PUZZLES Tuesday, December 8, 2020 “Up” ’Dos by Stella Zawistowski Universal Crossword edited by David Steinberg ACROSS 1 Muscles used while rowing, for short 5 List-shortening abbr. 8 Etsy shop contents 14 Far from calm 16 Like some traditional medicine 17 Less nice 18 Visual sharpness 19 Forest moon of “Star Wars” 20 Steal from 21 Muscles used while planking 23 Often-anticipated day of the wk. 25 Tool useful for latke-making 29 Close to one’s heart 31 Decided to discuss later 33 X-___ machine 34 Richards of “Starship Troopers” 36 Double-checked 38 Activity of high interest? 40 Kondo on Netflix 41 Muscular dog 44 Settings for a photographer 47 Tool thrown in some bars: Var. 48 Remove using a crowbar 50 Cleveland’s lake 51 Manager’s concern 53 ___ Lipa (Grammy winner for “Electricity”) 54 Not many 55 48 teaspoons 56 Crown for a princess 59 “Oh, really?” 62 Frequent flyer’s rewards 65 More simple 66 Scouring supply 67 One receiving texts at work? 68 “___ Miserables” 69 Pastrami purveyor DOWN 1 Lucy of “Elementary” 2 “Raggedy” doll 3 Ride-shares, in a way (see letters 9 to 7) 4 Go in circles? 5 One may list grades (12 to 9) 6 Earth, in Spanish 7 “Proud Mary” band, briefly 8 Ambassador’s subordinate (9 to 6) 9 Elementary school instruments 10 First island mentioned in “Kokomo” 11 “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity” agcy. 12 Bit of ink? 13 Sneaky 15 Time ___ again 21 Get to a total 22 Sometimes-fuzzy buzzer 24 Early PC maker 26 Binary test options (8 to 5) 27 Body part with a canal 28 Kind of bread 30 Bread-related verb that sounds like 28-Down’s plural 32 On the ___ (escaping) 35 Excess amounts 37 Place in cyberspace 39 Celebratory cry 41 River barrier 42 Maker of Good Grips products 43 Agree without speaking 45 3/14 dessert, for some 46 Cross-stitch, perhaps 49 Destined to fail 52 Second part of “Cats” 57 Q&A on Reddit 58 Watermelon discard 59 Vietnamese holiday 60 Food for horses 61 Egyptian snake 62 Knee part: Abbr. 63 Unagi or anago, at sushi bars 64 Hindu honorific Shredded Cheese by Robert E. L. Morris Universal Crossword edited by David Steinberg ACROSS 1 From ___ to riches 5 Piece of clothing with no sole? 9 Cut quickly 13 The “E” in HOMES 14 French city that inspired Van Gogh 15 Wrestler/actor John 16 Pie crust, initially? (unscramble letters 5 to 9) 18 Johannesburg currency 19 Private eye Spade 20 Camel cousin 21 Assessed 22 Went ballistic 24 Cook in hot oil 26 Seize 27 Person who plays a round 28 Hot dog topper 31 Communication syst. involving the hands 32 Work space, for many 35 Beaver’s construction 36 Beef or pork (... 3 to 6) 40 “I knew it!” 41 Haze in Los Angeles 43 Nickname that rhymes with Ray 44 Perfectly pitched 46 More likely to pry 48 “See ya!” 49 Fab Four 51 Southwestern plant 54 Artist Neiman 55 Composer of the “Semper Fidelis” march 57 Greek P 59 Aphrodite’s son 60 Flying mammal with sharp teeth (... 5 to 8) 62 World’s longest river 63 Once more 64 Country within Somalia? 65 Oscar ___ Renta 66 Take care of, as a bar 67 Washington bills DOWN 1 AOC and others 2 Font similar to Helvetica 3 Gadget 4 “___ who?” 5 Zagreb native 6 Grad 7 Massive amount of a vitamin 8 “Sorta” suffix 9 Prepared for repainting 10 One obsessed with order (... 2 to 5) 11 Word before “circle” or “tube” 12 Rice field 14 Off-the-cuff remark 17 Bright star in Aquila 21 NFL official 23 NBC show since ‘75 25 Jazz singer Fitzgerald 27 One may spend hours on an Xbox Series X 28 ‘90s DJ’s collection 29 Over-the-top actor 30 “There’s no stopping me!” (... 2 to 7) 33 Sow’s pronoun 34 Mary ___ cosmetics 37 Singer Brickell 38 Equestrian competition 39 Matchbox item that’s safe for kids? 42 Set sail 45 After taxes 47 Crafty 48 Bathroom bowl 49 Mixture 50 Spooky 51 Matchmaker with arrows 52 ___ legend (questionably true story) 53 Easily split rock 56 Yemen neighbor 58 Singer Redding 60 Large container 61 Angsty genre East Oregonian A13 HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY MATHIS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2020 Know Thine Frenemy If you doubt yourself, then it’s because you’re smart. Intelligence is a state of cluelessness. The clueless person looks for clues and learns along the way. The know-it-all struts through a landscape of fixed belief and misses everything. Under the Libra moon, this principle will be most auspiciously applied to friendships and rivalries. ARIES (March 21-April 19). You have an inkling about a fresh source of fun. It might not be the most conventional thing, but you’ll be surprised at how many others enjoy it, too. These endeavors light you up and connect you with a thriving community. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Peer pressure doesn’t stop just because a person is grown. Certain things will be hard to say no to because their mass appeal is so strong. The trick is in writing your own script before the world writes one for you. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). As long as you’re shooting for the moon, you may as well shoot for the sun. Either way, things change once you get out of the atmosphere and thus the gravity of a certain situation. CANCER (June 22-July 22). Water itself is no rival to your ability to go with the flow. But on a day like today, you prefer events to happen in your timing. In fact, you command them to as though an orchestra conductor setting the tempo. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Your friendships exist in a kind of ringed system around the planet that is you. The first tier is an elite group and someone has to be extremely special to jump from one stratum to the next, but it will happen today. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You can’t be sure if your work speaks for itself unless you back off and let it. Your silence will allow people to draw their own conclusions and you can go from there. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Before you’re asked to fulfill a role, give yourself the part you want. Those who are well-aware of what they are saying “yes” to will find it much easier to say “no” when they need to. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You were ambitious, so you started. You were tenacious, so you finished. You were grateful, so you thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of your effort. That worked, so rinse and repeat. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You want love and attention as much as the next person, but you wouldn’t dream of asking for it. You’d rather work for it, especially by creating delightful scenarios that people are irresistibly drawn into. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Do you get the sneaking suspicion that your talent could be better used elsewhere? Perhaps you don’t have to go far so much as up. Is there an opportunity for promotion here? AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). When you’re warming up, you have a few silly thoughts. When you’re on a powerful roll, you have hundreds of them. The big ideas will be sandwiched inside playful ones. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Though you’re professional-level at many things, you’re an amateur in other areas – a status to revel in. The pressure is off. The horizon is open. Herein lies the freedom to explore. TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Dec. 9). Oft the initiator, this solar return shows a role reversal – you will be most auspiciously chosen, beckoned by a soul-fortifying endeavor. You’ll prepare over many months for a presentation – the first in many that will net you impressive dividends and allow you to grow, teach and employ others. Work and love intertwine. Virgo and Sagittarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 8, 1, 30, 12 and 16. Universal SUDOKU SOLUTIONS HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY MATHIS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020 Mother Moon Speaks It so happens that when a luminary moves from Libra, the sign of harmonious, equitable, congenial partnerships, to Scorpio, the sign of physical alchemy and transformation, relationships can change. This is good news for anyone who feels unhappily trapped in the friend zone. Hang in there for the lunar change of tide. ARIES (March 21-April 19). If you were a comedian today, then you’d be the kind that chides the audience with, “Is that all you got?” Actually, it’s quite effective. People sometimes need to be startled and led to appropriate reactions. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). People need people. Therefore, peer pressure is a very real and powerful natural force that, unfortunately, people never really grow out of. The theme comes up, and, depending on the situation, it may just be easier to succumb. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Lessons can be read, and that’s an introduction. But for the education to really take place, a lesson must be lived. People are changed not by information but by doing. CANCER (June 22-July 22). When you look back at paths not taken, you only see how they worked out for other people. There’s no way of knowing what kind of fit they would have been for you. Therefore, the exercise is useless. Keep going forward. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). A fact that just sits there being knowledge is not intelligence. Intelligence animates. It applies. It is better to revel in the intelligence of trees than to succumb to the coma of dead dogma. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Don’t waste your time doing what someone else can (and is perfectly willing to) do for you. Once you realize where your efforts and minutes can make a difference, you won’t want to be anywhere else. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Your unpredictability comes naturally today. Did you know that some people work to conjure this? Because being hard to anticipate keeps the competition off-balance, it’s is an effective strategy for business, sports or love. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Other times, it was easy to fit your talent to what the group needed and wanted. Now, not so much, perhaps because the group doesn’t know what it needs and wants. You’ll have to poke around some to find it. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). No one falls in love with a game that they can win on the first go-around. Pursuing anything valuable means being willing to fail. The more possible it is to fail, the more exciting the pursuit. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). When someone pays excellent attention to your expressions, preferences and needs, it may actually make you uncomfortable, as you’re not used to be so well-attended. Soak it in anyway. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). For the most part, you’ll love what develops organically and be nonplussed by what is manufactured or manipulated into being. You admire the effort, but the real deal is so much more impressive. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You have a fan club of sorts. You came by it honestly, by showing up consistently where you were needed and wanted and honoring their requests. Now, you’ll take pleasure in the appreciation generously bestowed on you. TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Dec. 10). The resources you felt were inaccessible to you before will become available in 2021. Clubs and alliances will figure into the action. It will feel meaningful to be a part of something bigger. You’ll pass the tests of gatekeepers. Invigorating challenges await on the inside. Your work opens doors. Scorpio and Capricorn adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 49, 3, 31, 26 and 9. Universal SUDOKU SOLUTIONS