WHISPER

SUBMIT A 
WHISPER

By Paul Coulter
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/25/20

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/25/20

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2020

ACROSS
1 Rene of 
“Ransom” (1996)
6 Not as expensive
10 A bit loopy
14 Part of “the 
works” on a 
burger
15 Old man, in 
German
16 Needle case
17 1950 Gloria 
Swanson film
20 Peanut butter 
choice
21 Like wax fruit
22 Note from one 
who’s shy?
24 Laser pointer 
chaser
25 1979 Jim Henson 
film
33 Get out of bed
34 Jazz instruments
35 Peruvian singer 
Sumac
36 Squirrel’s hoard
37 Credited in an 
endnote
38 Place to tie up a 
boat
39 24-hr. cash 
source
40 Equestrian
41 “That’s __!”: 
“Piece of cake!”
42 1988 Demi 
Moore film
45 News initials
46 __ bunt: 
productive MLB 
out
47 Looks at closely
52 “John Wick” star 
Keanu
57 2002 Woody 
Allen film ... or 
what each of 
the last words 
of 17-, 25- and 
42-Across can be
59 “Garfield” dog
60 Baseball family 
name
61 Dalai Lama’s 
land
62 Have a craving 
for
63 Appraise
64 Clairvoyants

DOWN
1 PBS painter Bob
2 E pluribus __

3 Chinese: Pref.
4 Fair-to-middling
5 Previous
6 Chem class
7 Fair-haired Wells 
race
8 Flabbergast
9 Chose
10 Actor Danny 
who appears 
in M&M’s 
commercials
11 Run __: drink on 
credit
12 Roll and bind, as 
a sail
13 Laundry soap 
brand
18 Commandment 
pronoun
19 Red-wrapped 
cheeses
23 Positive aspect
25 “The __ is 
out there”: 
“The X-Files” 
catchphrase
26 Blackjack request
27 Handy Scrabble 
tile
28 Eucharistic plate
29 Applies, as 
pressure
30 Competing (for)

31 “Know what __?”
32 Wyatt of the Old 
West
33 Future MD’s 
class
37 1860s North-
South conflict
38 Letter before 
omega
40 Settle, as a debt
41 Climbs
43 Rental from a 
renter
44 Tortoise racer

47 Website with 
step-by-step 
instructions
48 “Star Wars” 
sentence inverter
49 Tiger Woods’ ex
50 1970 Kinks hit
51 Chimney residue
53 Actress Falco
54 Vague feeling
55 The “E” in DOE: 
Abbr.
56 Some NCOs
58 Deserving

CLASSIFIEDS

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

FOR RENT - avail fall 2020
2BR close to central. Info at
www.tcapts.com

FOR RENT
“Ron Paul 
2020”

“This one 
is for a tall 
Northern 
European 
Barista”

“Prime SH 
knows, 
Alex. They 
see all and 
hear all.”

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

8

7

3
6

1
5

6

8

7

5

4
5

1
5

8

3
2

3
2

5

7

7

2

6
8

9
1

7

2

© sudokusolver.com. For personal use only.

Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!

Sudoku Syndication
http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/

1 of 1
3/17/09 1:03 PM

SUDOKU

6 — Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

I fell asleep while watching 
“The Call of the Wild.” 
For the first half of the movie it 
feels like nothing is happening. The 
first forty minutes are completely 
episodic, with almost no thread of 
continuity or consistency keeping 
each scene together, with the 
exception being that each story 
has the dog Buck as the central 
character.
The whole movie follows Buck 
from his role as the spoiled house 
dog to his decision to accept his 
role in nature and the wild. And 
while the audience empathizes 
with 
because 
of 
the 
awful 
circumstances of his life — like the 
abuse he often faced at the hands 
of humans — frankly, the fact that 
the dog is completely CGI’ed threw 
me off. It’s not like I was expecting 
the creators of the movie to train 
a real dog to do everything that 
the Buck of the original Jack 
London novel did, but it still felt 
wrong. To me, watching a movie 
centered around animals becomes 
unnatural when they have almost 
human expressions on their faces. 
The animals become caricatures 
of the roles they are supposed 

to have in the film when they 
become too similar to humans. 
The overwhelming use of CGI also 
begs the incredibly concerning 
question of whether or not we’ll 
even need people in the film 
business anymore, which is a little 
too ‘robots taking over the world’ 
for me. 

Harrison Ford (“Star Wars: The 
Force Awakens”), while receiving 
top billing for the film in his role as 
John Thornton, only really appears 
midway through. When John and 
Buck meet, the story really picks 
up. Their blossoming relationship 
is easily the most tender part of the 
film. They genuinely care about 
each other and protect each other 

against all adversaries. 
Throughout the film, there is a 
wild black dog figure that serves 
as a symbol for Buck’s instinct 
and desire to answer the wild’s 
call. Soon he begins to think that 
he should succumb to it. The 
love John and Buck feel for each 
other makes the ending of the 
film bittersweet, as John is pulled 
toward the human world and Buck 
toward the wild. 
However, 
their 
relationship 
is 
the 
only 
interesting 
and 
worthwhile part of the film. There 
are a few interesting action scenes, 
like when Buck leads his pack 
away from an avalanche, but those 
are few and far between. And 
since they all feel disconnected 
from one another, you lose interest 
quickly. Combined with a cringey 
voiceover from Ford throughout 
the whole movie and a weird 
hybrid of too much CGI and not 
enough reality, the film falls flat. 
I never read the book, so I don’t 
know whether or not true fans 
of the book will love or hate this 
movie. But, in my opinion, this 
wasn’t a movie that needed to 
be made. It’s a classic, a literary 
masterpiece in the eyes of many, 
but the depth of the story is 
probably best transferred through 
prose, not a nearly dialogue-less 
film.

You’re better off if you 
ignore ‘Call of the Wild’

20TH CENTURY PICTURES

SABRIYA IMAMI
Daily Arts Writer

There are many things to 
love about tap dancing. There is 
the shuffle, an even beat made 
from the balanced forward-
backward brush of the ball of 
the shoe across the floor. More 
rhythmically, the flap involves 
a syncopated brush forward 
that ends in a separate tap with 
the ball of the foot. For more 
complexity, the riff requires the 
toe and heel to dig through the 
ground in separate movements 
that create a deeper and longer 
sound. The riffle combines the 
riff and the shuffle, which can 
also be combined with a flap 
for a fuller opening sequence. 
Each of these steps makes 
up a distinct sound that must 
be perfected with a clarity 
similar to hitting keys on a 
piano. 
When 
put 
together, 
the individual notes create a 
sequence of taps and stomps 
and scuffs and drags that 
create rhythmic music with 
the feet. When done at the 
highest level, these sounds are 
crisp and energizing to watch. 
When performed by Dorrance 
Dance at the Power Center last 
weekend, they are downright 
mind-boggling. 
The 10-member company, 
headed by MacArthur “Genius” 
recipient Michelle Dorrance, 
spent the weekend in Ann 
Arbor as part of the University 
Musical 
Society’s 
2019-20 
season. On Saturday night, 
the audience took up almost 
every available seat in the 
theater, clapping and gasping 
and wooing for the entire 
70 minutes of the dancers’ 
rhythmic 
art. 
The 
group 
performed two shorter pieces 
— “Jungle Blues” and “Three to 
One” — before the titular show 

of the evening, “Myelination.” 
Though different in style, all 
three pieces highlighted the 
crisp genius of each tapper 
onstage. 
“Jungle Blues” acted as an 
homage to older jazz. Dancers 
dragged their taps along the 
tap dance specific floor and 
allowed 
the 
conveniently 
placed microphones to absorb 
the 
graceful 
sound. 
One 
member completed a blurringly 
fast section of improvisation, 
while another moved around 
the stage through exaggerated 

weight changes complemented 
by the loud noises made by his 
shoes every time he fell. The 
piece warmed the audience to 
the sounds of distinct beats and 
happy music. 
“Three to One,” darker in 
presentation, built off of this 
introduction. 
One 
dancer, 
wearing tap shoes, stood in 
between two barefoot men 
at the center of downstage. 
Together, 
they 
completed 
sequences 
of 
the 
same 
movements — three sets of 
feet, two of them silent and one 
of them loud. The dichotomy 
was fascinating, and a bridge 
section of jumps with eerie 

contemporary dance added to 
the piece’s dark beauty. 
“Myelination” 
was 
more 
than twice as long as the first 
two, with a myriad of mood-
shifting vignettes to showcase 
individual 
dancers’ 
talents. 
The 
choreography 
blended 
impressive shades of hip-hop 
alongside the tapping. The 
range between the two styles 
created a breadth that visibly 
excited the dancers; all ten 
beamed with joy. Unlike the 
prior 
pieces, 
“Myelination” 
also incorporated a live band 
onstage. The music melded 
seamlessly with the energetic 
percussion of the tapping. At 
times, a dancer would join the 
band playing instruments — 
one was handed an electric 
guitar, another surreptitiously 
took over the drums — blurring 
the 
lines 
between 
music 
and movement. In essence, 
Dorrance Dance asked: Why 
separate the two at all?
One 
of 
the 
greatest 
advantages 
of 
tap 
dancing 
over other dance styles is its 
potential for noise. Often the 
only noise considered in tap 
is loud metal percussion, an 
unapologetic clanging that is 
most impressive when it is clear, 
precise and rapid. Dorrance 
Dance included plenty of this 
skillful, crowd-pleasing noise. 
But they also explored the less 
obvious musicality in tap — the 
soft swish of a body crawling 
across the floor, thump of 
knees on the ground, the way 
a melodious voice can make 
every staccato ding feel ten 
times more intense.
At the end of “Myelination,” 
we joined the entire crowd as 
they stood up and cheered. It 
was a dance performance that 
felt like a rock concert. And at 
the end of the night, it made 
both of us want to dig up our 
old tap shoes and surrender to 
the joy of noisy energy once 
again.

Dorrance Dance tapped, 
stomped at Power Center

EMILY CONSIDINE &
ZOE PHILLIPS
For The Daily & 
Senior Arts Editor

The Call of the 
Wild

Ann Arbor 20

20th Century Pictures

FILM REVIEW
FILM REVIEW
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

At the end of 
“Myelination,” 
we joined the 
entire crowd as 
they stood up and 
cheered.

