Clear as a Bell

It's a very rainy Friday night here in Queens. The Mets were playing but I guess that game is over.

Today's crossword is called "Closing Bell." Besides being a show on CNBC, it's a sound that hasn't been in our favor lately. With plunging stocks and the jobless outlook bleak, our economy is going to the dogs. Certain people in the House gave President Obama flack for taking vacation this coming week. Hey, he has a right to take vacation as much as anyone else. I don't think the economy will get any better or worse while he's away. It's not like he's across the country or around the world. If there's a real problem, he can just get on a jet and fly to Washington.

Bernard Madoff

And now for the theme answers:

17A: Financial Crime (MONEY LAUNDERING). Who can forget the most notorious swindler in recent history, Bernie Madoff? In March 2009, he pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies, including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and perjury. He ripped off millions of innocent people as well as several charities. Madoff simply deposited their money in his personal account instead of investing the money for them. He made several false filings with the SEC too. And this all dated back to 1991. Why didn't the SEC notice this and the plunging stock market before? Supposedly, they were busy watching porn instead of working.

25A: Marshall Islands locale (BIKINI ATOLL). Yes, ladies, the swimsuit we so hate men drooling over is named after this island. In 1946, French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim introduced the bikini to the world. Réard was a car engineer but by 1946 he was running his mother's lingerie boutique near Les Folies Bergères in Paris. Heim was working on a new kind of beach costume. It comprised two pieces, the bottom large enough to cover its wearer's navel. In May 1946, he advertised it as the world's "smallest bathing suit". Historians assume Reard termed his swimsuit the "bikini" because he believed its revealing style would create reactions among people similar to those created by America’s atomic bomb in Japan just one summer earlier. Bikini Atoll was one of the islands where the atomic bomb was being tested. (Source of text: Wikipedia). 

43A: Singer dubbed "King of Soul" (OTIS REDDING). Good old Otis (1941-1967) . . . so talented but his life ended much to soon as the result of a plane crash. Otis Redding was discovered while he was playing guitar with a local band in Macon, GA. He wrote a lot of his own music, as well as Aretha Franklin's "Respect." Countless artists have covered his most famous number, "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay." Otis would have been 70 this year; he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

55A: Factor in successful commercials (EMOTIONAL APPEAL). I can be a cynical person sometimes. However, any commercial featuring a puppy tugs at my heartstrings. There are so many good commercials (as well as bad) out there, that it was hard to narrow it down to just one. However, I love this classic Coke commercial from that stars Mean Joe Green.

Today's Cryptoquote is by Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), a writer known for his Worthies of England:

"Learn how to refuse favors. This is a great and very useful act."

Fuller was also a preacher and a noted wit, and served briefly as Royal Chaplain. I wonder if any of our modern-day politicians have read this quote.

Sorry to be cutting it short, but I'm getting tired.

Tomorrow night, I'm attending at hat/garden party. This should be interesting.

Singing off,
The Puzzlechick