The New York Times Arts & Leisure section recently had an article about…Goodfellas, and in it I learned that Martin Scorsese was 47 years old when he made the movie. I’m 47, so I thought I should go about making an equivalent commitment to culture, a Goodfellas themed puzzle. One of the central plot points of the movie was the “Lufthansa Heist,” a multimillion dollar robbery of a vault at JFK Airport. Nine answers in the puzzle had a letter removed when placed in the puzzle. They were, in numerical order by clue:
- 1A: The answer was BALDNESS, the word in the puzzle was BADNESS – the L was removed
- 2D: DEBUTS/DEBTS/U
- 6D: FUNCTION/UNCTION/F
- 12A:MARTIAN/MARIAN/T
- 18D: PHEASANT/PEASANT/H
- 20D: GOAT MILK/ GOT MILK/A
- 23A: NASCENT/ASCENT/N
- 26D: HOSTEL/HOTEL/S
- 28A: TAINTED/TINTED/A
Put it all together, and it spells LUFTHANSA, which was the victim of a “heist” in this puzzle, in that all of its letters were stolen. The heist was followed by a murder spree after the mastermind of the scheme, Jimmy Burke in real life, Jimmy Conway in the movie, began to fear that he was going to be arrested and started killing off anybody that could pin him to the crime. One conspirator bought his wife a brand new pink Cadillac with his take (hence the picture); they didn’t get to enjoy driving it for very long. Another movie was made about the Lufthansa heist called The 10 Million Dollar Getaway, which is the source of the title of the puzzle.
Two further indications that the sought after movie was Goodfellas were the answer to 5D, MAFIA, and the clue for 12A, which name-checked Scorsese.
The grid:
The answers, explained:
ACROSS
1A: BALDNESS – SS (scientists gutless, or missing the interior letters) + END (put a stop to) + LAB (testing facility), with the position reversed – BAL DNE SS
4A: TEMPURA – TEMP (apprentice) + U R A (tips of udon rice asparagus)
9A: GOBAGS – GOB (Buster’s brother on Arrested Development) + AGS (attorneys general)
10A: ORIFICES – ORIF (swirling, or anagrammed FRIO, cold in Spanish) + ICE (freezing terrain) + S (a bit of sleet). This clue disobeys a traditional cryptic clue because it creates a clue for FRIO and then anagrams it. But I really liked it.
11A: ECSTATIC – EC (Mad Magazine’s Publisher; EC stood for Entertaining Comics) + STATIC (remains the same)
12A: MARTIAN – MARTIN (Scorsese) has A
13A: TOILED AT – TOILET (lavatory) with DA (District Attorney, a public official) trapped
16A: CHANEL – tops of Coco Have A Namesake Elegant Line
18A: PEKING – PE (gym) + KING (champion)
20A: DRAG SHOW – DRAGS (competes) + HOW (like)
23A: NASCENT – NAS (Illmatic rapper) + CENT (Rapper Fifty)
25A: SWITCHED – SWIT (Loretta) + CHE (Michael) + D (Chuck)
27A: ALASKANS – Alan’s ska ensemble, i.e., the letters in Alan’s ska, regrouped, or anagrammed
28A: TAINTED – interior of cerTAIN TEDious
29A: TUSCANY – TUS (incomplete tusk) + CY (cassowary exoskeleton) around AN = TUS C AN Y
30A: INKBLOT – IN + KB (old toy store) + LOT (parking area
Down
1D: BIGBEAT – BABE IT + G (initially gets) funky, or anagrammed
2D: DEBUTS – DEBUGS (removes all errors), replacing G (giga) with T (tera)
3D: ENGRAVE – EN (elysian borders) + GRAVE (shrine)
5D: MAFIA – leaders of Malfeasance Are Frequently In Anonymous
6D: FUNCTION – FUN (entertaining) + CTION (endeavor, or action, without a)
7D: ARSENAL – ARSE (British behind) + NAL (ending of regional)
8D: LOWCUT – LOUT (creep) around WC (Fields) = LO WC UT
12D: MOCHA – captured in priMO CHAblis
14D: ORE – OR (alternative) + E (energy)
15D: DIGIT – DI (regal lady) + GI (soldier) + T (new England mass transit, aka New England mass transit, aka Boston mass transit, nicknamed the T)
17D: EDO – ODE uplifted, or reversed
18D: PHEASANT – ANT HEAPS ravaged, or anagrammed
19D: KICK-ASS – KISS (Hershey treat) with C,K,A (pieces of cake) inside
20D: DESIST – DESI (rebuilt, or anagrammed side) + ST (street)
21D: GOAT MILK: GM (General Motors) incorporating OAT (grain) + ILK (type) = G OAT M ILK
22D: WEDIDIT – W (Bush) + ID (primal urges) inserted in EDIT (rewrite) = W ED ID IT. This is a reference to George W. Bush’s infamous premature celebration of the “liberation” of Iraq.
24D: NOKIA – NO + KIA (South Korean corporation)
26D: HOSTEL – Hostile (unfriendly) reportedly, or heard.