Latest news with #Smartypants
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Rear Ends
There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! Rear Ends Constructors: Neville Fogarty & Erik Agard Editor: Amanda Rafkin Erik: Thank you to Neville for inviting me to collab on this very smart, very fun idea, and to Amanda for her keen editing eye as always! Neville: I thought of Erik immediately when I had this idea to include REKHA SHANKAR in a puzzle, and I'm grateful for his contributions throughout the construction process. I echo his thanks to Amanda for her willingness to green-light a puzzle whose title apparently refers to butts. ERIN (17A: "The Office" receptionist who didn't understand planking) The mockumentary TV series, The Office, ran for nine seasons that originally aired from 2005 to 2013. Planking – lying facedown, often in an unusual location – is featured in the first episode of season 8. In the episode's opening, ERIN is seen planking on a parking divider. Later, ERIN (who has dirt from the divider down her middle) says, "Planking is one of those things where you either get it or you don't. And I don't ... but I am so excited to be a part of it!" Once again, my lack of TV watching meant I didn't know this answer right away. However, it was easy to figure out the answer with the help from crossing answers. REKHA SHANKAR (49A: "DesiQuest" star who hosts "Smartypants") DesiQuest is "an epic, culturally authentic Dungeons & Dragons actual-play show with an all Desi cast" that includes REKHA SHANKAR as Laddoo Auntie, "a great home cook and a strict auntie." I had not heard of DesiQuest, but I am intrigued by the website. I also hadn't heard of the TV show, Smartypants, but I definitely got distracted watching clips of the show (and laughing!). As the clue informs us, REKHA SHANKAR hosts Smartypants, which is a production of the comedy subscription streaming service Dropout. On the show, comedians (members of the Smartypants Society) take turns giving PowerPoint presentations on a number of unusual subjects. The show, which premiered in 2024, has been renewed for a second season that is scheduled to air this year. I also enjoyed exploring REKHA SHANKAR's website, which has a page on puns and a page with a "voicemail from my mom." GREEDY (4D: Jen Winston book subtitled "Notes From a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much") According to her Instagram bio, Jen Winston is a "bisexual author with perfect opinions." Her 2021 collection of essays is titled GREEDY: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much. She also writes a Substack called "The Bi Monthly." GREASE (25D: "Bear ___" (Indigenous adaptation of a 1978 musical)) Bear GREASE is, as the clue tells us, an indigenous adaptation of the 1978 musical GREASE. The show is about a theatre company attempting to take their indigenous rendition of GREASE to Broadway. Bear GREASE was written and created by LightningCloud, the collaborative duo of Crystle Lightning and Henry Cloud Andrade. SPARE (15A: Memoir whose second part takes its title from the poem "Invictus") SPARE is the 2023 memoir by Prince Harry. The book's title refers to the adage, "an heir and a SPARE," that has been used to describe what is necessary to make sure royal inheritance stays in a family. The second part of the book is titled "Bloody, But Unbowed," which is from William Ernest Henley's 1875 poem, "Invictus." HIJAB (18A: Headwear for Rep. Ilhan Omar) Ilhan OMAR is the U.S. representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district. Ilhan OMAR was born in Somalia, and immigrated to the United States with her family when Somalia was in the midst of a civil war. Along with Rashida Tlaib, she is one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress. Ilhan OMAR was the first woman to wear a HIJAB on the House floor. I appreciate HIJAB being clued in reference to a HIJAB-wearer. REFRIGERATOR CAR (35A: Cool part of a train) This clue had me going for a bit, trying to decide what the coolest part of a train is. The caboose is pretty cool, though they're not used too often nowadays. I chuckled when I finally figured out the answer. CRAMP (40A: Charley horse, for one) This clue brought up a long-forgotten memory of a small plastic horse figurine I bought with my own money when I was a kid. I named that horse Charlie. Back to the actual clue... A charley horse is a painful CRAMP that typically occurs in the calf muscle. I read that although a charley horse is usually brief, they can last longer than that, even a couple of days. That makes me hurt just to think about it, as these CRAMPs are so painful. WII (42A: Original "Just Dance" console) Just Dance is a series of motion-based video games in which players are scored based on how closely they follow dance choreography. The first Just Dance game, for the WII, was released in 2009 and featured songs by the Spice Girls, the Beach Boys, and MC Hammer, as well as a number of other artists. ORCA (58A: Whale with large, white spots behind its eyes) The large, white oval-shaped spots located just above and behind their eyes are part of the characteristic markings of ORCAs. SEAS (Black, North, etc.) The Black SEA is located between Europe and Asia, and is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The North SEA is located in Europe, between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. TART (64A: Bakewell ___ (confection with frangipane)) Who else knows about the Bakewell TART from the Great British Bake Off (known as the Great British Baking Show in the U.S. due to trademark restrictions)? The English dessert consists of a shortcrust pastry with layers of jam and frangipane, and is usually topped with sliced almonds. TDS (65A: Niners' 6-pointers) The Niners here are the NFL team the San Francisco 49ers, who score touchdowns (TDS) worth 6 points. OSCAR (48D: "Sesame Street" grouch) It was just four days ago that we saw OSCAR the Grouch as a theme answer. AREA (51D: The "A" in LAN) LAN here stands for "local area network," and refers to an interconnected network of computers. REFINED SUGAR (19A: Type of sweetener found in processed foods) REFRIGERATOR CAR (35A: Cool part of a train) REKHA SHANKAR (49A: "DesiQuest" star who hosts "Smartypants") REAR ENDS: The word REAR is split and found at the ENDS of the theme answers: REFINED SUGAR, REFRIGERATOR CAR, and REKHA SHANKAR. This is a fun and straightforward theme. I appreciate that the word REAR is split in the same way in each theme answer. As you can probably tell from my comments above, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about REKHA SHANKAR and her comedy. I am always happy to see a collaboration of these two constructors. Thank you, Neville and Erik, for this excellent puzzle. USA TODAY's Daily Crossword Puzzles Sudoku & Crossword Puzzle Answers This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Crossword Blog & Answers for March 13, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher
Axios
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Rekha Shankar's upcoming indie flick wants to make you laugh and cry
Rekha Shankar believes there's humor in everything, so she's shooting an indie flick about a "dumb Hindu" trying to reunite with her raptured family — a buddy comedy about grief. Why it matters: You've seen Shankar on "Hacks." Or heard of her "Smartypants" streamer, the belly buster where comedians present PowerPoints on farcical topics like how vegetables aren't real. The big picture:"Vidhya's Guide to the Afterlife" is the first feature-length film for Shankar, the Philadelphia-raised comedian whom New York mag called one of the country's biggest up-and-coming comics to watch. She's crowd-sourcing it, and so far has raised more than $114,000 from about 1,400 supporters through Kickstarter — more than doubling her initial goal. The extra kitty will allow Shankar, director Sandeep Parikh and the crew to shoot scenes beyond her Los Angeles apartment. If they raise enough, she aspires to set and shoot parts of the movie in Philly. The intrigue: Her hometown's already showing up. Queen and Rook in Society Hill named a new samosa chaat vegan pizza after Shankar, plus had an employee fly to LA to hand-deliver a pie to her before a fundraising kickoff event. Zoom in: Shankar, who will star in the film, says she began working on the "Vidhya" script after the death of her grandfather, a "brilliant" guy who'd watch "Jeopardy!" with her and help with her chemistry homework. In the film, Vidhya is "such a bad Hindu" that she's left virtually alone to grapple with the loss of her family following an absurd Hindu rapture — a Christian concept that doesn't exist in Hinduism, Shankar says. She teams up with a huckster-y local priest to try to bring everyone back through a 13-day Hindu death ceremony. What they're saying: Shankar tells Axios she struggled to wrap her "Americanized brain" around the Hindu rituals at her own grandfather's ceremony. A Hindu priest told her that if she cried, she would tie her "grandfather's soul to the mortal realm" — the solemn ceremony is supposed to ensure the departed's peaceful transition. "It's so difficult when your family of origin does all these things one way, but then your Western therapist is like, 'No, no, it's totally OK to cry,'" she says. The film also pays homage to her grandfather's playfulness. He was a "prankster" who once blew a French horn to wake up Shankar's cousin at 6am. If he were alive, Shankar says, her grandfather might not appreciate the movie's humor — but he'd still support it. "What's great about him is he would have hit replay on it every single time it ended to be like, 'I'll just get you a bunch of views,'" Shankar says. What we're watching: Whether the indie flick, which could drop as soon as 2027, gets picked up by a big platform like Netflix. Parikh, the director, joked in the fundraiser announcement that the filmmakers must recruit "Monkey Man" director Dev Patel to make the movie a box-office smash.
