2/23/25 - In the Rearview 🚙

🏁 Solve –> In the Rearview by Daniel Grinberg and Rafael Musa

14A | Formation of rugby players

SCRUM

The word "scrum" is short for "scrummage," a variation of "scrimmage," which itself came into use as an alternate form of "skirmish" (a battle or tussle).

In the sport of rugby, a scrum is employed to restart play after a stoppage has occurred (e.g. in the case of a rule violation or the ball going out of bounds).

To form a scrum, eight players from each team pack in close together with their heads and shoulders bowed down and arms resting on each other's backs, which are parallel to the ground. Once everyone's in position, the ball is fed into the opening in the middle and both teams try to gain possession by using only their feet to transfer the ball to the outside of the scrum, at which point it can be picked up and play is able to continue.

⚠️ FYI: Being a set play, a "scrum" is distinct from a "ruck" or a "maul," which are quasi-scrums that happen organically in the normal course of game play while players are grappling for control of the ball. In fact, the referee might call for a scrum if they deem that a ruck or maul has become deadlocked.

50A | ___ of Cleves, wife of Henry VIII

ANNE

Anne of Cleves (1515-1557) was married to English King Henry VIII from January to July 1540, making her the fourth and shortest tenured of his six wives.

The union, which was brokered as a strategic political alliance – for Cleves, despite being in the territory of the Catholic Holy Roman Empire, was beginning to shift toward Protestantism just as England had – was doomed from the moment Henry first laid eyes on Anne in person. Upon her arrival, the King bemoaned that his betrothed was not as attractive as depicted in the portrait he'd had commissioned of her before giving his consent to the nuptials.

And so, after only six months, the marriage was declared unconsummated and annulled. (Really, though, it could have been worse for Anne, who was allowed to live out the rest of her life as the “King’s Beloved Sister." In contrast, wives #2 and #5 were beheaded.)

⚠️ FYI: Hans Holbein the Younger's erroneous(?) depiction of Anne of Cleves hangs in the Louvre. The nearly 500-year-old painting was recently treated to a complete restorative process and returned to the museum's walls in 2024.

63A | Author of the 1964 artist's book "Grapefruit"

ONO

Yoko Ono's Grapefruit was originally issued as a limited run of 500 copies by a Tokyo-based press in 1964. A follow-up – Acorn – was published in 2013.

As its subtitle explains, the work is "a book of instruction" for artists – containing a variety of prompts for performance pieces, paintings, music, film, etc., many of which are rather impractical.

A PIECE FOR ORCHESTRA

Count all the stars of that night
by heart.
The piece ends when all the orchestra
members finish counting the stars, or
when it dawns.
This can be done with windows instead
of stars.

1962 summer

66A | Home of the Sugarloaf Cable Car, informally

RIO

Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Cable Cars perform a two-stage ascent: first rising 220 meters from Praia Vermelha (Red Beach) to the top of Morro da Urca (Urca Hill), then continuing another 530 meters to the summit of Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain).

Upon making its first trip in 1912, the engineering marvel become only the third such cable car system operating in the world. The original cable cars (known locally as bondinhos) were made entirely of wood and accommodated 22 people.

Today's metal-and-glass-walled versions hold up to 65 travelers and run seven days a week, with a ride to Sugarloaf Mountain's peak taking approximately six minutes at variable speeds of 20-30 km/hr.

24D | Scarlett Johansson, Rami Malek or Vin Diesel (did you know?)

TWIN

News to me!

Scarlett Johansson's fraternal twin brother Hunter works in politics.

Rami Malek's identical twin brother Sami is a high school English teacher.

Vin Diesel's fraternal twin brother Paul is a sound editor.

45D | Catherine ___, wife of Henry VIII

PARR

Catherine Parr (1512-1548) – named after her godmother Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife – was already a widow twice-over when, at the age of 31, she became the King's sixth (and final) bride in 1543.

Four years later, Parr found herself widowed once again upon Henry's death from a variety of ailments. Parr rebounded quickly, marrying her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour (the younger brother of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife), six months later.

Parr died the following year, at the age of 36, several days after giving birth to her only child – a daughter who is thought to have passed away before the age of two.

👉 BONUS BIT: Beginning with Prayers or Meditations (1545) and followed by The Lamentation of a Sinner (1547), a controversial book detailing her conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism, Parr is the first woman to publish a written work in English under her own name. (An earlier text – Psalms or Prayers – was issued anonymously in 1544.)

55D | Many long-running TV shows

SOAPS

First developed for radio before making the jump to television, soap operas are melodramatic serials that feature big casts and even bigger plot twists – "Gasp! It was his evil twin brother!" (Watch out Vin!).

The genre owes its name to the initial prevalence of ads from soap makers, who sought to appeal to housewives tuning in during the day.

The British drama Coronation Street holds the title for longest-running TV soap opera at 64 years and counting. (However, factoring in both mediums, Guiding Light aired for a whopping 72 years across radio and tv before wrapping in 2009.)

64D | "Monster ___" (1962 #1 song)

MASH

Sung in an imitation of horror movie legend Boris Karloff, "Monster Mash" is a novelty song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers that ascended to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks in October (duh) of 1962.

The song relates the tale of how a dance performed by a mad scientist's monster becomes a "graveyard smash" among the likes of zombies, Wolf-Man, Dracula, and other ghoulish creatures.

The "mash" is a reference to the "mashed potato" – a dance move popularized by funk pioneer James Brown that the "Monster Mash" co-opted and augmented to include monster-esque arm movements.

101D | "Lohengrin" soprano

ELSA

Sorry Disney fans – this isn't that Elsa.

Lohengrin is an opera by German composer Richard Wagner, who wrote both the music and the text (libretto). It was first performed in 1850 with Franz Liszt serving as conductor on account of Wagner having been exiled for his role in a failed uprising.

The narrative is inspired by an Arthurian legend in which Lohengrin, a Knight of the Holy Grail, rescues a maiden (Elsa) from certain death under the stipulation that she never ask him his name. Eventually, however, Elsa poses the forbidden question and Lohengrin departs the same way he arrived – on a swan-powered boat.

👉 BONUS BIT: Act III's "Bridal Chorus" (more commonly known as "Here Comes the Bride") can often be heard as the entrance music of choice for wives-to-be in Western weddings.