Vice versa is a Latin phrase meaning "with the order changed; with the relations reversed; conversely." "Vice Versa" is also the title of today's Los Angeles Times crossword by Mike Peluso. Each theme answer is a familiar phrase which has been altered by replacing a long "I" sound with an "ER" sound -- "vIce vERsa." Although.....shouldn't it be "verce vīsa"? My head is spinning. Let's move on:
"Stockpiles" becomes STOCKPEARLS ("Gems kept in inventory?").
"Flight training" becomes FLIRTTRAINING ("Coquette education?").
"Nothing to hide" becomes NOTHINGTOHERD ("Reason for cowboy unemployment?").
"Knife wielding" becomes NERFWIELDING ("Like one brandishing a Super Soaker?").
"Silver lining" becomes SILVERLEARNING ("White stallion at school?", a reference to the Lone Ranger's horse).
"The best of times," part of the opening line of Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale Of Two Cities, becomes THEBESTOFTERMS ("Optimal payment arrangements?").
"Arabian Nights" becomes ARABIANNERTS ("Mideast cry of despair?"), The Dictionary Of American Slang explains that "nuts" began to be used as a synonym for "crazy; very eccentric" circa 1914. Circa 1932 the word began to be used as "An exclamation of disbelief, defiance, contempt, dismay, etc." By 1935, the variant "Nerts!" was also common.
Answers containing "the" are usually frowned upon by crossword editors but today's puzzle includes three. In addition to THEBESTOFTERMS, there is THENBA ("It has finals in June") and THEBLOB ("'Terror has no shape' sci-fi creature"). The Blob, the titular character of a 1958 film starring Steve McQueen, was an enormous jellylike blob which rode to earth on a meteorite and started engulfing and dissolving everyone it touched. The film also starred Aneta Corsaut, who would play school teacher Helen Crump on five seasons of The Andy Griffith Show.
"'Mr. Mojo ____": Repeated words in the Doors' L.A. Woman" is RISIN. The song was the title track of an album released in April 1971. Lead singer Jim Morrison would die of a heroin overdose die three months later, although there was no autopsy and his cause of death was officially given as "heart failure." In the song, he repeated the line "Mr. Mojo risin'," which is an anagram of "Jim Morrison."
"Digit in diez" is UNO, which is not used in English. "Madre's hermana" is TIA, which is not used in English. "Sapling" is TREELET. Yes, "treelet" is a word but not a very common one. "One-celled critter" is AMEBA, but almost everyone on earth spells it "amoeba." "Forum garments" is TOGAE, but almost everyone on earth would say "togas." Crossword creators are allowed to bend the rules of language and spelling -- but they shouldn't be.
"Jump shot shape" is ARC -- but an arc is a path, not a shape. "Eight-time Coty Award winner" is BEENE. Geoffrey Beene (1927-2004) -- his real name was Samuel Bozeman Jr. -- was a New York fashion designer. The Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards were presented annually from 1943 to 1984 by the Coty Company, a perfume and cosmetics manufacturer founded in 1904 in Paris and now based in New York.
I can't think of any clever way to conclude this post. Nerts!
