
strikes
35 Snobby
36 Portuguese lady
37 South Seas 
wrapped 
garments
39 “The A-Team” 
actor
40 Randy Newman 
song played at 
Dodger Stadium
41 Formally request

42 Hostess sponge 
cake
44 Joins the flow of 
traffic
46 “Just gimme __!”
50 Wild West Wyatt
51 Practice boxing
52 A beret covers it
53 “__ Tu”: 1974 
hit
56 Tiger Woods’ 
org.
57 Sandwich meat

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puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

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1

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6

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2

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5

8
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4

3

2

1

1

2

6
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1

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4

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1 of 1
6/3/10 9:19 AM

SUDOKU

Folk music is rooted in stories, 
a tradition that’s been passed 
down 
over 
many 
generations 
but constantly evolves as it takes 
the shape of modern society 
and culture. Folk artists pride 
themselves in maintaining this 
evolving folk tradition, writing 
music that tells the story of their 
lives and remains authentic to 
the narrative-centered roots of 
folk. The Lone Bellow follow this 
tradition in their new album Half 
Moon Light, dedicating the project 
to the small, often unnoticed 
details of the story of their lives, 
and extracting wisdom from these 
moments.
The 
fifteen-song 
album 
is 
cathartic in nature, a space for the 
trio to soothe their brokenness 
and the brokenness they see in the 
world. “Let it break you / Let it 
help you lay down what you held 
onto,” the group pleads in “Count 
on Me.” The somber undertones in 
many of the songs point to themes 
of death and loss. “I Can Still Feel 
You Dancing,” is a eulogy for lost 
relatives and the piano interludes 

throughout the album — “Intro,” 
“Interlude,” and “Outro” — are 
recordings from the funeral for lead 
singer Zach Williams’ grandfather.
Despite the album’s heaviness, 
the trio’s musical performance is 
life-giving. Anyone who’s listened 
to a Lone Bellow album or has seen 
them perform live knows that their 
harmonies are unmatched; The 
passion the trio possesses allows 

their stories to come alive. The 
band offers moments of life in songs 
like “Good Times,” urging their 
audience to embrace the lives they 
have while they’re still around. As 
they chant “Let no good time slip 
away,” the trio creates a sense of 
community that mimics a summer 
night, singing songs around a 
campfire with the people you love.

I got to witness the magic of 
The Lone Bellow at their recent 
performance at Ann Arbor Folk 
Festival when the group performed 
a short set comprised of their older 
songs as well some songs off the 
new album. After listening to the 
new project, I was surprised to 
find that the tracks on the album 
sounded nearly identical to their 
live performance. With its stripped 
back vocals and guitars, Half Moon 
Light allows the musical talents of 
the group to shine through in their 
simplicity.
Half Moon Light, in its soulful, 
folksy nature, is a celebration of 
life itself. Clearly The Lone Bellow 
have weathered highs and lows 
since their last album release, and 
the way they approached Half 
Moon Light as a space to let go 
of all the pain they’ve hung onto 
is a testament to the way music 
can heal. Like their prior albums, 
Half Moon Light preserves folk 
tradition through its story-telling 
and capacity to reach people at a 
personal level. The Lone Bellow 
embraced the opportunity to open 
up about their own lives, and now 
they’re taking us with them as they 
try to cope with and understand 
the moments in life we all struggle 
with.

Lone Bellow’s ‘Half Moon 
Light’ threads life, death

A GILLARDI PHOTO

KAITLYN FOX
Daily Arts Writer

Breaking news: school shooting. 
Too often, these words flash 
across the screens of homes 
all 
over 
America. 
Listening 
to the atrocities recounted on 
TV, it all seems too horrific to 
be true. Surreal clips of crying 
family members and mourning 
communities unveil before our 
eyes, and disbelief permeates 
every inch of our being. It’s hard 
to ignore the unwelcome feeling 
of morbid curiosity that our 
imagination sets into motion. 
What must it be like to attend a 
regular day at school, only to have 
it end in such tragedy and horror? 
What were the victims’ last 
thoughts? What was the shooter 
thinking?
Sahar Mustafah’s upcoming 
novel 
“The 
Beauty 
of 
Your 
Face” gives us a glimpse into the 
terrifying realities of a school 
shooting, and the circumstances 
that bring about this all-too-
common 
incident. 
The 
story 
follows a Palestinian-American 
woman, Afaf Rahman, as she 
navigates faith, family struggles 
and 
the 
unshakeable 
racial 
prejudices in American society 
leading up to and following 9/11. 
Afaf’s narrative is told through 
two alternating timelines. The 
bulk of the novel focuses on her 
life growing up in the suburbs 
of Chicago, while a present-day 
encounter with a school shooter 
frames the story. “The Beauty 
of Your Face” details Afaf’s 
journey from a scarring youth to 
a meaningful adulthood, in which 
she works as the principal of an 
all-girls Muslim school in Chicago: 
the Nurideen School for Girls. 
With profound insights and 
glittering 
words, 
Mustafah 
explores the realities of growing 
up in a community that rejected 
Afaf’s 
Palestinian 
immigrant 
family. Chicago in the 1970s and 
‘80s was a world where women 

were “kicked and shoved (...) at 
the supermarket” and called “rag-
head” at the gas station for wearing 
headscarves. As a young girl, Afaf 
is forced to be hyperaware of her 
Palestinian roots as she faces 
everything from microaggressions 
and ignorance to outright and 
intentional racism. She suffers 
heartbreak and hardship when 
her deeply unhappy sister, Nada, 
disappears without a trace and her 
parents succumb to the emotional 
burden of sadness that descends 
upon the family. Afaf’s difficult 
childhood makes her story all the 
more inspiring as she finds her 
way out of the spiral of misery 
that her parents surrendered to 

through perseverance and her 
discovery of Islam.
After 9/11, Afaf faces a new set 
of hardships as the underlying 
current of xenophobia in America 
crystallizes into a misguided fear 
of terrorists. This fear and hate 
is inevitably directed at Afaf and 
her family solely because they 
are Muslim. The headscarf Afaf 
donned with pride in her late 
teenage years becomes a symbol 
of terrorism in the eyes of ignorant 
American 
nationalists. 
In 
a 
heartbreaking exchange between 
Afaf and her daughter Azmia 
about recent terrorist attacks, 
Azmia asks her mother, “How 

can they do that? Aren’t they 
Muslim too?” to which Afaf has 
no good answer except “They’re 
not true muslimeen, habibti.” It 
is impossible not to share Afaf’s 
disbelief and frustration at the 
undeserved abuse she endures just 
because overseas terrorist groups 
use her cherished religion in the 
name of evil. 
The 
story 
is 
told 
mostly 
from 
Afaf’s 
perspective, 
but 
her 
narrative 
is 
periodically 
interrupted by chapters told from 
the point of view of the shooter. 
The shooter’s mind is a world of 
twisted fantasy, fueled by online 
chat rooms where anyone who 
isn’t white or born in America 
poses a threat to his existence. 
His perspective is both haunting 
and disturbing, as his initially 
cold and hateful voice gives way 
to a deep sense of loneliness. 
Though at times hard to read, 
this unconventional perspective 
highlights the depth of the divide 
between the xenophobic shooter 
and the students of Nurideen 
School for Girls. Mustafah seems 
to suggest that so much of the 
violence and hate in this country 
stems from this fundamental lack 
of understanding between people. 
“The Beauty of Your Face” 
is a complex generational novel 
that is all too relevant in today’s 
divided America. The underlying 
plea of the characters, “We are 
a religion of peace, not terror. 
We are Americans too,” echoes 
urgently through the pages of 
the novel. Afaf tries to bridge the 
gap between her and the shooter, 
urging him, “Tell me about your 
pain,” but it’s too late for him to 
see past their differences. Afaf and 
the shooter’s lives and experiences 
have led them to this point, and 
her small act of recognition can 
no longer put an end to the events 
that are unfolding. Nevertheless, 
the message rings loud and 
clear. Maybe violence could be 
avoided if people took the time to 
understand other people’s pain 
and find commonalities in their 
shared human experience.

‘The Beauty of Your Face’ 
 
timely in a nation divided

EMMA DOETTLING
For the Daily

Half Moon Light

Dan Deacon

Domino Recording 
Company

ALBUM REVIEW
ALBUM REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW

The Beauty of 
Y
our Face

Sahar Mustafah

W. W. Norton & 
Company

Apr. 7, 2020

6 — Tuesday, February 11, 2020 
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

