12/22/24 - Go With the Flow 🚰

Solve --> Go With the Flow by Adrian Johnson

1A | Reality show about the perils of crabbing in the Bering Sea

DEADLIEST CATCH

Deadliest Catch is a Discovery Channel documentary/reality show that has aired every year since 2005. During its run, the production has racked up 16 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards and made stars out of many of the featured fishermen.

In 2009, deckhand Joshua Tel Warner became the recipient of a different type of notoriety when viewers identified him from security camera footage as the perpetrator behind a string of unsolved bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest. (Apparently Alaskan king crabs aren't the only thing caught on the show!)

👉 BONUS BIT: The fishing vessel Warner worked aboard, the Wizard, was built in 1945 for use as a fuel oil barge by the U.S. Navy.

21A | "___ No Sunshine" (1971 Bill Withers hit)

AINT

At the time he penned "Ain't No Sunshine," Bill Withers was an aspiring singer-songwriter working at a factory installing toilets in commercial airplanes. (Supposedly in the same building Withers is leaning against, holding his lunch pail, on the album cover above.)

The track, which appeared on Withers's 1971 debut LP, Just As I Am, won the 1972 Grammy for "Best Rhythm & Blues Song" and has been certified Platinum four times over in the United States.

91A | Only African nation where Spanish is an official language

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

The most common foreign languages to be designated an "official" language of an African country are:

• English (23 countries)
• French (21)
• Arabic (13)
• Portuguese (6)

(Note: some countries have multiple official languages.)

Swahili (4 countries) is the most common official indigenous language.

94A | Author Silverstein

SHEL

In addition to his classics of children's literature (The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalks Ends, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up), Shel Silverstein was also a prolific songwriter. He won the 1970 Grammy for "A Boy Named Sue" (famously performed by Johnny Cash at San Quentin State Prison) and is an inductee of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

10D | Whale constellation

CETUS

The Ancient Greek word ketos (cetus in Latin) referred to any large sea monster, such as the one sent by Poseidon to destroy Aethiopia (the modern day Horn of Africa) as punishment for Queen Cassiopeia's prideful boasting. [Long story short: Perseus saves the day, using the decapitated head of Medusa to turn the creature into stone.]

Located in the southern sky, Cetus is the fourth largest constellation by size (following Hydra, Ursa Major and Virgo) and is formed by joining 14 main stars. It was one of 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy in his comprehensive overview of Greek astronomical knowledge, The Almagest.

14D | Annual science fiction awards

HUGOS

The namesake of the Hugo Award is Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967), a Luxembourg-born inventor, publisher, and editor whose impressive resume includes having published more than 50 magazines and received over 80 patents in his lifetime.

In 1926, Gernsback founded Amazing Stories – the first magazine dedicated solely to the genre later formally known as science fiction (what Gernsback himself termed "scientifiction"). Although Amazing Stories has remained in print on-and-off since its inception, the Hugo Awards are the purview of the World Science Fiction Society, whose members annually bestow a rocket-shaped trophy upon the winners in each of 18 categories, including "Best Novel," "Best Fanzine," and, the most recent addition, "Best Game or Interactive Work."

⚠️ FYI: The Hugos, a fan-voted honor, are a counterpoint to the Nebula Awards, which are voted on by the authors comprising the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.

16D | Second-smallest U.S. state capital by population, after Montpelier

PIERRE

Populations of U.S. state capitals according to 2020 census data:

[50] Montpelier, Vermont: 8,074

[49] Pierre, South Dakota: 14,091

...

[2] Austin, Texas: 961,855

[1] Phoenix, Arizona: 1,608,139

39D | "60 Minutes" journalist Lesley

STAHL

Groundbreaking journalist Lesley Stahl (1941-present) began working as a producer at CBS News in 1971 before moving up the ranks at the network, eventually serving as a moderator on the weekly news program Face the Nation, as well as its first female White House correspondent, before joining the acclaimed news magazine 60 Minutes, where she's been since 1991.

Across a 40+ year career, Stahl has been the recipient of 13 Emmys (and counting), the first coming in 1983 for a CBS News report on a bombing in Beirut, her latest, in 2017, for "The Hostage," a 60 Minutes investigative report in which she interviewed the widow of an American aid worker who was taken hostage in Pakistan, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003,

50D | Most populous city in the European Union

BERLIN

Looking strictly at population within its defined city limits, Berlin tops the EU with roughly 3.5 million inhabitants. (Madrid is second with around 3.2 million.)

However, if the entire urban area were to be taken into account, Berlin would descend all the way to 5th (behind Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Rome).

58D | Party game in which participants try to identify a secret assassin

MAFIA

In 1986, a psychology student at Moscow State University named Dimma Davidoff devised "Mafia" as a classroom exercise for a group of high school students he was tutoring. At the start of play, a few participants are designated as mafiosos who, once the game begins, attempt to "kill" all of the civilians (other players) before being fingered as the perpetrators.

The reality game show franchise The Traitors (created in the Netherlands in 2021 and hosted in its American incarnation by Alan Cummings) is modeled after the rules of "Mafia."

75D | Alloy containing tin

PEWTER

By definition, pewter is a metal alloy containing at least 51% tin, though in practice the percentage of tin is typically much higher (90-95%), with the rest of the mixture consisting of antimony or copper, and bismuth. (Throughout much of history, lead was a common component of pewter until finally being fazed out due to its nasty side effect of being poisonous to humans.)

Historians hypothesize that pewter first appeared during the Bronze Age (3300 BCE - 1200 BCE) because its composition (mostly tin with a little bit of copper) is essentially the inverse of bronze (mostly copper with a little bit of tin).

A more affordable alternative to silver, pewter was the primary material used in tableware across Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance before being supplanted by porcelain in the 1700s.

👉 BONUS BIT: At the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, fourth-place finishers are awarded pewter medals.

79D | Jazz standard with the lyric "I'm so tired of paying my dues"

MOANIN

As originally recorded by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1958, "Moanin'" was an instrumental track performed with trumpet, tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums. Words first appeared on a shortened version of the song featured on vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross's 1959 album The Hottest New Group in Jazz. (Contrary to its title, this was the act's fourth release.)

⚠️ FYI: In contrast to "scatting," a style of jazz singing in which a vocalist improvises sounds and nonsense syllables during a performance, "vocalese" emerged in the late 1940s and involves writing lyrics evoked by and tailored to match a pre-existing piece of music.