Category: Jesse Goldberg

Advertisement

Constructed by: Jesse Goldberg
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): UN Resolutions

Themed clues all start with the prefix “un-”. The clues also comprise an adjective followed by the noun from which the adjective is derived:

• 17A Unprincipled principles : DOUBLE STANDARDS
• 27A Unforced force : VOLUNTEER ARMY
• 44A Unfinished finish : CLIFFHANGER
• 59A Unnamed name : JOHN DOE

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

Bill’s time: 6m 16s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Boundary building of some quads : DORM

A university often features a central quadrangle (quad).

14 __-Z: classic Camaro : IROC

The IROC-Z is a model of Camaro that was introduced by Chevrolet in 1978. The IROC-Z takes its name from a famous stock car race, the International Race of Champions.

15 Hula or hora : DANCE

The hula is a native dance of Hawaii that uses arm movements to relate a story. The hula can be performed while sitting (a noho dance) or while standing (a luna dance).

The hora is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans. It was brought to Israel by Romanian settlers, and is often performed to traditional, Israeli folk songs. The hora (also “horah”) is a regular sight at Jewish weddings. Sometimes the honoree at an event is raised on a chair during the dance.

16 Flatpack furniture seller : IKEA

The IKEA furniture stores use the colors blue and yellow for brand recognition. Blue and yellow are the national colors of Sweden, where IKEA was founded and is headquartered.

20 Cosmetician Lauder : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales “volume” …

21 Only Canadian NBA city, for short : TOR

The Raptors are an NBA basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The franchise was founded, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies, when the NBA expanded into Canada in 1995. However, the Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001, leaving the Raptors as the only Canadian member of the league. The selection of the name “Raptors” in 1995 was strongly influenced by the popularity of the movie “Jurassic Park in the mid-nineties.

22 Illinois toll-paying convenience : I-PASS

I-Pass is an electronic toll collection system used in Illinois. The I-Pass transponder can also be used in toll plazas where E-ZPass is accepted.

33 Blake who was a longtime coach on “The Voice” : SHELTON

Blake Shelton is a country singer who is also known as a coach on the reality show “The Voice”. Shelton also served as a judge on the shows “Nashville Star” and “Clash of the Choirs”.

34 Long reference work, for short : OED

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

36 Savanna predator : LION

A savanna (also “savannah”) is a grassland. If there are any trees in a savanna, by definition they are small and widely spaced so that light can get to the grasses allowing them to grow unhindered.

38 Like some swarms : APIAN

Something described as apian is related to bees. “Apis” is Latin for “bee”.

50 Youngest woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, familiarly : AOC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a politician who is often referred to by her initials “AOC”. A Democrat, she was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, representing part of the Bronx, Queens and Rikers Island in New York City. When she took office in 2019 at the age of 29, AOC became the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress.

55 Like one of the houses destroyed by the Big Bad Wolf : STRAW

The Big Bad Wolf is a character in many folklore stories, including “Little Red Riding” and “Three Little Pigs”. Walt Disney’s version of the Big Bad Wolf is called Zeke Wolf, and has a son called Li’l Bad Wolf, or just “Li’l Wolf” to his friends.

The fairy tale about “The Three Little Pigs” has been around for centuries, although it first appeared in print in the 1840s. One little pig built a house using straw and another built one using wood. The cleverest little pig built its house using bricks.

57 “Ordinary Grace” novelist William __ Krueger : KENT

William Kent Krueger is a novelist and true crime writer. His most celebrated works are the extensive series of “Cork O’Connor” mystery novels, which are set in Minnesota.

58 Aussie college : UNI

In Australia (Down Under), and in Britain and Ireland, the term “uni” is used routinely for “university”.

59 Unnamed name : JOHN DOE

Though the English court system does not use the term today, “John Doe” first appeared as the “name of a person unknown” in England in 1659, along with the similar “Richard Roe”. An unknown female is referred to as “Jane Doe ”, and the equivalent to Richard Roe is Jane Roe (as in Roe v. Wade, for example). Variants of “John Doe” used outside of the courts are “Joe Blow” and “John Q. Public”.

65 Cheadle of the “Avengers” films : DON

Don Cheadle is a Hollywood actor who is perhaps best known for his lead role in the 2004 drama “Hotel Rwanda” that deals with the harrowing subject of genocide. Since then, Cheadle has been very active in campaigns to end genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

“The Avengers” is a 2012 movie that features a whole load of superheroes battling a supervillain called Loki. Loki is the brother of Thor, one of the superhero team. It was to be the first of a series of “Avengers” films.

66 50-Across, for one: Abbr. : DEM
[50A Youngest woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, familiarly : AOC]

The modern-day Democratic Party was founded in 1828, when supporters of Andrew Jackson broke away from the former Democratic-Republican Party during the presidency of John Quincy Adams. That date makes the Democratic Party the oldest voter-based political party in the world. Andrew Jackson became the first Democratic US president, in 1829.

67 Solve a KenKen puzzle, say : ADD

KenKen is an arithmetic and logic puzzle invented quite recently, in 2004 by a Japanese math teacher named Tetsuya Miyamoto. “Ken” is the Japanese word for “cleverness”.

Down

4 Ally in a courtroom : MCBEAL

“Ally McBeal” is a very successful television show that aired from 1997 to 2002. It starred Calista Flockhart in the title role, playing a successful lawyer. I must admit, I never watched the show, but I am told by a kind blog reader that it’s good viewing. It was created by David E. Kelley, who is also the man behind other successful legal dramas including “The Practice”, “Boston Legal” and “Harry’s Games’. Kelley is married to actress Michelle Pfeiffer.

5 Ike’s initials : DDE

Future US president Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas in 1890 and given the name David Dwight, but by the time he made it to the White House he was going by the name Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE). Growing up, his family called him Dwight, and when “Ike” enrolled in West Point he himself reversed the order of his given names.

8 Hester Prynne’s mark : SCARLET A

The main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter” is Hester Prynne. After the birth of her illegitimate daughter Pearl, she is convicted by her puritanical neighbors of the crime of adultery. Hester is forced to wear a scarlet “A” (for “adultery”) on her clothing for the rest of her life, hence the novel’s title “The Scarlet Letter”.

9 Face value? : TEN

The kings, queens and jacks in a deck of cards are known as face cards. In many card games, face cards are given a value of ten.

10 Huggies product : DIAPER

“Diaper” is another word that I had to learn when I moved to America. What are called “diapers” over here, we call “nappies” back in Ireland. The term “diaper” is actually the original term that was used in England for the garment, where “diaper” referred to the cloth that was used. The term “diaper” was brought to the New World where it stuck. Back in Britain, “diaper” was displaced by the word “nappy”, a diminutive of “napkin”.

11 Vegetable pod also called lady’s fingers : OKRA

The plant known as okra is mainly grown for its edible green pods. The pods are said to resemble “ladies’ fingers”, which is an alternative name for the plant. Okra is known as “ngombo” in Bantu, a name that might give us the word “gumbo”, the name for the name of the southern Louisiana stew that includes okra as a key ingredient.

12 Malbecs, e.g. : REDS

Malbec is a red wine grape that used to be mainly associated with Bordeaux. A frost killed off much of the crop in Bordeaux in the fifties, and today Malbec wines are more closely linked to Argentina and California. I must admit to being a fan of Malbec blends …

18 Infiniti rival : LEXUS

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota. Lexus cars were originally developed as part of a top-secret project within Toyota that was code-named “F1” (Flagship One). The goal was to create a luxury car that could compete with the best in the world.

19 Backless sofa : DIVAN

Divans are essentially couches without backs or arms. The design originated in the Middle East, where the couches were commonly found lining the walls of an office that was known as a “divan” or “diwan” meaning “government office”.

26 Decal type : IRON-ON

A decal is a decorative sticker. “Decal” is a shortening of “decalcomania”. The latter term is derived from the French “décalquer”, the practice of tracing a pattern from paper onto glass or perhaps porcelain.

29 Younger “ManningCast” host : ELI

“Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli”, also known as “ManningCast”, is an alternate, live broadcast of Monday Night Football hosted by brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. It is produced by Peyton’s production company Omaha Productions. And airs on ESPN2 and ESPN+. The show premiered in 2021, and In its first season averaged 1.1 million viewers, which was more than double the viewership of the traditional Monday Night Football broadcast on ABC. The Manningcast was also the most-watched program on ESPN+ in its first season.

43 Jordan Spieth’s org. : PGA

Jordan Spieth is a golfer from Dallas who made a name for himself in 2015 by becoming the second-youngest person to win the Masters, with only Tiger Woods being younger.

45 Comprehend : FATHOM

To fathom something is to comprehend it, to get to the bottom of something. The verb comes from the noun “fathom”, the unit used in measuring the distance between the surface and “the bottom” of a body of water.

46 Traffic cacophony : HORNS

“Cacophony” is such a lovely word, a word used to describe a harsh or jarring sound. The term arises from the Greek “kakos” (bad) and “phone” (voice).

47 Only national park in New England : ACADIA

Acadia National Park in Maine was created in 1919, although back then it was called Lafayette National Park in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette who famously supported the American Revolution. The park was renamed to Acadia in 1929.

48 In flux : FLUID

A flux is a continuous flow or continuous change. The term derives from the Latin adjective “fluxus” meaning “flowing, loose”.

49 Repetitive musical movement : RONDO

A rondo was often chosen by composers in the classical period for the last movement of a sonata (or symphony or concerto, for that matter). In rondo form there is a principal theme that alternates with a contrasting theme(s). So, the original theme anchors the whole piece in between secondary digressions.

53 Frightful site? : STAGE

A frightful site to get stagefright would be a stage 🙂

59 “The West Wing” prez : JED

In the excellent television show “The West Wing”, President Jed Bartlet is played by Martin Sheen. Sheen also played real-life President John F. Kennedy in the miniseries “Kennedy: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy”.