CHRISTINE BRENNAN, INSIDE EDGE — [N]o other sport heralds its... moment of ultimate importance as figure skating does. ... Its enticement is the lure of imminent disaster,... the only activity that makes room for both Rodgers and Hammerstein and Alfred Hitchcock.
I realized that no other sport heralds its precise moment of ultimate importance as figure skating does. No other sport can be sure exactly when that moment occurs. But in figure skating, the program is planned; reporters and TV announcers have the script. The music builds. This is it! In baseball, when the seventh game of the World Series is in the ninth inning, a single pitch might turn into the winning RBI — or it might be fouled off behind the plate. Figure skating does not allow for the next pitch.
Figure skating for me became not so much a sport of elaborate costumes and delightful music as it did a fascinating mixture of tantalizing qualities: impending doom, living on the edge, and the chance to witness a career made or destroyed in a split second. Its enticement is the lure of imminent disaster, the subject of every skater's nightmare — falling. It's lovely and horrifying at the same time; the only activity that makes room for both Rodgers and Hammerstein and Alfred Hitchcock.
| A. | What proton streams should never do, per "Ghostbusters" | CROSS |
| B. | Style promoted by Afrika Bambaataa (hyph.) | HIPHOP |
| C. | Trial run (2 wds.) | ROADTEST |
| D. | Aim of a phishing attack, in brief (2 wds.) | IDTHEFT |
| E. | Ran out of clothes? | STREAKED |
| F. | Mr. and Mrs., for example | TITLES |
| G. | Resolve, clear up (2 wds.) | IRONOUT |
| H. | Manage to get through, as difficulties ... or a turn | NEGOTIATE |
| I. | Glowing praise | ENCOMIUM |
| J. | Relative of "Whew!" | BROTHER |
| K. | One of six nobles in a chart? | RADON |
| L. | What scents do from blossoms | EMANATE |
| M. | Change that echoes Answer N. | NICKELS |
| N. | Director of "The Graduate" and "Spamalot" | NICHOLS |
| O. | Nicked, as a Brit would say | ARRESTED |
| P. | Anything but, wryly (3 wds.) | NOTSOMUCH |
| Q. | Rolling on the floor laughing (2 wds.) | INSTITCHES |
| R. | Garden-variety, routine | NORMAL |
| S. | "Just stay here and don't do anything yet" (2 wds.) | SITTIGHT |
| T. | Up in the air; touch and go | IFFY |
| U. | Female side of a family | DISTAFF |
| V. | Appealing to feeling | EMOTIVE |
| W. | Biofuel option | ETHANOL |
| X. | Homeland of tennis's Caroline Wozniacki | DENMARK |
| Y. | Lessons what the writer of this clue should of took? | GRAMMAR |
| Z. | Award won by Dick Button as an on-air analyst | EMMY |