The theme of today's crossword by Samuel A. Donaldson -- who is not to be confused with former ABC News anchor Sam Donaldson -- is TEAFORTWO ("
No No Nanette song"). In each of four familiar phrases, a "tee" sound is substituted for a "too" sound:
Model high schoolers? FINETEENS
Ornamental ducks? GARDENTEALS
What Fey does in a mushy moment? TINAMELTS
Park statue that might have the real things perched on it? STEELPIGEON
Tea For Two, written by Irving Caesar and Vincent Youmans, was sung as a duet by the characters Tom and Nanette in the musical comedy
No No Nanette, which played in Chicago for one year before opening on Broadway in 1925. It's one of those familiar "boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl" stories. Tom wants to marry Nanette but their relationship ends when she runs off to have fun in Atlantic City. Eventually they reunite and break into song as they fantasize about their future together.
No No Nanette was made into a movie in 1930 and again in 1940 and a Broadway revival opened in 1971.
In February 1925,
Tea For Two became a number-one hit for Marion Harris, an Indiana-born singer who also appeared in several stage musicals. There have also been hit recordings of the song by Ben Bernie, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Tommy Dorsey, the Ipana Troubadors, the Benson Orchestra of Chicago, and April Stevens & Nino Tempo
Samuel A. Donaldson earned law degrees at Oregon State, University of Arizona and University of Florida. For 13 years, he taught law at University of Washington and since 2012 has taught at Georgia State. His specialties are tax law, commercial law, property rights and estate planning. Somehow he still finds time to create crosswords. His puzzles have been appearing in the
New York Times,
Los Angeles Times,
Washington Post and
Wall Street Journal since 2008.
"Forward" is UNSHY, "Second chances" is REDOS and "Orator's prowess: Abbr." is RHET -- three awkward answers. "Provençal possessive" is SES, "
Der Spiegel article" is EINE, "
Der Spiegel rejection is NEIN, "Where el sol rises" is ESTE and "What Spanish Olympians go for" is ORO, none of which is used in English. "Two-iron, before golf club numbering" is CLEEK. The word is Scottish and originally referred to a large hook used to hold food, pots or clothing. It comes from the Middle English
cleken ("to grasp"). The About Sports website has a detailed description of the golf clubs known as "cleeks":
http://golf.about.com/cs/golfterms/g/bldef_cleek.htmThat takes care of the cleek. Now what the heck is a mashie, a niblick and a jigger?
