Day: April 20, 2023

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Constructed by: Dan Schwartz & Shannon Rapp
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Don’t Double Down

Themed answers each comprise a common two-word phrase, with both words the same:

• 17A Double bond? : PROMISES PROMISES
• 26A Double check? : TESTING TESTING
• 43A Double fault? : EXCUSES EXCUSES
• 58A Double jump? : SURPRISE SURPRISE!

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

Bill’s time: 7m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Book that presents world views? : ATLAS

The first modern atlas was published in 1570 by Abraham Ortelius, a Flemish cartographer. It was called “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum” (Theater of the World).

11 Mo. town : STL

The city of St. Louis, Missouri was settled by French explorers in 1763. Sitting on the Mississippi River, it grew into a very busy port. By the 1850s, it was the second busiest port in the country, with only New York moving more freight. St. Louis was named for Louis IX of France. Louis was canonized in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII, and was the only French king to be declared a saint.

14 Finned predator : SHARK

Up until the 1500s, sharks were referred to by seamen as “sea dogs”. And that’s how we got the name “dogfish” for the family of sharks.

15 Spicy Korean cabbage : KIMCHI

Kimchi is a traditional dish from Korea. The original kimchi is made from fermented vegetables, and is pretty strong stuff …

20 Shady, in gamer lingo : SUS

“Sus” is a slang term meaning “suspicious”.

21 Novelist Deighton : LEN

I used to walk my dog right past author Len Deighton’s house years ago, as we lived in the same seaside village in Ireland (probably my only claim to “fame”). Deighton wrote the excellent espionage thriller “The IPCRESS File”, which was made into a 1965 movie starring Michael Caine.

22 Early Canon autofocus camera : SURE SHOT

The very successful Canon AF35M line of compact cameras was sold in the US using the brand name “Sure Shot”. The first Sure Shot hit the shelves in 1979.

34 “Double Indemnity” novelist : CAIN

Novelist James M. Cain had a string of hit novels in the 1930s and 1940s, several of which were adapted into successful films. That list includes “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1934), “Double Indemnity” (1936) and “Mildred Pierce” (1941). Even though Cain also worked as a screenwriter, he never had a successful film script, despite the success of his novels that others adapted.

“Double Indemnity” is a classic film noir released in 1944 and starring Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson and Barbara Stanwyck. Based on the James M. Cain novella of the same name, it’s all about a woman who kills her husband for insurance money. The title “Double Indemnity” refers to the double payout clause in the life insurance policy in the event of an accidental death. And that’s what the wife tried to show investigators, that the death was accidental.

37 __ Whip: frozen pineapple treat : DOLE

James Dole lent his name to today’s Dole Food Company. He was known as the Pineapple King, as he developed the pineapple industry in Hawaii and founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, the forerunner to the Dole Food Company. Dole might have had some help on the way, as he was a cousin of Sanford B, Dole, President of the Republic of Hawaii from 1894 to 1900.

40 __ Lanka : SRI

The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.

41 Explorer with a talking backpack : DORA

“Dora the Explorer” is a cartoon series shown on Nickelodeon. Part of Dora’s remit is to introduce the show’s young viewers to some Spanish words and phrases. Dora’s constant companion is an anthropomorphic monkey named “Boots”, because he always wears red boots. She also hangs out with Isa, an iguana.

42 “O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop / To help me after!” speaker : JULIET

The lines “O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop / To help me after!” are spoken by Juliet in Act V, Scene 3 of William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”. Juliet has just discovered that Romeo has killed himself after drinking a potion that she had given him. She is angry and frustrated that Romeo did not save some of the potion for her so that she could die with him. Juliet is calling Romeo a churl because she believes that he was selfish to drink all of the potion without saving any for her.

47 Lil Wayne’s “__ Block Is Hot” : THA

“Tha Block Is Hot” is a 1999 song recorded by rap artist Lil Wayne. The track features fellow rappers B.G. and Juvenile.

48 Gridiron units : YARDS

We never used the word “gridiron” when I was growing up in Ireland (meaning a grill used for cooking food over an open fire). So, maybe I am excused for taking two decades living in the US to work out that a football field gridiron is so called because the layout of yard lines over the field looks like a gridiron used in cooking.

54 Emmy-winning sportscaster Buck : JOE

Sportscaster Joe Buck spent most of his career working for Fox Sports as a play-by-play announcer. Joe’s father was Jack Buck, a celebrated play-by-play announcer mainly for the St. Louis cardinals.

55 Dish with yellow or red lentils : DAL

I love dal dishes, which are prepared from various peas or beans (often lentils) that have been stripped of their outer skins and split. Dal is an important part of Indian cuisines. I suppose in Indian terms, split pea soup (another of my favorites) would be called a dal.

62 Many a “Grey’s Anatomy” character : INTERN

The very successful hospital drama “Grey’s Anatomy” has been on television since 2005. The title is a reference to the show’s central character, Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo), as well as a reference to the classic human anatomy textbook commonly called “Gray’s Anatomy”.

63 Indian, for one : OCEAN

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world’s oceans, and accounts for almost 20% of the Earth’s surface. It was named for the country of India, which forms much of the ocean’s northern boundary.

65 Market where an amphora may be found : AGORA

In early Greece, an agora was a place of assembly. The assemblies held there were often quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a marketplace. Our contemporary word “agoraphobia” comes from these agorae, in the sense that an agoraphobe has a fear of open spaces, a fear of “public meeting places”.

An amphora is a ceramic vase with two handles on either side of a long neck. The name “amphora” is Latin, coming from the Greek meaning “on both sides of the carrier”, referring to the two carrying handles.

66 __ Bay Rays : TAMPA

The Tampa Bay Rays MLB team is a relatively young franchise, having been formed in 1998. The initial name of the franchise was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. While known as the Devil Rays, the team finished last in the league almost every year. The name was changed to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, and I am told the Rays started into a streak of winning seasons soon after.

Down

1 Nile vipers : ASPS

The asp is a small to medium-sized snake, typically growing to between 18 and 30 inches in length. It has a distinctive triangular head and a dark, zigzag pattern along its back.

3 Landlocked country on the Mekong : LAOS

The present-day nation of Laos can trace its roots back to the historic Lao kingdom of Lan Xang that existed from 1354 to 1707. The full name of the kingdom was “Lan Xang Hom Khao”, which translates as “The Land of a Million Elephants and the White Parasol”.

At over 2,700 miles in length, the Mekong is the twelfth longest river in the world. It rises in the Tibetan Plateau and empties into the South China Sea at the famed Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

6 Base figs. : GIS

The initialism “GI” stands for “Government Issue”, and not “General Infantry” as is widely believed. “GI” was first used in the military to denote equipment made from Galvanized Iron and during WWI, incoming German shells were nicknamed “GI cans”. Soon after, the term GI came to be associated with “Government Issue” and eventually became an adjective to describe anything associated with the Army.

7 Strike callers : UMPS

Back in the 15th century, “an umpire” was referred to as “a noumpere”, which was misheard and hence causing the dropping of the initial letter N. The term “noumpere” came from Old French “nonper” meaning “not even, odd number”. The idea was that the original umpire was a third person called on to arbitrate between two, providing that “odd number” needed to decide the dispute.

8 Linen color : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

10 Speed chess equipment : TIMERS

Speed chess is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. There is speed, and there is speed:

• Rapid chess: each player has 15 minutes to make all of their moves.
• Blitz chess: each player has 5 minutes to make all of their moves.
• Bullet chess: each player has 3 minutes to make all of their moves.

12 __ James of “The White Lotus” : THEO

Theo James is an English actor who is perhaps best known for playing Tobias Eaton (aka “Four”) in the “Divergent” series of movies.

“The White Lotus” is a comedy-drama TV series about the fictional White Lotus chain of resort hotels. The first season is set in Hawaii, and the second in Sicily. Each season covers a week’s stay at a White Lotus resort. The first season is set in Hawaii, and the second in Sicily. A white lotus flower is symbolic of purity and innocence. Most of the guests and staff at “The White Lotus” are far from pure and innocent. Very enjoyable television, I thought …

15 “Antiracist Baby” author Ibram X. __ : KENDI

Author Ibram X. wrote 2020’s “How to Be an Antiracist”, which made it to the top spot of the New Times Best Seller list. Kendi also founded and serves as director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University.

23 __ carotene : BETA

Carotene is an orange pigment that plants use in the process of photosynthesis. Carotene gives carrots their orange color, and it is carrots that give the pigment its name. “Carota” is the Latin for “carrot”. Carotene is found in nature in two structural forms: alpha-carotene and the more common beta-carotene.

24 Request that rhymes with “One more!” : ENCORE!

“Encore” is French for “again, one more time”, and is a shout that an audience member will make here in North America to request perhaps another song. But, the term is not used this way in France. Rather, the audience will shout “Bis!”, which is the Italian for “twice!”

27 Andromeda, e.g. : GALAXY

Our galaxy is the Milky Way, and the nearest “spiral galaxy” to ours is the Andromeda Galaxy. Andromeda is not the nearest galaxy, as that honor belongs to the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy.

29 “Cats” star Elba : IDRIS

English actor Idris Elba played the drug lord Stringer Bell in the marvelous HBO drama series “The Wire”, and played the title character in the 2013 film “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”. Off the screen, Elba occasionally appears as a disk jockey using the name “DJ Big Driis”.

The 2019 movie “Cats” is a much-panned big screen adaptation of the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical of the same name. Great musical, horrible film …

30 Squat : NONE

“Squat” is a slang term for “nothing”. “Squat” and the variant “Jack squat”, probably have a distasteful derivation that is related to a bodily function.

33 Brothers known for “Duck Soup” and “Animal Crackers” : MARX

The five Marx Brothers were born to Minnie and Frenchy Marx in New York City. The more famous older boys were Chico, Harpo and Groucho. Zeppo was the youngest brother, and he appeared in the early Marx Brothers movies. The fifth son was called Gummo, and he decided to pursue a different career off the stage.

“Duck Soup” is a Marx Brothers film that was released in 1933. There were four Marx Brothers in the cast for this film: Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo. It was to be the last film for Zeppo, who then headed off on a second career as an engineer and then a theatrical agent.

“Animal Crackers” was a successful 1928 Broadway play that was adapted into a very popular 1930 movie of the same name starring the Marx Brothers. Central to the film’s plot is the disappearance of a valuable painting during a party thrown to honor a famed African explorer (played by Groucho). Groucho has a line in the film that is listed as #53 in the American Film Institute’s “100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time”:

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.

38 Where to hang on the line? : BUS DEPOT

Our term “depot”, meaning “station, warehouse”, comes from the French word “dépôt”. The French term translates into English as “deposit” or “place of deposit”.

44 Southwest sch. with architecture inspired by Bhutan : UTEP

Much of the University of Texas at El Paso (then called the “School of Mines and Metallurgy”) was destroyed in a fire in 1916. When the school was rebuilt, the structures were designed to resemble Bhutanese fortresses called “dzongs”. The choice of architecture was driven by the wife of the school’s dean, as she had a fascination for the style.

45 Islamic law : SHARIA

Sharia law is the Islamic legal system that governs many things like crime, politics and economics as well as many aspects of personal behavior. Sharia law is based on the Quran as well as the Hadith, the latter being a set of opinions and life examples from the prophet Muhammad.

46 Louisiana cuisine : CAJUN

Cajun cuisine is named for the French-speaking Acadian people who were deported from Acadia in Canada to Louisiana in the 18th century.

50 Sound of a happy tabby : PURR

Tabbies aren’t a breed of cat, but rather are cats with particular markings regardless of breed. Tabbies have coats with stripes, dots and swirling patterns, and usually an “M” mark on the forehead.

53 Stag or doe : DEER

A male deer is usually called a buck, and a female is a doe. However, the male red deer is usually referred to as a stag. The males of even larger species of deer are often called bulls, and the females called cows. In older English, male deer of over 5 years were called harts, and females of over 3 years were called hinds. The young of small species are known as fawns, and of larger species are called calves. All very confusing …

57 Singer Horne : LENA

Lena Horne was an American jazz singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne started her career as a nightclub singer and then began to get some meaty acting roles in Hollywood. However, she ended up on the blacklist during the McCarthy Era for expressing left wing political views. One of Horne’s starring roles was in the 1943 movie “Stormy Weather” for which she also performed the title song.

59 Mme., in Mallorca : SRA

The Island of Majorca (“Isla Mallorca” in Spanish) is Spain’s largest island, and is located in the Mediterranean Sea. The population of the island ballooned over the past few decades as Majorca became a mecca for tourists from all over Europe.

60 Early TV brand : RCA

RCA, or the Radio Corporation of America, played a significant role in the history of television as a pioneer in the industry. RCA developed and introduced the first electronic television system in 1939 at the New York World’s Fair. RCA also created the NTSC (National Television System Committee) broadcast standard, which was adopted in the United States in 1953 and is still used today for analog television broadcasting. Additionally, RCA produced the first color television sets in 1954.