LA Times Crossword Answers 19 Mar 17, Sunday

Constructed by: Cheri Kedrowski & Victor Barocas

Edited by: Rich Norris

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Theme: Big Appetite

Today’s themed answers make reference to the lyrics of the children’s cumulative song “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”. Each themed answer is a well-known phrase that ends with a type of animal, except that animal has been replaced in the answer with the animal that “swallowed” the original, according to the song:

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow,
I don’t know how she swallowed a cow.
She swallowed the cow to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly: perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse…
She’s dead, of course!

• 107A. Song that inspired this puzzle : I KNOW AN OLD LADY

• 22A. Practice good web courtesy? : NOT HURT A SPIDER (from “not hurt a fly”)
  [She swallowed the spider to catch the fly]
• 30A. Description of the start of some Road Runner cartoons? : ALONG CAME A BIRD (from “along came a spider”)
  [She swallowed the bird to catch the spider]
• 53A. Nibbles on Friskies? : EATS LIKE A CAT (from “eats like a bird”)
  [She swallowed the cat to catch the bird]
• 61A. Warning for a snoopy Snoopy? : CURIOSITY KILLED THE DOG (from “curiosity killed the cat”)
  [She swallowed the dog to catch the cat]
• 73A. Treatment for a milk hangover? : HAIR OF THE COW (from “hair of the dog”)
  [She swallowed the cow to catch the dog]
• 95A. Line that might not calm down Richard III? : DON’T HAVE A HORSE (from “don’t have a cow”)
  [There was an old lady who swallowed a horse…
  She’s dead, of course!]

Bill’s time: 18m 31s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Plymouth Reliant, e.g. : K-CAR

The Dodge Aries (and the Plymouth Reliant) were Chrysler’s first “K-cars”, introduced in 1981. The K-cars were designed to carry 6 passengers, on two bench seats. Remember taking a corner a little too fast on those seats, in the days when no one wore seat belts?

5. Spanish cathedral city : LEON

León is a province in the autonomous community of Castile and León in the northwest of Spain. The province’s capital is the city of León, which was founded as Roman military encampment around 29 BC.

13. Flakes in geology class : MICA

Mica is a mineral, a sheet silicate. Thin sheets of mica are transparent and are used in place of glass in certain applications. This form of mica is called isinglass, and as it has a better thermal performance than glass it is a great choice for “peepholes’ in boilers and lanterns. Mica is also used in the electronics industry, making use of its unique electrical and thermal insulating properties.

17. Language that gave us “bard” : ERSE

The original “bards” were storytellers, poets and composers of music in medieval Britain and Ireland, with the term coming from the Old Celtic word “bardos” that described a poet or singer. I guess the most famous bard was William Shakespeare, the “Bard of Avon”.

There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be Gaeilge (in Ireland), Gaelg (on the Isle of Man) and Gaidhlig (in Scotland).

18. Magazine founder Eric : UTNE

The “Utne Reader” is known for aggregation and republishing of articles on politics, culture and the environment from other sources in the media. The “Utne Reader” was founded in 1984, with “Utne” being the family name of the couple that started the publication.

19. Graceful leap : JETE

A “jeté” is a leap in ballet, coming from the French word “jeter” meaning “to throw”. A “jeté en avant” is a “leap to the front”, towards the audience. A “grand jeté” is a long horizontal jump, a split in the air, leaping from one foot to the other.

20. Wasn’t plumb : LEANED

“Plumbum” is the Latin for lead, explaining why the symbol of the element in the Periodic Table is “Pb”. It also explains why the original lead weight on the end of a line used to check vertical was called a “plumb line”. And, as pipes were originally made of lead, it also explains why we would call in a “plumber” if one of them was leaking.

26. Snack cake that can be deep-fried : TWINKIE

The snack cakes called Twinkies have been around since 1930. They were created by a baker called James Dewar, who chose the name from a billboard advertising “Twinkle Toe Shoes”. The original filling in the cake was a banana cream, but this was swapped out as a result of rationing during WWII. The vanilla cream became so popular that the banana recipe was dropped completely.

27. Author Morrison : TONI

The writer Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Amongst other things, Morrison is noted for coining the phrase, “our first black President”, a reference to President Bill Clinton.

28. Bening of “The Kids Are All Right” : ANNETTE

The marvelous actress Annette Bening is from Topeka, Kansas. Bening has been married to actor Warren Beatty since 1992. The pair married about a year after starring together in the 1991 film “Bugsy”.

“The Kids Are All Right” is an entertaining 2010 movie with a fabulous cast that includes Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Mia Wasikowska. Bening and Moore play a lesbian couple, with each of them having given birth to a child using the same sperm donor. Ruffalo plays the sperm donor, and Wasikowska plays the elder of the two children.

29. Proof-ending abbr. : QED

The initialism QED is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. QED stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

30. Description of the start of some Road Runner cartoons? : ALONG CAME A BIRD (from “along came a spider”)

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner are two much-loved cartoon characters from Warner Bros. Wile E. Coyote was created first, and Road Runner was invented as someone for Wile E. to play off. I love this cartoon; definitely one of the best …

“Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey”, in the popular nursery rhyme. A tuffet is a low seat or a footstool, another word for a pouffe or a hassock. When milk curdles it separates into two parts, the solid curds and the liquid whey. Then “along came a spider and sat down beside her”.

33. Foot bone : TALUS

The collection of seven bones in the foot just below the ankle are known collectively as the tarsus. One of those bones is the talus (plural “tali”), more commonly called the ankle bone. The talus is the lower part of the ankle joint and articulates with the lower ends of the tibia and fibula in the lower leg.

36. Graceful leap : AXEL

An Axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. It was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 World Figure Skating championships.

38. Non-discriminatory hiring abbr. : EOE

Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE)

43. “Erie Canal” mule : SAL

The song “Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal” was written in 1905. The lyrics are nostalgic and look back to the days when traffic on the canal was pulled by mules, bemoaning the introduction of the fast-moving engine-powered barges. The first line is “I’ve got an old mule and her name is Sal”.

45. Frequent mother-and-child painter : CASSATT

Mary Cassatt was an American painter from Pennsylvania who moved to France at the young age of 22 years, in 1866. By which time she was already studying to become a professional artist. Cassatt became friends with Edgar Degas, who invited her to exhibit with the group called “the Impressionists”, who were garnering a great deal of attention at the time. Cassatt’s reputation as a great artist is perhaps built on an extensive series of paintings of mothers with a child.

47. Last verb in the Gettysburg Address : PERISH

I admit to having profound respect and admiration for great speeches delivered by great men and great women. Forgive me as I reproduce here the full text of Abraham Lincoln’s memorable Gettysburg Address:
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.”

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

49. Bar game : LIMBO

The limbo dance originated on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. The name “limbo” is an alteration of our word “limber”, which isn’t surprising given what one has to do to get under that bar!

53. Nibbles on Friskies? : EATS LIKE A CAT (from “eats like a bird”)

The Friskies brand is known today as a cat food, although it was first introduced as a dry dog food in 1930.

56. Supreme Roman : EMPEROR

Ancient Rome went through three distinct periods. From 753 to 509 BC, Rome was a kingdom, founded by the legendary Romulus. The Roman Republic lasted from 509 to 27 BC. The Republic started with the overthrow of the last monarch, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and replacement by two elected consuls who were advised by a senate. The Republic evolved over time, but came to an end when Octavian expanded his power and declared himself “First Citizen”, and effectively became Rome’s first Emperor and took the name Caesar Augustus. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, formally ending in 476 CE when the last emperor, Romulus Augustus was deposed. The Eastern Roman Empire survived as the Byzantine Empire that was centered on Constantinople.

58. Pamplona’s kingdom : NAVARRE

Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain that shares a border with France. The capital of Navarre is Pamplona, the city famous for the “running of the bulls”.

59. ’70s extremist gp. : SLA

The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was founded in 1973 by an escapee from the prison system, Donald DeFreeze. The group’s manifesto promoted the rights of African Americans although, in the 2-3 year life of the group, DeFreeze was the only black member. Famously, the SLA kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst in 1974. Hearst apparently fell victim to what is called the Stockholm syndrome and became sympathetic to her captors’ cause. She joined the SLA and assumed the name “Tania”.

60. Boast opener : VENI

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BC and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

61. Warning for a snoopy Snoopy? : CURIOSITY KILLED THE DOG (from “curiosity killed the cat”)

Snoopy is a central and much-loved character in the Charles M. Schulz comic strip “Peanuts”. He is Charlie Brown’s pet beagle, and first appeared in “Peanuts” just two days after the strip’s debut in 1950. He was identified as “Snoopy” a month later, and first “spoke” (in a thought balloon) in 1952. Initially depicted as a more traditionally dog-like figure, Schulz started to anthropomorphize Snoopy in 1952, first drawing him upright on his hind legs in 1952, while ice-skating on a frozen lake.

The proverb “curiosity killed the cat” dates back at least to the late 1500s. The original form of the proverb was “care killed the cat”, with “care” used in the sense of “worry, sorrow”. Shakespeare uses the phrase in his 1599 play “Much Ado About Nothing”.

What, courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.

69. Chilean pronoun : ESO

The land of Chile has a very distinctive shape. It is a narrow strip that runs up the west coast of South America. The average width of the country is only a little over 100 miles, and yet its length is about 2,700 miles. Chile is touted as the longest country in the world, although I am not so sure what that means exactly. I mean, Russia extends about 4,800 miles from east-to west, so maybe “longest” implies long in the north-south direction?

73. Treatment for a milk hangover? : HAIR OF THE COW (from “hair of the dog”)

The “hair of the dog” is an alcoholic drink that is taken to lessen the symptoms of an existing hangover. The expression is written more completely as “the hair of the dog that bit you”. It originated with the belief that if a dog bit someone, placing some hairs of the dog into the wound who fend off the potential of rabies. The more contemporary practise is to treat a hangover with a glass of the same alcoholic drink that caused it in the first place.

78. 1921 Valentino role : SHEIK

“The Sheik” is a 1921 silent movie starring Rudolph Valentino in the title role. The film is based on a bestselling 1919 novel of the same name by English author Edith Maude Hull. Valentino reprised his role in a 1926 sequel called “The Son of the Sheik”, and indeed also played his character’s own son. “The Son of Sheik” was to be Valentino’s last film, and was released about two weeks after his death.

Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor who emigrated to the US when he was 18 years old. He developed a Hollywood career in silent movies that propelled him to the status of sex symbol in the twenties. Valentino died very young, having being admitted to hospital with appendicitis and gastric ulcers. He underwent surgery and developed peritonitis, and passed away when he was only 31 years old.

79. Breastbones : STERNA

“Sternum” (plural “sterna”) is the Latin name for the breastbone. “Sternon” is a Greek for “chest, breastbone”.

83. __ Moines : DES

The city of Des Moines is the capital of Iowa, and takes its name from the Des Moines River. The river in turn takes its name from the French “Riviere des Moines” meaning “River of the Monks”. It looks like there isn’t any “monkish” connection to the city’s name per se. “Des Moines” was just the name given by French traders who corrupted “Moingona”, the name of a group of Illinois Native Americans who lived by the river. However, others do contend that French Trappist monks, who lived a full 200 miles from the river, somehow influenced the name.

85. Jackie’s designer : OLEG

Oleg Cassini, the French-born American fashion designer, had two big names particularly associated with his designs. In the sixties he produced the state wardrobe for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and he was also the exclusive designer for Hollywood’s Gene Tierney, who was Cassini’s second wife.

88. Record, in a way : TIVO

TiVo was introduced in 1999 and was the world’s first commercially successful Digital Video Recorder (DVR).

89. Mystery author Grafton : SUE

Sue Grafton writes detective novels, and her “alphabet series” features the private investigator Kinsey Millhone. She started off with “A Is for Alibi” in 1982 and is working her way through the alphabet, most recently publishing “’W’ is for Wasted” in 2009. Apparently Ms. Grafton is working on her “X is for …” novel, and has already decided that “Z is for Zero” will be the final title in the series. What a clever naming system!

95. Line that might not calm down Richard III? : DON’T HAVE A HORSE (from “don’t have a cow”)

The phrase “don’t have a cow” originated in the fifties, a variation of the older “don’t have kittens”. The concept behind the phrase is that one shouldn’t get worked up, it’s not like one is giving birth to a cow.

“Richard III” is one of the more famous of William Shakespeare’s historical plays. A well-known 1955 version of the play was made for the big screen with Laurence Olivier playing the title role. The most oft-quoted words from “Richard III” are probably the opening lines “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York”, and Richard’s plea at the climax of battle “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”

99. Tool for Cinderella : MOP

The folk tale about “Cinderella” was first published by French author Charles Perrault in 1697, although it was later included by the Brothers Grimm in their famous 1812 collection. The storyline of the tale may date back as far as the days of Ancient Greece. A common alternative title to the story is “The Little Glass Slipper”.

101. The __: Horace works : ODES

One of Ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets was Quintus Horatius Flaccus, or “Horace” as we tend to know him. Horace’s most famous work is probably his collection of Latin lyric poems titled “Carmina” (the Latin for “Odes).

106. 1958 hit that won the first Song of the Year Grammy : VOLARE

The song we know as “Volare” doesn’t actually have that name. It’s real name is “Nel blu dipinto di blu” (translating as “In the Blue Painted Blue”). The Italian lyrics tell of how the singer feels like he is flying when he is with his lover (“volare” is the Italian for “to fly”). The original version has a prelude, which helps put the “blue” and the “flying” in perspective … “I think that a dream like that will never return; I painted my hands and my face blue, then was suddenly swept up by the wind and started to fly in the infinite sky.”

117. Large septet : SEAS

The phrase “the seven seas” has been used for centuries by many different peoples. The actual definition of what constitutes the collection of seven has varied depending on the period and the culture. Nowadays we consider the seven largest bodies of water as the seven seas, namely:

• The North Pacific Ocean
• The South Pacific Ocean
• The North Atlantic Ocean
• The South Atlantic Ocean
• The Indian Ocean
• The Southern Ocean
• The Arctic Ocean

Down

1. Surrey neighbor : KENT

Kent is a county in the southeast of England. Kent is a little unusual in that it shares a “land” border with France. That border nominally exists halfway through the Channel Tunnel, one end of which comes to surface in the Kent port of Folkestone.

Surrey is an English county located just to the southwest of London. Among the many historic locations in Surrey is Runnymede, famous for the signing of Magna Carta by King John in 1215.

2. Fox’s fabled flattery victim : CROW

“The Fox and the Crow” is one of Aesop’s Fables. In the story, a crow is eating a piece of cheese in a tree. A fox wants the cheese, and flatters the crow and goads it into singing. When the song opens its bill to let out a caw, the cheese falls to the ground and is eaten by the fox.

3. Italian sparkler : ASTI

Asti is a city in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. The region is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.

4. Burger successor : REHNQUIST

William Rehnquist served as an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1972 when he was appointed by President Nixon. When Chief Justice Warren Burger retired in 1986, President Reagan nominated Rehnquist to fill the vacant position. Rehnquist died in office in 2005 and was replaced as Chief Justice by John Roberts, who was in the process of being confirmed as an Associate Justice at the time.

Warren E. Burger served as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1969, after being nominated by President Nixon. Burger served until retiring in 1986, making him the longest-serving Chief Justice of the 20th century.

7. Bump-log link : ON A

Someone who is idle, inactive might be said to be “like a bump on a log”.

9. Muslim spirit : DJINN

The “genie” in the bottle takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, I know, but still quite interesting …

12. Lang. of Luther : GER

Martin Luther wrote his “95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of the Indulgences” in 1517, a document that is often seen as the spark that set off the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s main argument was that the Catholic Church’s practice of granting “indulgences”, forgiveness from punishment for sins, was wrong. It was especially wrong when such indulgences were granted in exchange for money.

14. Ab __: from the start : INITIO

“Ab initio” is a Latin term meaning “from the beginning”.

15. Middle of England? : CENTRE

Not only is Noah Webster’s name inextricably linked with his series of dictionaries, but he is also renowned as an advocate for English spelling reform. He argued that “traditional” English is hard to learn, and that it should be simplified and standardized (instead of “standardised”). He published spelling books that were used in schools, and from edition to edition he changed the spelling of words in order to simplify the language. Examples are the use of “s” over “c” in words like “defense” (in Ireland we have defence and defense depending on usage), “-re” became “-er” as in center instead of centre (reversing the influence of French), and he dropped one of the Ls in words like traveler (I learned “traveller”). Mind you, he also spelled “tongue” as “tung”, but he didn’t get very far with that one.

21. Sicilian province or its capital : ENNA

The city of Enna sits very high up in the hills of Sicily, overlooking the whole island below. Enna is the capital of the province that bears its name, which is the highest province in the whole of Italy.

23. Maui music makers : UKES

The ukulele (uke) originated in the 1800s and mimicked a small guitar brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian islands. Maui is sometimes called the “Valley Isle” as it is composed of two volcanoes to the northwest and southeast of the island, each with numerous beautiful valleys carved into them.

28. Port-au-Prince pal : AMI

Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti. The city was hit by a devastating earthquake in January of 2010. The official government estimate of the death toll stands at 230,000 people, with many bodies never recovered.

30. Pink-slip : AXE

The term “pink-slip” can be used as a verb meaning “to terminate an employee”. No one really seems to know for sure where the term originated, but there are lots of stories.

33. Middle X, in a game : TAC

When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

34. Roman wings : ALAE

In Latin, an “avis” (bird) has “alae” (wings).

35. Hall of Fame WNBA star __ Leslie : LISA

Lisa Leslie is a former professional basketball player who played in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks. Leslie is rather tall, and was the first player to dunk the ball in a WNBA game.

40. Books with legends : ATLASES

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas”.

42. Savings plan letters : IRA

Individual retirement account (IRA)

50. Sitcom with the episode “Stable for Three” : MR ED

The sitcom “Mister Ed” first aired in 1961 and ran for almost five years. It was a very successful show (and even made it to Ireland!). Mister Ed, the talking horse, was a palomino that had the real name of Bamboo Harvester. Mister Ed’s “voice” was that of actor Allan “Rocky” Lane, a star of a lot of B-movie westerns from the forties and fifties. In the show, Mister Ed would only talk to the lead (human) character Wilbur, played by Alan Young, leading to some hilarious situations. Mister Ed had a stunt double and stand-in for the show, another horse called Pumpkin. Pumpkin later made frequent appearances on the show “Green Acres”.

51. Lead singer on “The Joshua Tree” : BONO

Irish singer Bono is a Dubliner, born Paul David Hewson. As a youth, Hewson was given the nickname “Bono Vox” by a friend, a Latin expression meaning “good voice”, and so the singer has been known as Bono since the late seventies. His band’s first name was “Feedback”, later changed to “The Hype”. The band members searched for yet another name and chose U2 from a list of six names suggested by a friend. They picked U2 because it was the name they disliked least …

“The Joshua Tree” is a 1987 album by Irish band U2 that really propelled the band into the realm of superstars. The album spawned three hit singles: “With or Without You”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Where the Streets Have No Name”.

54. Green Hornet’s driver : KATO

In “The Green Hornet” television series, Kato was famously played by Bruce Lee. The Kato role has been cited as a driving force behind the increase in popularity of martial arts in the US during the sixties.

57. First book of the New Testament : MATTHEW

The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament in the Christian Bible. Despite the book’s title, the author is not named, with the words “according to Matthew” added about two centuries after it was written.

59. Feudal peasant : SERF

A serf was a member of the lowest feudal class, someone attached to land owned by a lord. “Serf” comes from the Latin “servus”, meaning “slave”.

61. Pickup artists? : CABS

A hansom cab is a very specific design of horse and buggy that was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834 in England. The “cab” in the name is short for “cabriolet”, an earlier design of carriage on which the hansom was based. It’s from “hansom cab” that we get our modern term “cab”.

62. Bountiful locale : UTAH

The city of Bountiful is in the northern part of Utah, and serves as a bedroom community for Salt Lake City. Bountiful was settled back in 1847, the second settlement in Utah right after Salt Lake City. It was originally called Sessions Settlement after the first settler, Perrigrine Sessions, and later North Canyon Ward. The name Bountiful was adopted in 1855, taking the name of a city in the Book of Mormon.

65. Turkish coin : LIRA

The currency of Turkey is the Turkish lira, which is divided into 100 kuruş. In 1927, the Turkish lira replaced the Ottoman lira, which had been in use since 1844.

66. Corp. raider’s ploy : LBO

A leveraged buyout (LBO) is a transaction in which an investor acquires a controlling volume of stock in a company, but buys that stock with borrowed funds (hence “leveraged”). Often the assets of the acquired company are used as collateral for the borrowed money. There is a special form of LBO known as a management buyout (MBO) in which the company’s own management team purchase the controlling interest.

The business strategy known as “corporate raiding” really is pretty ruthless and short sighted (excuse my being judgmental). The idea is to buy a large interest in a corporation, sometimes “stealthily”, by buying up a significant number of voting shares. Then, the raider uses the power of the voting rights to convince other voters to change the way the company is run, purely to increase the share price in the relatively short term. The changes often involve replacement of the management team, downsizing and even liquidation of the company, all for short term, personal gain. Corporate raider, Gordon Gekko said in the 1987 movie “Wall Street”, “greed is good”, but I wonder is he right?

72. Devastating 2008 hurricane : IKE

2008’s Hurricane Ike was the third-most costly tropical cyclone in history in terms of property damage, after Katrina (#1) and Hurricane Sandy (#2). Ike was particularly devastating in Haiti, Cuba and Texas

73. Comic strip mother of Hamlet and Honi : HELGA

“Hägar the Horrible” is a comic strip that was created by the late Dik Browne and is now drawn by his son, Chris Browne. “Hägar the Terrible” (not “Horrible”) was the nickname given to Dik by his sons. The strip’s title character is a red-bearded Viking living on the Norwegian coast during the Middle Ages. Hägar lives with his overbearing wife Helga, his sensitive son Hamlet, his pretty daughter Honi, and his clever dog Snert.

74. “You __”: Lionel Richie hit : ARE

“You Are” was a 1983 hit for Lionel Richie. Richie co-wrote “You Are” with his wife at that time, Brenda Harvey Richie.

Singer-songwriter Lionel Richie got his big break as a singer and saxophonist with the Commodores starting in 1968. Richie launched a very successful solo career in 1982. Richie is the father of socialite Nicole Richie, childhood friend of Paris Hilton and co-star on the Fox show “The Simple Life”.

76. Departure notice? : OBIT

“Obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”, originally the record of the death of a person, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

77. Emulated Arachne : WOVE

In Greek and Roman mythology, Arachne was a mortal woman who was a great weaver. Arachne boasted that her weaving was greater than that of the goddess Athena (or Minerva in Roman myth), and this was proven true in a contest. As a result, Arachne was turned into a spider by Athena. “Arachne” is the Greek word for spider.

84. With 92-Down, Monopoly prop. bordering the Electric Company : STATES …
(92D. See 84-Down : … AVE)

States Avenue is a property in the game of Monopoly. It is one of the pink properties, along with St. Charles Place. The street names in the US version of Monopoly are locations in or around Atlantic City, New Jersey.

86. Russian Civil War fighter : COSSACK

After the February and October Revolutions of 1917, Russia fell into a complex civil war that lasted several years. Most of the fighting took place between the Bolshevik Red Army and the counter-revolutionary White Army, which was a loose alliance of several interest groups ranging from monarchists and capitalists to non-communist socialists. There were also Green Armies that fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, and foreign forces that mobilized against the Red Army. By the end of the Russian Civil War, the former Russian Empire had split into several sovereign nations (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) with the remainder forming the Soviet Union.

87. Maximilian I’s realm: Abbr. : HRE

The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) existed from 962 to 1806 AD and was a territory of varying size over the centuries that centered on the Kingdom of Germany. The HRE was a successor to the western half of the Ancient Roman Empire.

89. Chihuahua neighbor : SONORA

Sonora is the state in Mexico that lies just south of the borders with Arizona and New Mexico. Sonora is the second-largest state in the country, after Chihuahua.

Chihuahua is a state in northern Mexico that shares a border with Texas and New Mexico. Chihuahua is the largest state in the country, so has the nickname “El Estado Grande”. The state takes its name from the Chihuahuan Desert which lies largely within its borders. The Chihuahua breed of dog takes its name from the state.

90. Ben and Sam : UNCLES

Uncle Ben’s is a famous brand of rice introduced in 1943. It was the biggest selling brand of rice in the US from the fifties through the nineties. As one might imagine, the name “Uncle Ben” is pretty offensive and Mars, who owns the brand now, have tried to distance themselves from the African-American slave/domestic servant image. In 2007 there was a TV campaign showing “Uncle Ben” as Chairman of the Board of the company. But, he is still called Uncle Ben …

The Uncle Sam personification of the United States was first used during the War of 1812. The “Uncle Sam” term was so widely accepted that even the Germans used it during WWII, choosing the codeword “Samland” for “America” in intelligence communiques.

95. Bed cover : DUVET

A “duvet” is a large flat bag that is filled with down, feathers or a synthetic substitute that is used as a top cover for a bed. Although a duvet is similar to what is called a “comforter” in the US, there is a difference. A duvet is often has an easily removed cover that is usually laundered at the same time as the bottom sheet and pillowcases. We use them a lot in Europe, and generally without a top sheet due to the ease of laundering.

96. Playwright Moss : HART

Moss Hart was a playwright and theater director from New York City. Hart wrote a memoir called “Act One” that told of his childhood and his struggle to achieve success on Broadway. The book was adapted into a 1963 film and a stage play that premiered in 2014.

97. Baklava sweetener : HONEY

Baklava is a very sweet and rich (and delicious) dessert pastry made from layers of filo dough filled with nuts and sweetened with honey or syrup. The name “baklava” comes from the Ottoman Turkish name for the pastry.

98. Glade targets : ODORS

Glade is a brand of air fresheners that was first introduced in 1956.

99. “The Wrong Sort of Bees” author : MILNE

“The Wrong Sort of Bees” is a story by A. A. Milne that was published in the Christmas Eve issue of the “London Evening News” in 1925. Milne later adapted the “The Wrong Sort of Bees” into the first chapter of his most successful volume of stories, “Winnie-the-Pooh”, which was published the following year.

103. Shipping deduction : TARE

“Tare” is the weight of a container that is deducted from the gross weight to determine the net weight, the weight of the container’s contents.

107. “__ Not Easy Being Green” : IT’S

“Bein’ Green” is the signature song of Kermit the Frog, Jim Henson’s puppet character that appeared on “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show”. The song is also known by first line “It’s not easy bein’ green”.

108. Soul seller : KIA

The Kia Soul is a compact car produced in South Korea, although it was designed by Kia here in the US, in Irvine, California. Yep, the Kia Soul is made in Seoul …

109. Nantes negative : NON

Nantes is a beautiful city located on the delta of the Loire, Erdre and Sèvre rivers. It has the well deserved nickname of “The Venice of the West”. I had the privilege of visiting Nantes a couple of times on business, and I can attest that it really is a charming city …

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1. Plymouth Reliant, e.g. : K-CAR

5. Spanish cathedral city : LEON

9. Yawner : DRAG

13. Flakes in geology class : MICA

17. Language that gave us “bard” : ERSE

18. Magazine founder Eric : UTNE

19. Graceful leap : JETE

20. Wasn’t plumb : LEANED

22. Practice good web courtesy? : NOT HURT A SPIDER (from “not hurt a fly”)

25. With merchandise, say, as payments : IN KIND

26. Snack cake that can be deep-fried : TWINKIE

27. Author Morrison : TONI

28. Bening of “The Kids Are All Right” : ANNETTE

29. Proof-ending abbr. : QED

30. Description of the start of some Road Runner cartoons? : ALONG CAME A BIRD (from “along came a spider”)

33. Foot bone : TALUS

36. Graceful leap : AXEL

37. Clarifying words : AS IN

38. Non-discriminatory hiring abbr. : EOE

39. Et __ : ALII

40. Cruised through : ACED

41. Cool play area, maybe : RINK

43. “Erie Canal” mule : SAL

45. Frequent mother-and-child painter : CASSATT

47. Last verb in the Gettysburg Address : PERISH

49. Bar game : LIMBO

53. Nibbles on Friskies? : EATS LIKE A CAT (from “eats like a bird”)

56. Supreme Roman : EMPEROR

58. Pamplona’s kingdom : NAVARRE

59. ’70s extremist gp. : SLA

60. Boast opener : VENI

61. Warning for a snoopy Snoopy? : CURIOSITY KILLED THE DOG (from “curiosity killed the cat”)

68. Scads : A TON

69. Chilean pronoun : ESO

70. Cellphone setting : VIBRATE

71. Rock band member : BASSIST

73. Treatment for a milk hangover? : HAIR OF THE COW (from “hair of the dog”)

78. 1921 Valentino role : SHEIK

79. Breastbones : STERNA

81. Not let go of : BELABOR

83. __ Moines : DES

85. Jackie’s designer : OLEG

86. Tobacco plug : CHAW

88. Record, in a way : TIVO

89. Mystery author Grafton : SUE

91. Distinctive flavor : TANG

93. Like details you’d rather be spared : GORY

94. In the stars : FATED

95. Line that might not calm down Richard III? : DON’T HAVE A HORSE (from “don’t have a cow”)

99. Tool for Cinderella : MOP

100. Remove from the box : UNCRATE

101. The __: Horace works : ODES

102. Small detail : MINUTIA

106. 1958 hit that won the first Song of the Year Grammy : VOLARE

107. Song that inspired this puzzle : I KNOW AN OLD LADY

110. Puts up : ERECTS

111. Level : TIER

112. Humor that evokes winces : CORN

113. Myrtle or hazel : TREE

114. Thing to do : TASK

115. Postulates : SAYS

116. Joint for jumping : KNEE

117. Large septet : SEAS

Down

1. Surrey neighbor : KENT

2. Fox’s fabled flattery victim : CROW

3. Italian sparkler : ASTI

4. Burger successor : REHNQUIST

5. Shocking : LURID

6. Kitchen extension? : -ETTE

7. Bump-log link : ON A

8. Snugly situated : NESTLED

9. Muslim spirit : DJINN

10. Make anew, as a trench : REDIG

11. Downed : ATE

12. Lang. of Luther : GER

13. Pretend : MAKE BELIEVE

14. Ab __: from the start : INITIO

15. Middle of England? : CENTRE

16. Threw in : ADDED

20. Housekeeping concern : LINENS

21. Sicilian province or its capital : ENNA

23. Maui music makers : UKES

24. Combine : POOL

28. Port-au-Prince pal : AMI

30. Pink-slip : AXE

31. “That’s enough!” : CAN IT!

32. Poses : ASKS

33. Middle X, in a game : TAC

34. Roman wings : ALAE

35. Hall of Fame WNBA star __ Leslie : LISA

36. Ones seeking change : ACTIVISTS

40. Books with legends : ATLASES

41. Warehouse job : RECEIVING

42. Savings plan letters : IRA

44. European peak : ALP

46. “This comes __ surprise” : AS NO

47. Leave in the garage : PARK

48. Kept down : HELD AT BAY

50. Sitcom with the episode “Stable for Three” : MR ED

51. Lead singer on “The Joshua Tree” : BONO

52. Not a copy: Abbr. : ORIG

54. Green Hornet’s driver : KATO

55. Trick ending? : -ERY

57. First book of the New Testament : MATTHEW

59. Feudal peasant : SERF

61. Pickup artists? : CABS

62. Bountiful locale : UTAH

63. Left the ground : ROSE

64. Advantage : INSIDE TRACK

65. Turkish coin : LIRA

66. Corp. raider’s ploy : LBO

67. Cad : HEEL

72. Devastating 2008 hurricane : IKE

73. Comic strip mother of Hamlet and Honi : HELGA

74. “You __”: Lionel Richie hit : ARE

75. Launches : CATAPULTS

76. Departure notice? : OBIT

77. Emulated Arachne : WOVE

80. Word with musical or muscle : TONE

82. Reel partner : ROD

84. With 92-Down, Monopoly prop. bordering the Electric Company : STATES …

86. Russian Civil War fighter : COSSACK

87. Maximilian I’s realm: Abbr. : HRE

89. Chihuahua neighbor : SONORA

90. Ben and Sam : UNCLES

92. See 84-Down : … AVE

93. Gathered steam : GREW

94. Affectionate : FOND

95. Bed cover : DUVET

96. Playwright Moss : HART

97. Baklava sweetener : HONEY

98. Glade targets : ODORS

99. “The Wrong Sort of Bees” author : MILNE

102. Seconds : MORE

103. Shipping deduction : TARE

104. Planning session input : IDEA

105. Positive words : AYES

107. “__ Not Easy Being Green” : IT’S

108. Soul seller : KIA

109. Nantes negative : NON

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