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Constructed by: Gary Larson & Doug Peterson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: World Series

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted with reference to locations around the WORLD, and a TV SERIES:

• 23A A spunky teenage girl works as an intern in Silicon Valley?: APPLE “BLOSSOM”
• 29A A forensic anthropologist investigates crime at a nudist colony?: BARE “BONES”
• 42A Hugh Laurie’s character practices medicine in Tokyo?: “HOUSE” OF THE RISING SUN
• 68A The bar where “everybody knows your name” opens a franchise in an NYC borough?: BRONX “CHEERS”
• 93A Rachel, Ross, and the gang climb the Himalayas?: “FRIENDS” IN HIGH PLACES
• 109A A navy lawyer visits the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem?: CRYING “JAG”
• 116A High-powered New York attorneys vacation at the Yellowstone Hot Springs?: BATHING “SUITS”

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 17m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Fashion brand that makes Luna Rossa Ocean fragrances: PRADA

Prada started out in 1913 as a leather-goods shop in Milan, one established by the two Prada brothers. One of the brothers, Mario Prada, prevented the female members of his family from participating in the running of the company as he didn’t believe women should be involved in business (!). When the sexist brother died, his son had no interest in the business so it was his daughter who took over and ran the company for about twenty years, handing it over to her own daughter. I’d say the devil loved that …

12 “The Big Bang Theory” character: RAJ

Raj Koothrappali is a character on the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” who is played by British-Indian actor Kunal Nayyar. Nayyar is married to Neha Kapur, a former Miss India.

15 Sale caveat: AS IS

A caveat is a warning or a qualification. “Caveat” is the Latin for “let him beware”.

19 Narrow: TAPER

I used to think that the word “taper” was used for a slender candle because said candle was “tapered” in shape, but it’s exactly the opposite. It turns out that our word “tapered” comes from the candle. “Taper” and “tapur” are Old English words meaning “candle”. From these nouns arose the verb “to taper” meaning “shoot up like flame”. This meaning evolved into “become slender” from the idea that a candle’s flame has such a shape.

23 A spunky teenage girl works as an intern in Silicon Valley?: “APPLE” BLOSSOM

Apple Park, Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California, comprises an iconic ring-shaped main building, often referred to as :the spaceship”. It houses thousands of employees and features a vast, landscaped inner courtyard.

“Blossom” is a 1990s sitcom that centers around Blossom Russo, played by Mayim Bialik, a bright and quirky teenager navigating the challenges of adolescence and family life. Living with her single father and two older brothers, Blossom often broke the fourth wall to share her thoughts and feelings with the audience.

25 Home of the Lili’uokalani Botanical Garden: HONOLULU

The Liliuokalani Botanical Garden is a city park in Honolulu. The site was given to the city by the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen Liliʻuokalani.

27 “Goosebumps” series writer: STINE

“Goosebumps” is a series of children’s horror novels written by author R. L. Stine. The novels have been adapted into a television series shown on Canadian TV.

29 A forensic anthropologist investigates crime at a nudist colony?: BARE “BONES”

“Bones” is a TV crime drama in which the title character is a forensic anthropologist. I quite like the show as the lead characters, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, have a give and take relationship that is reminiscent of characters often played by Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.

30 Bach work: CANTATA

A cantata is a piece of music that is sung, as opposed to a sonata, which is a piece that is played on some instrument, often a piano. A sonatina is in effect a sonata that has been labeled as something lighter and shorter.

34 Blue-white twinklers: B STARS

Stars are commonly classified by the color of the light that they emit. Classically, these classifications are, from hottest to coolest, O, B, A, F, G, K and M. The list of classes has been expanded to include class D for white dwarfs, and classes S and C for carbon stars.

35 Actress Gilbert: SARA

Actress Sara Gilbert grew up playing Darlene on the sitcom “Roseanne” from 1988 to 1997. Today Gilbert appears fairly often on another hit sitcom, namely “The Big Bang Theory”. You can also see her on the daytime talk show called “The Talk”, a show that she herself created. And, she made a comeback as Darlene in 2018 in the “Roseanne” reboot(s).

41 Basketball great Bird: SUE

WNBA player Sue Bird is one of only two basketball players, male or female, to have won five Olympic gold medals. The other is fellow WNBA star Diana Taurasi. Bird became engaged to US soccer phenom Megan Rapinoe in 2020.

42 Hugh Laurie’s character practices medicine in Tokyo?: “HOUSE” OF THE RISING SUN

I think that “House” is one of the better shows made by Fox television. It is fun for me, coming from the other side of the Atlantic, to see English actor Hugh Laurie in the dramatic title role. I have been watching him in various comedic roles for decades. Famously, he played Bertie Wooster opposite Stephen Fry in P.G. Wodehouse’s “Jeeves & Wooster”, as well as one of the bumbling “bad guys” in the film “101 Dalmatians” (the version starring Glenn Close).

The Japanese names for “Japan” are “Nippon” and “Nihon”. These translate literally as “the sun’s origin”, but the more ornate translation of “Land of the Rising Sun” is often cited.

48 Yosemite photographer Adams: ANSEL

As an avid amateur photographer, I have been a big fan of the work of Ansel Adams for many years and must have read all of his books. Adams was famous for clarity and depth in his black and white images. Central to his technique was the use of the zone system, his own invention. The zone system is a way of controlling exposure in an image, particularly when there is a high contrast in the subject. Although the technique was developed primarily for black & white film, it can even apply to digital color images. In the digital world, the main technique is to expose an image for the highlights, and one or more images for the shadows. These images can then be combined digitally giving a final photograph with a full and satisfying range of exposures.

49 Tabasco kin: TIO

Tabasco is one of Mexico’s 32 “estados” (states), and is located in the very southeast of the country.

50 Arabian Peninsula citizen: OMANI

The Arabian Peninsula is shaped like a boot, with the Sultanate of Oman occupying the toe of that boot.

51 Sugar __ peas: SNAP

Sugar peas are also known as snap peas. These peas are eaten before the seeds mature, and the whole pod is consumed.

54 Tasteless: INSIPID

Something that is sapid is tasty, savory. The opposite to “sapid” is “insipid”, meaning “without taste, bland”.

58 Saint __ fire: ELMO’S

Saint Elmo is the patron saint of sailors. More formally referred to as Erasmus of Formia, St. Elmo is perhaps venerated by sailors as tradition tells us that he continued preaching despite the ground beside him being struck by a thunderbolt. Sailors started to pray to him when in danger of storms and lightning. He lends his name to the electrostatic weather phenomenon (often seen at sea) known as St. Elmo’s fire. The “fire” is actually a plasma discharge caused by air ionizing at the end of a pointed object (like the mast of a ship), something often observed during electrical storms.

68 The bar where “everybody knows your name” opens a franchise in an NYC borough?: BRONX “CHEERS”

The New York City borough known as the Bronx takes its name from the Bronx River that runs through it. The river was named after Jonas Bronck, an early immigrant to the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Bronck’s farm gave rise to the name “Broncksland” and “Bronck’s River”.

The wonderful sitcom “Cheers” ran for eleven seasons on NBC, from 1982 to 1993. “Cheers” spawned an equally successful spin-off show called “Frasier”, which also ran for eleven seasons and often featured guest appearances of characters from the original “Cheers”. The Cheers bar was styled on the Bull & Finch Pub in Boston (in which I’ve had a pint of Guinness or two!). The owner of the Bull & Finch cleverly agreed to the initial interior and exterior shots, charging only one dollar. Since then he has made millions from selling “Cheers” memorabilia, and also from increased trade.

72 “California Gurls” singer Perry: KATY

“California Gurls” is a song recorded by Katy Perry that she co-wrote with Snoop Dog, who performs some verses. The title was going to be written as “California Girls”, but the spelling was changed to “California Gurls” as a nod to Big Star’s lead singer Alex Chilton, who died a couple of months before the song’s release. Big Star used the “gurl” spelling in their 1974 track “September Gurls”.

75 Gobsmack: STUN

“Gobsmack” is slang from Britain and Ireland. “Gob” is also slang for “mouth”. So someone who is gobsmacked has received a smack in the “mouth”, is stunned.

78 Familiar theme: TROPE

A trope is a figure of speech. The term “trope” comes from the Greek word “tropos” that has the same meaning. The term has evolved in meaning to also describe a common or overused device or theme.

79 Wearable souvenir: TEE

A souvenir is a memento, a token of remembrance. We imported “souvenir” from French, in which language it has the same meaning. The term comes from the Latin “subvenire” meaning “to come to mind”, or literally “to come up”.

88 Eel, to a sushi chef: UNAGI

“Unagi” is the Japanese term for” freshwater eel”, and “anago” is the term for “saltwater eel”.

90 “Lost” actor Daniel Dae __: KIM

Daniel Dae Kim is an American actor who is famous for playing Jin-Soo Kwon on “Lost”. Kim moved on to play one of the leads on the CBS remake of “Hawaii Five-O”, portraying the character Chin Ho Kelly.

93 Rachel, Ross, and the gang climb the Himalayas?: “FRIENDS” IN HIGH PLACES

The remarkably successful sitcom “Friends” was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. For the first season, the six lead characters were each paid $22,500 per episode. That salary had increased to $1 million per episode by the show’s last season.

The magnificent Himalaya range of mountains in Asia takes its name from the Sanskrit for “abode of snow”. Geographically, the Himalaya separates the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau to the north.

105 Explosive block in Minecraft: TNT

Minecraft is a video game that was released in 2011. It is the most popular video game of all time, with well over 200 million units sold.

109 A navy lawyer visits the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem?: CRYING “JAG”

The Western Wall (also called “the Wailing Wall”) is a remnant of an ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The wall is a sacred site for the faithful, and has been a place for prayer and pilgrimage for centuries. The term “Wailing” was assigned in English as many Jewish people came to the site to mourn the destruction of the Temple.

The legal drama “JAG” is named for the highest ranking uniformed lawyer in the US Navy, the Judge Advocate General. Apparently the show was created as a cross between “Top Gun” and “A Few Good Men”.

111 Former Interior Secretary Haaland: DEB

Deb Haaland became US Secretary of the Interior in 2021, making her the first Native-American Cabinet secretary. However, she was not the first Native American to serve in the Cabinet. That honor went to Charles Curtis, US Vice President under Herbert Hoover.

112 Wonderland cake words: EAT ME

In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Alice follows the white rabbit down a rabbit hole and finds a bottle labeled “DRINK ME”. When she drinks the contents, it causes her to shrink. She also sees a cake adorned with the words “EAT ME” written using currants, and when she eats the cake she grows so big she finds it hard to stand up. After eating the cake, she utters the words, “Curiouser and curiouser”.

115 Spot of Texas tea: OIL STAIN

“Texas tea” is a familiar term for oil drilled from the earth.

116 High-powered New York attorneys vacation at the Yellowstone Hot Springs?: BATHING “SUITS”

The spectacular Mammoth Hot Springs is a famous Yellowstone attraction known for its terrace-like cascade of steaming pools. It is located in Mammoth, Wyoming on a hill of travertine, a form of terrestrial limestone.

“Suits” is an entertaining, albeit formulaic, legal drama that is set in New York City. One of the main characters in the show is Mike Ross, a brilliant law school dropout who poses as a law associate. Mike Ross’ love interest is paralegal Rachel Zane. Zane is played by actress Meghan Markle, who married the UK’s Prince Harry in 2018.

122 Camden Yards player: ORIOLE

Oriole Park is home to the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. The full name of the stadium is Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The name “Camden Yards” is used because the ballpark is built on land that was once used as the rail yard for B&O Railroad’s Camden Station.

123 “Sneak Previews” co-host Roger: EBERT

“Sneak Previews” was a PBS film review show that ran from 1975 until 1996. Called “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You”, the show’s most famous hosts were Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. Siskel and Ebert hosted from 1975 until 1982.

125 NYC subway org.: MTA

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has public transportation responsibility in the state of New York (as well as part of Connecticut).

Down

4 One might be full of baloney: DELI CASE

The deli meat known as “baloney”, i.e. “Bologna sausage”, is an American invention. It was given the name “baloney” because it resembles Italian mortadella sausage, which originated in the city of Bologna in northern Italy.

7 Vietnamese soup: PHO

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food. It is often ordered with a side of hanh dam, pickled white onions.

9 Pathologists’ focus: DISEASE

Pathology is the study of disease and its causes. The term ultimately comes from the Greek “pathos” meaning “suffering” and “-logia” meaning “study”.

11 Sleep acronym: REM

“REM” is an acronym standing for “rapid eye movement”. REM sleep takes up 20-25% of the sleeping hours and is the period associated with one’s most vivid dreams.

14 Insect similar to a figeater beetle: JUNE BUG

June bugs are beetles that have a life cycle of about a year. Females lay eggs in mid-summer, which hatch in about 18 days. This appearance around June led to the name “June bug”.

18 Sam-I-am’s creator: SEUSS

Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book “Green Eggs and Ham” was first published in 1960. “Green Eggs and Ham” now ranks twelfth in the list of top selling children’s books. By the way, “Harry Potter” books hold the top four slots in that list. The text of “Green Eggs and Ham” has a lot of “I am” going on. It starts with:

I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am

and ends with:

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

24 Square meal?: BENTO

A bento is a single-person meal that is eaten quite commonly in Japan. A bento can be purchased as a take-out meal, or it may be packed at home. A bento is usually sold as a “bento box”.

29 Tuition collector: BURSAR

A bursar is an administrative officer, typically in a school or college, who is responsible for the management of financial affairs. “Bursar” comes from the Latin “bursa”, meaning “purse,bag”.

31 White House family of the early 1910s: TAFTS

William Howard Taft may have been the 27th President of the United States, but his lifelong ambition was to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The future president had served as dean and professor at the Cincinnati Law School. President Taft was able to realize that dream in 1921, eight years after losing his bid for re-election as president. As Chief Justice, this former US President swore in two new presidents: Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929). William Howard Taft is also remembered as the most obese president. In the last year of his presidency, he weighed about 340 pounds (he was 5 feet 11 inches tall). Twelve months after leaving the White House, President Taft had dropped 80 pounds and substantially lowered his blood pressure.

32 Popcorn brand: ACT II

Act I was a brand of microwave popcorn that was formulated to resemble movie theater popcorn, and introduced in 1981. It contained real butter, and so had to be stored in the refrigerator. Act I was superseded by the Act II brand in 1984, which is a shelf-stable product.

33 One of “The Two Coreys”: HAIM

Corey Haim was a Canadian actor and teen idol. His breakthrough role was in the 1987 film “The Lost Boys”, in which he starred alongside Corey Feldman. The pair appeared together in several films, earning them the nickname “the Two Coreys”. Haim had found success in Hollywood while he was still young, but he also discovered drugs at a very early age and was using by the time he was fifteen years old. Haim died when he was 38, in 2010.

41 Dee of heavy metal: SNIDER

Dee Snider is the frontman from the heavy metal band Twisted Sister from Long Island, New York. Not my kind of music …

55 Part of town, for short: NABE

“Nabe” is a familiar term used to describe a neighborhood, or a local movie theater.

56 “Devil Inside” band: INXS

INXS (pronounced “in excess”) was a rock band from Australia. The band formed in 1977 in Sydney as the Farriss Brothers, as three of the original lineups were indeed brothers. The biggest INXS hits in the US were “The One Thing” (1982), “Devil Inside” (1988) and “Suicide Blonde” (1990).

63 Elisabeth of “The Boys”: SHUE

Elisabeth Shue has always been a favorite actress of mine. She has been in several popular films including “The Karate Kid”, “Cocktail”, two of the “Back to the Future” movies, “Leaving Las Vegas”, and my personal favorite “Adventures in Babysitting”. More recently, Shue had a recurring role on the TV crime drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”.

“The Boys” is a satirical superhero TV show based on a comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The superheroes (Supes) are marketed as heroic personae to the public, but their alter egos are corrupt and self-serving. The title characters are a CIA-sponsored black op team fighting the corruption.

67 Texter’s “Unless my memory deceives me”: IIRC

If I remember correctly (IIRC)

71 Long, thin mushroom: ENOKI

Enokitake (also known as “enoki”) are long and thin white mushrooms often added to soups or salads.

92 Low-pitched wind in a marching band: BASS TUBA

The tuba is the lowest-pitched of all brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is just one tuba included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”. Oom-pah-pah …

96 “Moby-Dick” figure: PELEG

The Pequod is the whaling ship that figures in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick”. The ship is owned by a consortium of the citizens of Nantucket Island, including Captains Ahab, Bildad and Peleg.

101 Freight tubs: SCOWS

A scow is a flat-bottomed boat with squared-off ends that’s often used for transportation, usually pushed or pulled by a barge. Often, a scow can be seen carrying junk or garbage.

102 Sign of spring: ARIES

Aries the Ram is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, and is named after the constellation. Your birth sign is Aries if you were born between March 21 and April 20, but if you are an Aries you would know that! “Aries” is the Latin word for “ram”.

103 “The Practice” actor McDermott: DYLAN

Dylan McDermott is an actor who gained prominence in the 1990s with his Golden Globe-winning performance in the legal drama “The Practice”, portraying lawyer Bobby Donnell. McDermott’s father’s third wife, and adoptive mother, was playwright Eve Ensler, who wrote “The Vagina Monologues”.

104 Floppy __: DISKS

I don’t think my kids really know what a floppy disk is. A floppy is made of a thin and flexible magnetic material that can store data, enclosed in a protective case. I’ve used 8-inch floppies in my time, and many 5.25-inch floppy disks. Until fairly recently, I had a desktop that would take 3.5-inch disks, although I think the last 3.5-inch floppy disappeared from the house several years ago …

105 Tucker of country: TANYA

Country singer Tanya Tucker’s first hit was “Delta Dawn”, which she recorded in 1972 at only 13 years of age.

108 Meeting room stand: EASEL

The term “easel” comes from an old Dutch word meaning “donkey”, would you believe? The idea is that an easel carries its load (an oil painting, say) just as a donkey would be made to carry a load.

110 Stand up: JILT

To jilt someone with whom you have a relationship is to drop them suddenly or callously. “Jilt” is an obsolete noun that used to mean “harlot, loose woman”.

111 “I double-dog __ you!”: DARE

The idiomatic phrase “double-dog dare” is very American, and dates back at least to the 1940s. One reference from back then cites the incrementally daring sequence:

• I dare you
• I dog dare you
• I double-dog dare you
• I black-dog dare you
• I double-black-dog dare you

114 Basic French verb: ETRE

The French word for “to be” is “être”.

117 __ de la Cité: Notre-Dame locale: ILE

There are two famous “îles” (islands) in the middle of the River Seine in Paris, one being the Île de la Cité, and the other Île Saint-Louis. Île de la Cité is the most renowned of the two, as it is home to the cathedral of Notre-Dame.