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Constructed by: Amanda Cook & Katie Hale
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Snacks

Themed answers are all common phrases reinterpreted as SNACKS relevant to situations cited in the corresponding clues:

• 15A Internet cafe snacks? : BROWSER COOKIES
• 22A Billiard hall snacks? : POOL NOODLES
• 34A Arbitration snacks? : BARGAINING CHIPS
• 44A Travel snacks? : AIRPORT BARS
• 53A Moving day snacks? : PACKING PEANUTS

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

Bill’s time: 9m 55s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Hoffmann of “Transparent” : GABY

Gaby Hoffmann started her career as a child actress with appearances in “Field of Dreams” and “Uncle Buck”. I remember her from “Sleepless in Seattle”, in which she played Jessica, the playmate to young Jonah who helps her friend fly from Seattle to New York City. More recently, Hoffman played Adam’s troubled sister on the hit comedy-drama “Girls”.

“Transparent” is a comedy-drama TV show about a transgender woman named Maura Pfefferman. Actor Jeffrey Tambor played the lead on the show, until he left the cast following two allegations of sexual harassment on the set.

5 Feature of the ROFL emoji : TEAR

Rolling on floor laughing (ROFL)

15 Internet cafe snacks? : BROWSER COOKIES

When you visit a website, often it will leave a little piece of text information called a “cookie” on your computer. As a cookie is a text file, and not executable, it is relatively harmless. However, as browsers routinely read these text files, cookies can be used by spyware. Basically, the browser can read the cookie and tell a lot about your browsing habits. This can be a good thing, so when you go back to your favorite websites you will be recognized and this can help you. For example, you may have shopped at a site and you’ll find that your shopping cart still has the items you were looking at, often because the items were stored in a cookie. However, they can be “bad” as some spyware uses the cookies to detect your browsing habits and can direct the browser to do things you may not want it to do. I do accept cookies, as they do enhance the browsing experience, but only from sites that I trust …

18 Vientiane’s country : LAOS

Vientiane is the capital city of Laos, and is situated on the Mekong River. The city was originally called the “city of sandalwood” by Buddhist monks, naming it after the valued trees that grew in the area. The French took the Pali words for “city of sandalwood” and rewrote it as the French-sounding “Vientiane”.

19 “Industry” network : HBO

“Industry” is a TV drama set in the fast-paced and often ruthless environment of an investment bank. The show follows a group of young graduates vying for permanent positions at the fictional Pierpoint & Co, located in London. “Industry” is the creation of Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, who are themselves former bankers.

20 Symbol that can mean “approximately” : TILDE

The tilde diacritical mark (~) is very much associated with the Spanish language. We use the name “tilde” in English, taking that name from Spanish. Confusingly, the word “tilde” in Spanish is used more generally to mean “accent mark, diacritic”, of which a “~” is just one. What we call a “tilde” in English is usually referred to as a “virgulilla” or “tilde de la eñe” in Spanish.

21 Blow up: Abbr. : ENL

Enlargement (enl.)

27 Flamenco cheers : OLES

Flamenco is a style of Spanish music and dance. The origin of the word “flamenco” isn’t clearly understood, but the explanation that seems most credible to me is that it comes from Flanders in Northern Europe. Given that “flamenco” is the Spanish word for “Flemish” and Flanders is home to the Flemish people it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

29 Elisabeth of “The Karate Kid” : 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 1984 film “The Karate Kid” starred Ralph Macchio in the title role, with Pat Morita playing the enigmatic karate teacher Mr. Miyagi. There is an excellent 2010 remake, starring Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s son) as the Karate Kid himself, with Jackie Chan playing the teacher. In the original 1984 movie, the Karate Kid was named Daniel LaRusso, and in the 2010 remake was named Dre Parker.

31 Cricket gear : BAT

Cricket is the national game of England. The term “cricket” apparently comes from the Old French word “criquet” meaning “goalpost, stick”.

38 Start of something? : ESS

The start of the word “something” is a letter S (ess).

39 Mercury and Neptune : GODS

Mercury was a Roman god called “the messenger”, and the god of trade. Mercury’s name comes from the Latin word “merx” meaning merchandise (and therefore has the same roots as “merchant” and “commerce”).

Neptune was a Roman god, of both the sea and of freshwater. He was sometimes known as “Neptunus Equester” as he was also the god of horses and patron of horse-racing.

40 Slangy “OK” : AIGHT

“Aight” is a slangy way of saying “all right”.

41 “Skedaddle!” : SHOO!

“Skedaddle” is a slang term meaning “run away”, one that dates back to the Civil War.

49 Gershwin brother : IRA

Ira Gershwin was the lyricist who worked with his brother George to create such American classics as the songs “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”, as well as the opera “Porgy and Bess”. After George Gershwin died, Ira continued to create great music, and worked with the likes of Jerome Kern and Kurt Weill.

50 __ mail : SNAIL

Snail mail is regular mail delivered by the postal service. The term “snail mail” arose as email gained in popularity, and is a reference to the difference in speed between email and paper mail.

52 Eyeliner perfector : Q-TIP

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

60 Big podcast producer : NPR

A podcast is an audio or video media file that is made available for download. The name comes from the acronym “POD” meaning “playable on demand”, and “cast” from “broadcasting”. So, basically a podcast is a broadcast that one can play on demand, simply by downloading and opening the podcast file.

61 Classical closing : CODA

In music, a coda is primarily a passage that brings a movement to a conclusion. “Coda” is Italian for “tail”.

62 Borrowing figs. : APRS

Annual percentage rate (APR)

Down

1 Celebrate wildly : GO BANANAS

The expression “to go bananas”, meaning “to become excited or angry”, is one that I would have imagined had a clear etymology but that doesn’t seem to be the case. A further surprise is that we’ve only been “going bananas” since the sixties, the days of flower power. One apt theory about the hippy roots of the phrase is that there was an unfounded belief that ingesting roasted banana peels had a similar hallucinogenic effect as magic mushrooms.

3 Playbill blurbs : BIOS

I get quite a kick out of reading the bios in “Playbill” as some of them can be really goofy and entertaining. “Playbill” started off in 1884 in New York as an in-house publication for just one theater on 21st St. You can’t see any decent-sized production these days anywhere in the United States without being handed a copy of “Playbill”.

4 Longbow wood : YEW

Yew is the wood of choice for the longbow, a valued weapon in the history of England. The longbow is constructed with a core of yew heartwood (as the heartwood resists compression) that has a sheath of yew sapwood (as the sapwood resists stretching). The yew was in such demand for longbows that for centuries yew trees were in short supply in Britain and the wood had to be imported from all over Europe.

5 1990s workout fad : TAE BO

Tae Bo isn’t an ancient martial art, even though it perhaps sounds like one. The discipline was developed as a form of aerobic exercise in the 1990s by taekwondo expert Billy Blanks who gave it the name Tae Bo, a melding of “taekwondo” and “boxing”.

6 Barnett of CBS News : ERROL

Errol Barnett was a CNN anchor based in Johannesburg, South Africa and then Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Washington, D.C to work for CBS News in 2016. She was born in England, but was educated in Phoenix, Arizona.

7 Stanford’s athletic gp. : ACC

The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams of Stanford University. The nickname is not a reference to the bird, but rather to the primary color of the teams’ uniforms.

9 “Peaky Blinders” actor Sam : NEILL

Sam Neill is a very talented actor from New Zealand, although he spent the first few years of his life in Northern Ireland. I really enjoyed Neill in a 1983 television miniseries called “Reilly, Ace of Spies”, about a British spy operation during WWI. He is perhaps better-known for his roles in the movies “Omen III”, “Dead Calm”, “Jurassic Park” and “The Hunt for Red October”.

“Peaky Blinders” is a BBC crime drama that can be viewed on Netflix. The show follows the story of a gangster family in the English midlands city of Birmingham from just after the end of WWI. The show has a pretty good cast, led by Irishman Cillian Murphy as the gang’s leader, and New Zealander Sam Neill as police detective and the gangster’s nemesis.

10 Rutabaga, to a Brit : SWEDE

The names of veggies cause me grief sometimes. What’s called a turnip here in the US, we call a swede back in Ireland. An Irishman’s turnip is a rutabaga over here. Thank goodness a potato is a potato, or I’d just give up altogether …

17 Chiwere speakers : OTOE

Chiwere is a Siouan language spoken by the Otoe people, as well as by the Missouria and Iowa.

22 Start to ski? : PARA-

Paraskiing is skiing across snowy terrain while being pulled along by a parachute.

24 Designer Cassini : OLEG

French-born American fashion designer Oleg Cassini developed a reputation for designing costumes for films, and dressing numerous film stars. He had two big names particularly associated with his designs. In the sixties he produced the state wardrobe for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. He was also the exclusive designer for Hollywood’s Gene Tierney, who was Cassini’s second wife.

30 Played sardines, perhaps : HID

Sardines is a variant of the classic game of hide-and-seek. Instead of everyone hiding and one person seeking, one person hides, and everyone else searches for them. As each person finds the hidden player, they join them in the hiding spot, packing in like sardines in a can.

31 Silver Slugger awardee : BIG HITTER

The Silver Slugger Award is presented annually to the best offensive MLB player at each baseball position in the American and National Leagues. The award was inaugurated in 1980, and is decided by the MLB coaches and managers as a group.

32 “Better safe than sorry” and “Actions speak louder than words” : APHORISMS

An aphorism is a short and pithy statement that embodies a general truth or insightful observation. Some great examples are:

• Life is a journey, not a destination (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
• The average person thinks he isn’t (Larry Lorenzoni)
• To err is human, to forgive divine (Alexander Pope)
• Reality is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one (Albert Einstein)
• Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely (Lord Acton)

35 “The Firebird” composer Stravinsky : IGOR

“The Firebird” is a ballet by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky that premiered in Paris in 1910. It tells the story of Prince Ivan and his encounter with the magical Firebird. The prince captures the Firebird, and uses it to defeat the evil sorcerer Kastchei, who holds a princess and her companions captive.

36 Tennis ball containers : CANS

Tennis balls are hollow and filled with gas, typically nitrogen, to give them bounce. As the gas within each ball slowly escapes over time, they are sold in airtight cans. The cans act like mini pressure chambers, keeping the balls at optimum pressure for the first use. Once opened, the balls gradually lose pressure, which is why they eventually go flat.

37 Juice box brand named for its vitamin content : HI-C

Hi-C orange drink was created in 1946 and introduced to the market in 1948, initially in the south of the country. The name “Hi-C” was chosen to emphasize the high vitamin C content in the drink, as it contained added ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

42 Celebration on the last full moon of Phalguna : HOLI

Phalguna is the twelfth and final month in the Hindu calendar, corresponding roughly to February and March in the Gregorian calendar. The name “Phalguna” is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning “fruitful” or “auspicious,” reflecting the abundance and growth associated with this time of year. Phalguna is a spiritually significant month, hosting important festivals like Holi, the vibrant festival of colors, and Maha Shivaratri, dedicated to Lord Shiva.

44 Poplar kin : ASPEN

The “quaking” aspen tree is so called because the structure of the leaves causes them to move easily in the wind, to “tremble, quake”.

46 Speed climbing entrant : RACER

Speed climbing involves athletes racing side-by-side on a standardized 15-meter wall, vying to reach the top in the fastest time possible. The route is always the same, allowing climbers to perfect their technique. Olympic and World Cup climbers can reach the top in under 5 seconds!

47 Kangaroo, e.g. : BIPED

In Australia, male kangaroos are known by several names including bucks, boomers, jacks or old men. Females are called does, flyers, or jills. There seems to be just one name for young kangaroos, i.e. joeys. A group of kangaroos might be called a mob, troop or court.

48 Filled cornmeal flatbread : AREPA

An arepa is a cornmeal cake or bread that is popular in Colombian and Venezuelan cuisines in particular. Each arepa has a flat, round shape and is often split to make a sandwich.

52 Bon mot : QUIP

“Bon mot” translates from French as “good word”. We use “bon mot” (and sometimes just “mot”) to mean “quip, witticism”.

54 Network with a three-note chime : NBC

There are some sounds that we hear regularly, and many of them are protected by a sound trademark. The first sound trademark issued in the US was in 1950 to NBC, for the three notes that make up the NBC chimes. Other trademarked sounds are the roar of the MGM lion, the Harlem Globetrotters “Sweet Georgia Brown”, and the 20th Century Fox fanfare.

55 Old Prizm maker : GEO

Geos were small vehicles manufactured by General Motors, mainly in the nineties. They were designed to compete head-to-head with the small imports that were gaining market share at the time in the US. Some Geo models that you might remember are the Metro, the Prizm and the Storm. The cars were actually built as joint-ventures with Japanese manufacturers. The Prizm was a GM/Toyota project, the Metro was GM/Suzuki, and the Storm was GM/Isuzu.

56 “For your eyes only” contract, briefly : NDA

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)