Day: September 14, 2024

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Constructed by: Adrian Johnson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 14m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Car whose interior “looks like Darth Vader’s bathroom,” per Michael Knight : KITT

The 1982 crime television show called “Knight Rider” famously starred David Hasselhoff as well as a very cool, artificially intelligent car called KITT. KITT (which stands for Knight Industries Two Thousand) is a heavily modified Pontiac Trans Am.

16 Hugh Grant film based on a Nick Hornby novel : ABOUT A BOY

“About a Boy” is a 2002 film adaptation of a 1988 novel of the same name by Nick Hornby (who also wrote “High Fidelity” and “Fever Pitch”, which were also turned into successful movies). “About a Boy” stars Hugh Grant and Toni Collette, with Nicholas Hoult playing the title character. Hornby’s novel has now been adapted for the small screen, and a TV series of the same name premiered on NBC in 2014.

17 Lively presence in Hollywood? : BLAKE

Blake Lively is an actress who first came to public attention for playing one of the leads in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. She then took a starring role in the 2007 movie “Gossip Girl”. She met her future husband Ryan Reynolds while working with him on the 2011 film “Green Lantern”.

19 Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson __/White Flower No. 1” : WEED

“Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” is an oil on canvas that Georgia O’Keefe painted in 1932. When Walmart heiress Alice Walton purchased the work in 2014, she paid over $44 million dollars, the highest ever price paid at auction for a painting by a female artist.

Georgia O’Keeffe was an influential American artist, one who led the introduction of American art into Europe. Famously, she was married to photographer Alfred Stieglitz who helped develop her career in the early days. Georgia O’Keeffe’s last home was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she had done a lot of her work during her lifetime. She died there in 1986, at the ripe old age of 98. One of her most famous paintings is from 1926, called “Black Iris III”.

21 “Ghosts” actress McIver : ROSE

Rose McIver is an actress from New Zealand. She might be best known to American audiences for playing the lead in the supernatural crime drama TV series “iZombie” starting in 2015. She also headed the cast in three “A Christmas Prince” movies from 2017 to 2019.

“Ghosts” is an American sitcom that is based on a British series of the same name. I enjoyed the British version (haven’t seen the US show), which starred Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe. The leads play a married couple who inherit a country mansion that is haunted by some pretty wild ghosts. Only the wife can see the ghosts, and hilarity ensues …

22 Sandwiches since 1967 : BIG MACS

The iconic Big Mac sandwich was introduced nationally by McDonald’s in 1967. It was the creation of a Pittsburgh franchisee who offered it on the menu as a response to the very similar “Big Boy” sandwich offered by the competing Big Boy restaurant chain.

26 Boxing trainer Dundee : ANGELO

Angelo Dundee was the man in the corner of the ring for Muhammad Ali throughout his career. Dundee also trained actor Russell Crowe for his role in the 2005 movie “Cinderella Man”, and even made a cameo appearance in the film.

27 Make sense for : BEHOOVE

When it behooves someone to do something, it is that person’s responsibility or duty to do so.

33 2023 Pink album : TRUSTFALL

“Trustfall” is a 2023 album released by Pink. The two most successful singles from the album are the title track and “Never Gonna Not Dance Again”.

34 Metric speed meas. : KPH

Kilometers per hour (kph)

38 Land between the Atlantic and the Pyrenees : IBERIA

The Iberian Peninsula in Europe is largely made up of Spain and Portugal. However, also included is the Principality of Andorra in the Pyrénées, a small part of the south of France, and the British Territory of Gibraltar. Iberia takes its name from the Ebro, the longest river in Spain, which the Romans named the “Iber”.

43 Comm. system in the film “CODA” : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)

“CODA” is a 2021 movie, a remake of the 2014 French-Belgian film “La Famille Bélier”. The English-language version stars Emilia Jones as the only hearing member of a deaf family struggling with a fishing business in Gloucester, Massachusetts. “CODA” was the first film distributed by a streaming service (Apple TV+) to win a Best Picture Oscar. The title “CODA” is an acronym standing for “child of deaf adults”.

46 Follower of an aperitivo : ANTIPASTO

Antipasto (plural “antipasti”) is the first course of a meal in Italy. “Antipasto” translates as “before the meal”.

In Spain, the “aperitivo” is a snack that usually includes drinks, and that takes place before lunch. To me, it looks like a “warmer-upper” for lunch …

49 Hunt of “Mission: Impossible” : ETHAN

It was Tom Cruise’s idea to adapt the “Mission: Impossible” television series for the big screen, and it became the first project for Cruise’s own production company. Cruise took on the starring role of Ethan Hunt, the point man for the Impossible Missions Force (IMF).

51 Cereal mascot once voiced by Mel Blanc : TOUCAN SAM

Toucan Sam is the mascot of Kellogg’s Froot Loops breakfast cereal, and he can be seen on the front of every box. Froot Loops have been manufactured by Kellogg’s since 1963. The little loops come in different colors, originally red, orange and yellow, but now there are green, purple and blue loops as well. Notice I said “different colors” not “different flavors”. Each loop tastes the same, so I wonder where the color comes from …?

Mel Blanc was known as “The Man of a Thousand Voices”. We’ve all heard Mel Blanc at one time or another, I am sure. His was the voice behind such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Woody Woodpecker, Elmer Fudd and Barney Rubble. And the words on Blanc’s tombstone are … “That’s all folks”.

53 Language whose name translates to “one who hopes” : ESPERANTO

Esperanto is an international language specifically constructed to create some level of harmony between people from different parts of the world. It was created in the late 1800s by an ophthalmologist from modern-day Poland. Tens of thousands, and maybe even millions of people speak Esperanto, with some being taught it as a native language from birth.

54 Residencia : CASA

In Spanish, one’s “residencia” (residence) is usually one’s “casa” (house).

Down

1 Security org. dismantled in 1991 : KGB

The “Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti” (KGB) was the national security agency of the Soviet Union until 1991. The KGB was dissolved after the agency’s chairman led a failed attempt at a coup d’état designed to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

3 Chinese snacks with a marbled pattern : TEA EGGS

The tea egg is a dish from Chinese cuisine made by boiling an egg in water, cracking the shell, and then reboiling the egg in tea or a spiced sauce. Often sold as a snack food, the tea egg is also called a marble egg, referring to the marbled appearance of the cracked shell after boiling in a colored liquid.

6 Late notice? : OBIT

Our word “obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”. The Latin term was used for “record of the death of a person”, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

7 Accessories company with a “one for one” business model : TOM’S

Tom’s of Maine is a brand of personal-care products that emphasizes the use of natural ingredients and that does not test products on animals. The brand was introduced when Tom and Kate Chappell started their own company in Kennebunk, Maine in 1970. I’m a big fan of Tom’s lavender-scented deodorant …

10 The Ritz-Carlton owner : MARRIOTT

César Ritz was a Swiss hotelier, who had a reputation for developing the most luxurious of accommodations and attracting the wealthiest clientèle. He opened the Hotel Ritz in Paris in 1898 and the second of his most famous hotels, the Ritz Hotel in London, in 1906. Ritz was lucky in his career, as before starting his own hotel chain he had been dismissed from the Savoy Hotel in London, implicated in the disappearance of a substantial amount of wine and spirits. Today’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company was founded in 1983, although the chain has its roots in the properties developed by César Ritz.

24 Historic Buddhist monastery in the Songshan mountains : SHAOLIN

The Shaolin Monastery is a Buddhist temple in China that was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.

31 El __: second-largest city in Bolivia : ALTO

El Alto is the second-largest city in Bolivia, and is located right beside La Paz, the nation’s seat of government and administrative capital.

33 “Let’s go for a drive!” : TEE IT UP!

A tee is a small device on which, say, a golf ball is placed before striking it. The term “tee” comes from the Scottish “teaz”, which described little heaps of sand used to elevate a golf ball for the purpose of getting a clean hit with a club.

34 God celebrated on Janmashtami : KRISHNA

Krishna Janmashtami is an annual Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Krishna, the eighth of the ten avatars of Vishnu. The Sanskrit term “Janmashtami” comes from “janma” meaning “birth” and “ashtami” meaning “eight”.

35 Ornamental trees with acorns : PIN OAKS

The pin oak is also called the swamp Spanish oak. The name “pin oak” may have been given because the tree has many small and slender twigs. The name may also come from the fact that the hard wood from the tree was traditionally used to make wooden pins used in building construction.

36 Evil Queen’s disguise in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” : HAG

“Snow White” is a traditional German fairy tale that was published in 1812 in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. There is also a second, very different Grimms’ Fairy Tale called “Snow-White and Rose-Red”, not to be confused with its more famous cousin. In the latter tale, Snow-White and Rose-Red are sisters who get into trouble with a dwarf, but are rescued by a bear who turns into a prince.

37 Peruvian prairies : LLANOS

“Llano” is a Spanish word meaning “plain, flat region”. The Llanos is a vast grassland in the northwest of South America.

39 Hot : EROTIC

The name of Eros, the Greek god of love, gives rise to our word “erotic” meaning “arousing sexual desire”. Eros was referred to in Latin as both “Amor” (meaning “love”) and “Cupid” (meaning “desire”).

40 Online discount : E-BATE

An “e-bate” is a “rebate” offered online.

43 WNBA pt. : ASSN

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was founded in 1996. The WNBA had to compete with the American Basketball League (ABL), a professional women’s basketball league that started playing games the same year the WNBA was founded. The ABL folded in its third season.

48 Tennis star Ivanovic : ANA

Ana Ivanovic is a Serbian tennis player, and former world number one. As well as playing tennis, she also studied finance at university in her native Belgrade.

50 DOD arm : NSA

The National Security Agency (NSA) is an arm of the Department of Defense (DOD).