Jerry Edelstein's crossword puzzles have been appearing in the
Los Angeles Times since 2015. Many of them include theme answers that form a new phrase when prefaced with a particular word. Today's crossword, Edelstein's 20th, includes five strange answers:
Religious music? PIOUSNOTES
Well-versed about sailing ships? UPONCLIPPERS
Dispute between polite fellows? GENTARGUMENT
Problems with cellphone signals? PINGISSUES
Result of too many people fishing? PIERJAM
"Above my pay grade" is NOCANDO. Broken into four parts instead of three, that phrase reads "NO C AND O." Each of those five strange phrases makse sense when CO is added to the beginning (and the clue is ignored). However, I question if anyone who rejects a plea for assistance with a job by saying "No can do" is refusing because the task is more appropriate for a worker in a higher pay grade. I think "No can do" is just a euphemism for "I don't want to help you."
"Orly arrival" is AVION, which is not used in English. East, in Essen" is OST, which is not used in English. "Eau in Ecuador" is AGUA, which is not used in English. "Show of support" is AYE, which is not any kind of "show" but rather is a spoken word. "About" is INRE, a Latin term used in business documents and correspondence but never, as far as I know, in actual conversation. "Back to back" is ACHE, which is.....umm.....well, I'm not sure exactly
what that means.
"__ corda: played using the piano's soft pedal" is UNA. The una corda pedal -- it's Italian for "one string" -- was introduced in the late 1700s. Depressing the pedal shifted the keyboard slightly to the right so when notes were played, the hammers struck only one string instead of three, thereby making the notes softer. Modern-day pianos have strings that are so close together, there is no longer the "una corda." When the pedal is depressed and a note is played, the hammer strikes
two strings. The notes are softer but not as soft as they would be on a piano from the 18th century.
Most pianos have three pedals. Stuart & Sons makes a piano with a
fourth pedal:
https://livingpianos.com/piano-pedals/a-piano-with-four-pedals/In closing, here is something to think about: Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a person who drives a race car is not called a racist?
