Crossword Puzzle

ACROSS 1. Part of GUI 5. Hidden hoard 10. Promontories 15. Instance 19. Picket 20. “— moi le deluge” 21. Mature 22. Wading bird 23. Appointment-makers 25. Storms 27. Start of a quip by Drew Barrymore: 6 wds. 29. Airfoils 30. Eighty- — (Oklahoma homesteader) 31. Turf 32. Fuzzy surface 35. Feasted 36. Marks, in a way 37. Common carrier, for short 41. Part 2 of quip: 3 wds. 43. Righteousness 44. Part 3 of quip: 2 wds. 47. Chili con — 48. Lofty peaks 49. Wherewithal 50. — -nav 51. Commedia dell’— 52. Oklahoma city 53. Refugee 55. Punta del — 56. Opus — 57. Ring champ Patterson 59. French composer 60. Yarn coil 61. Trendy 63. Part 4 of quip: 2 wds. 65. Kind of hall 66. Tapering tower 68. Cotillion 69. Ale 71. Moccasin 74. Make clean or dry 75. Shiny fabric 76. Onetime fed. agency 77. Bean type 78. Literary collection 79. Keys 80. Designer Chanel 82. Aid to navigation 83. Part 5 of quip: 3 wds. 85. Escapes 87. Part 6 of quip: 2 wds. 88. Smidgen 89. Ardent fellow 90. Also 91. Part of NATO: Abbr. 92. Clean air org. 94. Medicinal plant 95. Wrongs 97. End of the quip: 5 wds. 101. Exposes to gamma rays 103. Solemnity 106. Deaden 107. Springe 108. One of the Muses 109. Stand wide open 110. Duck genus 111. Heron 112. Orchid-root meal 113. — vital DOWN 1. DHL alternative 2. Plant pouch 3. For grades 1 to 12: Hyph. 4. Coral formations 5.Orderofnewtsandsalamanders 6. Igneous rock 7. Native Canadians 8. Dill, e.g. 9. Perfumes 10. Collection of church laws 11. Loves 12. More refined 13. Rudimentary: Abbr. 14. Collar inserts 15. Stronghold 16. Aid and — 17. Knight’s title 18. Curve shape 24. Expand 26. “Star Trek” engineer 28. Decree 32. Storage battery 33. Cognizant 34. Join in 36. Bit to drink 38. Raccoonlikecreature:2 wds. 39. — -mundi 40. Regularly 42. Dir. letters 43. Youthful companions 44. Strategy 45. About: 2 wds. 46. Summer shirt 48. Pother 49. Insects 52. Totality 53. Industrial city in Germany 54. — -jongg 55. Get (with “out”) 57. Rival 58. Units of force 60. Hardened 62. Mine’s yield 64. Expert 65. Coach 66. Cashless transactions 67. Glamour girl pic 68. Kooky artist 70. Yoko — Lennon 72. Command at sea 73. Song 75. Be quiet! 77. Egg — yong 79. Rubber stamp accessory 80. Washes 81. Ear: Prefix 82. Comfort 84. Polar phenomena 85. Thoroughwort 86. Hotel chain 87. Ship’s platform near the bow 89. Worship 90. Before now: 2 wds. 93. Cordial flavoring 94. Shankar’s instrument 95. — wave 96. Burn 97. Shirley MacLaine role 98. Tongue: Abbr. 99. Antitoxins 100. Repast 101. Crete’s Mount — 102. Tried for office 104. Hydro 105. Certain co-ed: Abbr.

Check the Ladue News classifieds for the solution

NOMINATE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHER (a teacher appreciation contest)

P R E S E N T E D B YY BE DTE NSR EP

S U P P O R T E D B Y

Teachers make lasting impressions on their students daily. These dedicated professionals go above and beyond what is required to make sure their students receive the best education possible. Show your appreciation for the tireless leadership and guidance teachers provide in and out of their classrooms every day!

Winning submissions will receive $250 and be featured monthly in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and on STLtoday.com.

By Amanda Dahl business UPDATE

COCHLEAR 866-432-7785, cochlear.us/stl

Hearing loss has you missing so much in your everyday life. You can still catch meaningful moments and communicate with ease with Cochlear implants. Discover a life beyond hearing aids when you reach out to a hearing implant specialist near you. Contact Cochlear at 866-432-7785 or by visiting cochlear.us/stl.

EFRAT COHEN GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CONSULTANTS, INC. 130 S. Bemiston Ave., 314-391-2300, info@gicagency.com, globalintelconsultants.com

Efrat Cohen specializes in corporate investigations, background intelligence gathering, social networking research and asset investigations. Efrat, an Israeli and US citizen, uses intuitive investigative skills, supplemented by bilingual capabilities, as a recognized asset to all international investigative fields of endeavor. At Global Intelligence Consultants, Inc., she is responsible for managing, controlling and directing surveillance operations.

COBBLESTONE QUALITY SHOE REPAIR 8855 Ladue Road, 314-727-4080, cobblestoneshoerepair.net

Extract the full value of your beloved quality goods when you trust Cobblestone Quality Shoe Repair to repair, recondition and even re-dye your shoes, coats, purses, belts and additional items. The cobblers offer factory recrafting for all manufacturers, and use only the best materials and craftsmanship to complete each job.

EVORA BY DR. BECKY LYNN 226 S. Woods Mill Road, Suite 46W, 314-934-0551, evorabydrebeckylynn.com

Evora by Dr. Becky Lynn delivers concierge care and a personalized plan to address your menopausal, sexual health and gynecologic needs through office visits, tele-health and e-health services. Lynn is board certified as a gynecologist, sexual counselor and world-renowned expert in sexual medicine and menopause. Call or go online to learn more.

CAR CRAFT AUTO BODY 47 Caprice Drive, 636-534-7000, carcraftstl.com

Car Craft Auto Body opened its doors in Bridgeton in 1963, and now offers locations in Chesterfield and South County. Delivering positive customer experiences in a timely manner is its trademark, with quality kept at the forefront. Factory-certified in TESLA, Porsche, Maserati, Cadillac CT6 and CT9, Z06/Zrl, and F150 and the Expedition.

GREG VERNON

TOGETHER CREDIT UNION 423 Lynch St., 314-650-6425, gvernon@togethercu.org, togethercu.org

Greg Vernon, a native St. Louisan with 20-plus years of experience in mortgage and new-home sales, joins Together Credit Union, formerly known as American Eagle Credit Union, to assist with home buying and jumbo loans. “It’s an emotional time for homebuyers,” Vernon says. “Offering a consistent, steady voice helps.”

DINNER & A SHOW 50

Arts & Culture

FEATURE: KEN WORLEY AT DUANE REED GALLERY 52

AROUND TOWN 54

Beignets? Oh, Boy!

Dinner ...

Jenny’s Diner

Zambian cuisine, something unique for the metro area, graces the dinner menu at a brunch-centric Chesterfield eatery called Jenny’s Diner – meaning that during its evening hours, guests there can enjoy south-central African specialties in addition to its longstanding set of available-all-day breakfast and lunch items.

Betty Phiri-Chibwe currently co-owns the 55-seat diner with her husband, Oliver Chibwe, as well as with their longtime friends Able and Hilda Chiteshe. All hail from Zambia. Phiri-Chibwe first came to know Jenny’s Diner as a regular customer, and after seeing a job opening there, applied to work as a cashier and

eventually as a server.

After three years serving on the staff, Betty left to open her own restaurant in Urbana, Illinois, called Stango Cuisine. Phiri-Chibwe characterizes that eatery, which debuted in 2017, as the first in the United States to offer Zambian cuisine. All the while, she remained good friends with the owner of Jenny’s Diner, Nurcan “Jenny” Akcay, who served as her business mentor.

“Late last year, Jenny hinted that she was getting fatigued after running the diner for seven years,” Phiri-Chibwe says. “She sold us the diner, and we took it over in November 2018. We decided to add Zambian meals here because we’re trying to introduce this style of food to people.”

By Mabel Suen

Mainstays from the menu at Stango Cuisine feature on the dinner menu at Jenny’s Diner, among them such highlights as beef stew and chicken curry – a Christmas tradition in Zambia. According to PhiriChibwe, the home-style savory dishes are slow-cooked with seasonings and spices like ginger, garlic and turmeric. Another specialty, the Hungarian sausage, involves a specially made pork-based sausage popular as Zambian street food.

The entrées all come with the guest’s choice of curry rice, stewed sweet potatoes or nshima – a polentalike Zambian staple prepared with cornmeal and water – and a choice of beans or greens. Going forward, PhiriChibwe hopes to expand the menu to include specials

& A Show

like oxtail and fresh-squeezed ginger juice.

The breakfast and lunch menus, as noted, run all day and include such popular picks as PhiriChibwe’s daytime go-to: a farm skillet with homefried potatoes, two eggs, sausage, onions and green peppers. Newer offerings include Bakes by ChiChi’s beef pies in a golden-brown pastry crust, plantains, twice-fried chicken wings and beignets – making Jenny’s Diner an ideally eclectic place to visit before enjoying The Mystery of Irma Vep from The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

“My aim is for people to come experience and learn about Zambian food,” Phiri-Chibwe says. “Someday, I want it to be well-known enough for people to say, ‘Let’s have Zambian tonight.’” ln

The Mystery of Irma Vep

Story: It’s a dark and stormy night at Mandacrest, the palatial home of Lord Edgar and his new second wife, Lady Enid, who feels intimidated by a large portrait of Edgar’s late first wife, Irma Vep, who, with their only child, was murdered years earlier.

Caring for Mandacrest are Jane, the maid, and the swineherd Nicodemus – and Lady Enid can’t quite figure out the mysterious pair’s story.

After a nighttime attack on Lady Enid, Lord Edgar determines her attacker to have been a vampire. An Egyptologist by profession, he seeks answers to the maladies plaguing his and his family’s lives at an ancient Egyptian tomb. Finding a sarcophagus there, Lord Edgar spirits it away to Mandacrest for further inspection.

What precisely is happening at Mandacrest? Will Lady Enid recover from wounds to her throat? Is Irma Vep really dead? Why does Nicodemus drag one leg when he walks? What makes Jane so peculiar? And what’s with that creepy portrait of Irma Vep at the top of the stairs? Highlights: The R ep tries to resuscitate Charles Ludlam’s campfest from 1984 with a two-person cast who gamely portray eight different characters in an effort to suck every drop of comedy from the two-act work. Other Info: The Mystery of Irma Vep, according to Wikipedia, ranked as the most produced play in America in 1991, shortly before The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis itself staged a production directed by Tom Martin in its intimate Studio Theatre.

Vague memories color that effort as amusing and clever. Like the brilliant Dress the Part, a hilarious hip-hop riff on Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona recently staged by Shakespeare Festival St. Louis at The Ready Room, the earlier Rep performance benefited from cozier surroundings, bringing the stories closer to their audiences.

The Rep’s current production seems cavernous by comparison, losing much nuance from earlier. Further, for a show that Rep Augustin Family artistic director Hana Sharif describes in program notes as “one of the great comedies of the American Theatre,” this Irma Vep too often feels tired – more creaking than creepy. Much of the problem involves the show’s torpid pace, including an interminable first act that underscores director Nelson T. Eusebio III’s difficulty in finding the quick, zany tempo necessary for farce. Everything just takes too long to get where it wants to go, losing some of the audience in the process.

Despite much having been made of reviving a 35-year-old script, cutting at least 20 minutes from the 2½-hour presentation and amping up the delivery would help considerably in elevating the camp, the farcical and the nonsensical.

By Mark Betz | Photos courtesy of Phillip Hamer

Despite all of that baggage, performers Esteban Andres Cruz and Tommy Everett Russell acquit themselves nicely with humorous portrayals of Lord Edgar, Lady Enid, Jane, Nicodemus, Irma Vep and a few other characters. Substantial credit should go to their dressers, who feverishly strip one costume for another as Cruz and Everett exit as one character and re-enter as someone else. Those lavish, amusing costumes come from designer Sara Ryung Clement, who captures the spirit of Ludlam’s chaos in her finery. Hopefully, The Rep’s presentation of The Mystery of Irma Vep will accelerate in future performances and thus recapture the quirkiness of Ludlam’s piece of horror-inspired silliness. ln

Company: The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Venue: Browning Mainstage, Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Road, Webster Groves Dates: Through March 8 Tickets: $20 to $94.50; contact 314-968-4925 or repstl.org Rating: A 3 on a scale of 1 to 5