Category: Kelly Richardson

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Constructed by: Kelly Richardson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Very Punny

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted in a “punny” way, to suit the corresponding clues:

• 17A Spa for out-of-shape shoe forms? : LAST RESORT
• 33A Marking off the hours left to cram before the big exam? : FINAL COUNTDOWN
• 41A Homebuyer’s day-of-sale demand for a single window dressing? : CLOSING CURTAIN
• 60A Effects of months of glute workouts? : END RESULTS

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

Bill’s time: 6m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Sitcom pioneer Lucille : BALL

Lucille Ball was at the height of her success while she was married to Desi Arnaz. The couple met in 1940 and not long afterwards eloped. Lucy had several miscarriages before she gave birth to her first child in 1951, just one month before her fortieth birthday. A year and a half later, while “I Love Lucy” was garnering large audiences, she became pregnant with her second child, a pregnancy that was written into the television show’s script. In fact, the day that Lucy gave birth on the show, was the same day that she gave birth in real life.

10 Arthur __ Stadium: world’s largest tennis venue : ASHE

Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York opened in 1997, and is the largest outdoor, tennis-only venue in the world. The stadium was often criticized for not having a retractable dome to protect the playing surface from inclement weather. Well, that changed in 2016 when the stadium debuted its new retractable roof, a $150 million investment in the facility.

14 “Titans” actor Morales : ESAI

Esai Morales is not only a successful actor, he is also a trained martial artist, having studied the Korean martial art of taekwondo since he was a teenager.

“Titans” is a superhero TV show that first aired in 2018, and ran for four seasons. The title characters are relatively young, and based on the DC Comics characters known as Teen Titans.

15 __ Lama : DALAI

The Dalai Lama is a religious leader in the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th to hold the office. He has indicated that the next Dalai Lama might be found outside of Tibet for the first time, and may even be female.

16 Great Basin people : UTES

The Great Basin is a large region of the US covering most of Nevada, much of Utah and some parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and California. The 200,000 square mile area drains internally, with all precipitation sinking underground or flowing into lakes. Most of the lakes in the Great Basin are saline, including the Great Salt Lake, Pyramid Lake and the Humboldt Sink.

17 Spa for out-of-shape shoe forms? : LAST RESORT

A last is a wooden or metal (usually) form that is shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers when repairing and manufacturing shoes.

23 Himalayan bovine : YAK

The English word “yak” is an Anglicized version of the Tibetan name for the male of the species. Yak milk is much prized in Tibetan culture. It is made into cheese and butter, and the butter is used to make a tea that is consumed in great volume by Tibetans. The butter is also used as a fuel in lamps, and during festivals the butter is even sculpted into religious icons.

26 “Right now,” in texts : ATM

At the moment (ATM)

28 Ceiling metal : TIN

As the name implies, a tin ceiling is a ceiling finished with sections of tinplate. The sections usually have a design pressed into them.

39 Major artery : AORTA

The aorta originates in the heart and extends down into the abdomen. It is the largest artery in the body.

40 Writer Wiesel : ELIE

Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor, and is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was also the first recipient of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, which was later renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in his honor.

44 Animation frame : CEL

Animation cels are transparent sheets made of celluloid acetate that were used in traditional hand-drawn animation to create animated films. They were first introduced in the 1930s and were widely used in animation production until the late 1990s, when digital animation techniques began to dominate the industry.

47 Uru. neighbor : ARG

The Argentina–Uruguay border runs for 360 miles, and is defined by the course of the Uruguay River.

49 Spielberg film featuring a shark : JAWS

“Jaws” is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. “Jaws” was perhaps the first summer blockbuster and had the highest box office take in history up to that time, which was a record that stood until “Star Wars” was released two years later.

57 Fluffy-eared marsupial : KOALA

Koalas are not bears, but are marsupials, which means they carry their young in a pouch.They are known for their diet of eucalyptus leaves, which are toxic to most other animals. To cope with this, koalas have a special digestive system that allows them to break down the toxins and extract the nutrients from the leaves. Koalas are one of the sleepiest animals in the world, sleeping up to 20 hours a day. This is because eucalyptus leaves provide very little energy.

60 Effects of months of glute workouts? : END RESULTS

There are three gluteal muscles in the human body, the largest of which is the gluteus maximus. It’s the gluteus maximus which really dictates the shape and size of the human buttocks. In evolutionary terms, the human “glutes” (also “glutei”) are larger than those in related species because they play a big role in maintaining our erect posture.

64 Binary digit : ZERO
32D Binary digit : ONE

We use a base-ten numbering system, with ten digits (0 – 9). The binary system, or base-two, uses just two digits (0 & 1). The binary system is used at a fundamental level in computing, because the number 0 and 1 can be represented by microcircuits being switched “on” or “off”.

67 Muscat’s country : OMAN

Muscat is the capital of Oman. The city lies on the northeast coast of the state on the Gulf of Oman, a branch of the Persian Gulf.

Down

2 Carne __: steak dish : ASADA

The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

3 Sharper image innovation? : LASIK

LASIK surgery uses a laser to reshape the cornea of the eye to improve vision. The LASIK acronym stands for “laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis”.

6 Pesto herb : BASIL

Pesto sauce is more completely called “pesto alla genovese”, i.e. pesto from Genoa. A traditional recipe calls for crushed garlic, pine nuts, salt, basil leaves, parmesan cheese and olive oil. Yum …

11 Calzone cousin : STROMBOLI

A stromboli is a baked turnover in the pizza family. It isn’t a traditional Italian dish, but rather an American invention from in or around Philadelphia. A stromboli comprises pizza dough filled with Italian cheese(s) and often Italian cold cuts and vegetables. It is served hot, and resembles a calzone. A calzone is folded into a crescent shape, and a stromboli is rolled into the shape of a cylinder.

A calzone is like a pizza but with the dough base folded in half, forming a semicircle.

18 Afro-Cuban dance : RUMBA

The rumba (sometimes “rhumba”) is a Cuban dance, with influences brought by African slaves and Spanish colonists. The name “rumba” comes from “rumbo”, the Spanish word for “party, spree”.

25 Manhattan, e.g. : ISLAND

The island we know as Manhattan was inhabited by the Lenape Indians when the first Europeans explorers arrived in the area. According to the logbook of one of the officers on explorer Henry Hudson’s yacht, the island was called “Manna-hata” in the local language, from which the modern name derives.

27 CGI creatures in a superhero film series starring Paul Rudd : ANTS

In the Marvel universe, Ant-Man has been the superhero persona of three different fictional characters: Hank Pym, Scott Lang and Eric O’Grady. In the 2015 film “Ant-Man”, Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym, and Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang.

28 Tulle skirt : TUTU

The word “tutu”, used for a ballet dancer’s skirt, is actually a somewhat “naughty” term. It came into English from French in the early 20th century. The French “tutu” is an alteration of the word “cucu”, a childish word meaning “bottom, backside”.

Tulle is a lightweight net fabric that is often used in veils, wedding gowns and ballet tutus.

34 Quarantine : ISOLATION

The original use of our word “quarantine”, back in the 1500s, was as a legal term. A quarantine was the 40 days in which a widow had the legal right to reside in her dead husband’s house.

36 Tolkien monster : ORC

Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction as well as in fantasy video games.

38 Media-monitoring org. : FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been around since 1934, when it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.

42 Shakespearean betrayer : IAGO

In William Shakespeare’s “Othello”, Iago is the villain of the piece. At one point he readily admits this, saying “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse”. Here he is claiming to make money out of making fools of others. In this case, he takes money from Roderigo, who believes that Iago will help him bed Othello’s wife Desdemona.

48 “This isn’t my first __” : RODEO

“Not my first rodeo” means “not the first time I’ve done this”. The phrase started to be used after country singer Vern Gosdin released the song “This Ain’t My First Rodeo” in 1990. Gosdin said that he’d first heard the idiom from a workman who added an extra room over his garage.

49 Biblical betrayer : JUDAS

Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve original apostles who studied with Jesus. Notably, it was Judas who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, a transaction that led to the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

51 Capital of Oregon : SALEM

Salem is the state capital of Oregon. It is thought that the city takes its name from the older city of Salem, Massachusetts.

53 Lawyer Perry of classic TV : MASON

The iconic legal drama TV series “Perry Mason” originally ran from 1957 to 1966, with Raymond Burr in the title role. Mason was the creation of author Erle Stanley Gardner, and many of the TV episodes are based on one of the many stories penned By Gardner. The very recognizable theme music for the show was composed by Fred Steiner, and is titled “Park Avenue Beat”.

58 Anise-flavored Greek liquor : OUZO

Ouzo is an apéritif from Greece that is colorless and flavored with anise. Ouzo is similar to French pastis and Italian sambuca. All three liqueurs turn cloudy with the addition of water.

59 Vehicle with sliding side doors : VAN

The vehicle we call a “van” takes its name from “caravan”, and so “van” is a shortened version of the older term. Back in the 1600s, a caravan was a covered cart. We still use the word “caravan” in Ireland to describe what we call a “mobile home” or “recreational vehicle” here in the US.

61 Raised trains : ELS

Elevated railroad (El)