Category: Max Schlenker

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Constructed by: Max Schlenker
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): I hear the Door’ll End It

Themed answers each end with an “dawl” sound:

• 17A Primatologist who wrote “The Chimpanzees of Gombe” : JANE GOODALL
• 27A Plaything made from a clothespin, perhaps : WOODEN DOLL
• 49A Actress/entrepreneur whose son is Lorenzo Lamas : ARLENE DAHL
• 63A Lentil dish from western India : GUJARATI DAL

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

Bill’s time: 6m 31s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Say “I’ll be there,” maybe : RSVP

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

14 Aspire laptop maker : ACER

Acer’s Aspire line is a series of personal computers, both desktops and laptops, that were introduced in 1999.

15 Firenze locale : ITALIA

In Italian, “Roma” (Rome) and “Firenze” (Florence) are cities in “Italia” (Italy).

17 Primatologist who wrote “The Chimpanzees of Gombe” : JANE GOODALL

Jane Goodall is a British anthropologist famous for studying wild chimpanzees in Africa for 45 years. Working at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, Goodall made many discoveries. She was the first to see chimps constructing and using tools, an activity thought to be limited to the human species. She also found out that chimpanzees are vegetarians.

20 Jungian inner self : ANIMA

The concepts of anima and animus are found in the Carl Jung school of analytical psychology. The idea is that within each male there resides a feminine inner personality called the anima, and within each female there is a male inner personality known as the animus.

21 Photographer Goldin : NAN

Nan Goldin is an American photographer who works out of New York, Berlin and Paris. She is known for her work featuring LGBT models, and for images highlighting the HIV crisis and the opioid epidemic.

22 Provo resident : UTAHN

Provo, Utah is a city located just over 40 miles south of South Lake City. It is home to Brigham Young University. The city was originally called Fort Utah, and the name was changed to Provo in 1850 in honor of Étienne Provost. Provost was a French-Canadian fur trader who was perhaps the first man of European descent to see the Great Salt Lake.

26 Double __ Oreos : STUF

Double Stuf Oreos were introduced in 1975, and have twice the normal amount of white cream filling as the original cookie. Nabisco really went big in 2013, introducing the Mega Stuf Oreo that has even more white cream filling.

35 Fictional gentleman thief Lupin : ARSENE

Arsène Lupin is a character created by the French writer Maurice Leblanc. Leblanc was writing in the days of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and his gentleman detective Lupin is as popular in the French-speaking world as Sherlock Holmes is in English.

36 Brazilian port : RIO

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo). “Rio de Janeiro” translates as “January River”. The name reflects the discovery of the bay on which Rio sits, on New Year’s Day in 1502.

37 Locally organized lecture series : TEDX

The acronym “TED” stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design”. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as “TED Talks”. There are also TEDx events, which are locally-run talks presented under license from TED.

43 Cartoon girl whose best friend is Boots : 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.

45 Director Ang : LEE

Ang Lee is a Taiwanese-born filmmaker who has directed several critically acclaimed and commercially successful movies. He has worked in a variety of genres, including romantic comedies (“Sense and Sensibility”), dramas (“Brokeback Mountain”), and superhero movies (“Hulk”).

49 Actress/entrepreneur whose son is Lorenzo Lamas : ARLENE DAHL

Arlene Dahl is an American movie actress who was quite famous during the 1950s. Among her screen credits was playing the female lead in 1959’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, alongside James Mason and Pat Boone.

Lorenzo Lamas is an actor from Santa Monica, California who is best known perhaps for playing the character Hector Ramirez on the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful”. Lamas-Craig’s stepmother was Esther Williams, who married his father when Lorenzo was eleven years old.

53 Fish sought by Marlin and Dory : NEMO

“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 animated blockbuster from Pixar. The film was the winner of the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Believe it or not, “Finding Nemo” is the best-selling DVD of all time and, until 2010’s “Toy Story 3”, it was the highest-grossing, G-rated movie at the box office.

54 Like udon, ramen, and pho : ASIAN

Udon noodles are made from wheat-flour and are very popular in Japanese cuisines such as tempura.

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food. It is often ordered with a side of hanh dam, pickled white onions.

62 Moroccan cap : FEZ

A fez is a red, cylindrical hat worn mainly in North Africa, and by Shriners here in the US. The fez used to be a very popular hat across the Ottoman Empire. The etymology of “fez” is unclear, although it may have something to do with the Moroccan city named Fez.

63 Lentil dish from western India : GUJARATI DAL

Gujarat is an Indian state located along the country’s west coast. It is India’s fifth largest and ninth-most populous state.

66 Issa of “Barbie” : RAE

Issa Rae is a Stanford University graduate who created a YouTube web series called “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl”. Rae also plays the title role in the series, a young lady named “J”. “Awkward Black Girl” was adapted into an HBO comedy-drama called “Insecure”, in which Issa Rae stars.

The 2023 fantasy comedy movie “Barbie” stars Margo Robbie in the title role and Ryan Gosling as Ken. It was directed by Greta Gerwig, who also co-wrote the script with her partner Noah Baumbach. I highly recommend this one …

69 Meditation sounds : OMS

“Om” is a sacred mystic word from the Hindu tradition. “Om” is sometimes used as a mantra, a focus for the mind in meditation.

70 High-calorie cakes : TORTES

A torte is a type of cake made primarily with eggs, sugar and ground nuts (but no flour).

Down

1 Punjabi prince : RAJA

Punjab is the most populous province in Pakistan and is home to over half of the country’s citizens. “Punjab” (also “Panjab”) translates as “Five Waters”, a reference to five rivers that form tributaries to the Indus River: Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.

2 Virus check : SCAN

A computer virus has characteristics very similar to a virus found in nature. It is a small computer program that can copy itself and can infect another host (computer).

3 “__, vidi, vici” : 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 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

5 Tech-focused exec : CIO

Chief information officer (CIO)

7 Absurdist art movement : DADA

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement was launched in Zurich, Switzerland by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire. The same group frequently expressed disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

Absurdism is a philosophy holding that the universe is meaningless and irrational. Further, it is the search for meaning that leads to individual and global conflict.

8 Joie de vivre : ELAN

“Joie de vivre” means “joy of living” in French. We use the phrase to mean the happy, carefree enjoyment of life, like when we finish our crossword puzzles …

9 “How Long __ Black Future Month?”: N.K. Jemisin collection : ‘TIL

Author N. K. Jemisin is a fantasy and sci-fi writer. She was the first author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel three times in a row, doing so for her “Broken Earth” trilogy of novels published in 2015 to 2017.

10 Port __: creamy French cheese : SALUT

Port Salut is a very mild, semi-soft cheese from France. The cheese’s name comes from the Trappist monks of Pert-du-Salut Abbey in the northwest of the country who developed it in the 1800s.

11 Taquería drink with tamarindo and horchata varieties : AGUA FRESCA

An agua fresca is a blended drink made with sugar and water flavored with fruit, cereal, flowers or seeds. Traditional aguas frescas are sold by street vendors, especially in Mexico and the American Southwest. Common flavorings are hibiscus and tamarind.

18 Lead-bearing ore : GALENA

Galena is the most commonly used mineral to produce lead. It is a form of lead sulfide. Galena is the state mineral of Missouri and of Wisconsin.

25 Buck : ONE CLAM

“Clam” is a slang term for “dollar”. It has been suggested that “clam” is a throwback to the supposed use of clams as units of currency in ancient cultures.

“Buck” is a slang word meaning “dollar”. The term has been around at least since 1856, and is thought to derive from the tradition of using buckskin as a unit of trade with Native Americans during the frontier days.

26 Eastern European language : SLOVENE

The Republic of Slovenia is a country in Central Europe that is bordered by Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. Given its geographic location, the country has been part of various realms over the centuries, most recently being part of Yugoslavia. Slovenia declared independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991, and is now a member of the European Union.

27 Mascara applicators : WANDS

Variants of mascara have been around a long time, and certainly there was a similar substance in use in ancient Egypt. “Mascara” is a Spanish word meaning “stain, mask”.

28 Film production company named for a constellation : ORION

Orion Pictures is a film studio that was relaunched in 2014, after having operated originally from 1978 to 1999. Orion is a relatively small studio, but has produced four Best Picture Oscar winners:

• Amadeus (1984)
• Platoon (1986)
• Dances with Wolves (1990)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The very recognizable constellation of Orion is named for the Greek god Orion, the Hunter. If you take a look at the star in Orion’s “right shoulder”, the second brightest star in the constellation, you might notice that it is quite red in color. This is the famous star called Betelgeuse, a red supergiant, a huge star that is on its way out. Betelgeuse is expected to explode into a supernova within the next thousand years or so. You don’t want to miss that …

29 Shuns : OSTRACIZES

The practice of ostracism, freezing out or exclusion, dates back to ancient Greece. Back then citizens could write the names of men they thought were exceptionally dangerous on tiles that were publicly posted, resulting in a banishment of ten years. “Ostracize” derives from the Greek “ostrakon”, the word for a “tile”.

30 Cantilevered window : ORIEL

An oriel window is a bay window that projects from a wall, but does not reach all the way to the ground.

A beam designated as a cantilever is one that is supported on only one end.

33 “Downton Abbey” sister : EDITH

In the hit TV series “Downton Abbey”, Lady Edith Crawley is played by actress Laura Carmichael. Lady Edith marries Bertie Pelham, becoming Edith Pelham, Marchioness of Hexham.

34 Laud : EXTOL

To extol something is to praise it loudly. The term “to extol” comes from the Latin “extollere” meaning “to raise up, elevate”.

40 “How Stella Got __ Groove Back” : HER

“How Stella Got Her Groove Back” is a 1998 romantic comedy based on a novel of the same title by Terry McMillan. The romantic leads are played by Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs.

44 Taj Mahal city : AGRA

Agra is a medieval city on the banks of the river Yamuna in India that was the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1658. The city is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

• The Taj Mahal: the famous mausoleum built in memory of Mumtaz Mahal.
• Agra Fort: the site where the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was seized.
• Fatehpur Sikri: a historic city that’s home to well-preserved Mughal architecture.

50 Main course : ENTREE

“Entrée” means “entry” in French. An entrée can be something that helps one get “a way in”, an interview for example perhaps helped along by a recommendation letter. In Europe, even in English-speaking countries, the entrée is the name for the “entry” to the meal, the first course. I found the ordering of meals to be very confusing when I first came to America!

54 Hairstyle for Diana Ross and Bob Ross : AFRO

Diana Ross is one of the most prolific recording artists in history. She sang with the Supremes from 1959 to 1970 and then launched an incredibly successful solo career. Ross was listed in the 1993 edition of “The Guinness Book of World Records” as the most successful music artist ever, with eighteen #1 records.

Bob Ross was an artist and art instructor. Ross created and appeared in the long-running PBS show “The Joy of Painting”, a show which provided instructions for budding artists. He was known for some colorful phrases that he tended to repeat on screen, one of the most famous being “let’s add some happy little trees”.

57 Links transport : CART

The oldest type of golf course is a links course. The name “links” comes from the Old English word “hlinc” meaning “rising ground”. “Hlinc” was used to describe areas with coastal sand dunes or open parkland. As a result, we use the term “links course” to mean a golf course that is located at or on the coast, often amid sand dunes. The British Open is always played on a links course.

60 Spreadsheet input : DATA

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

64 __, dos, tres : UNO

In Spanish, “Uno, dos, tres” (one, two, three) starts off a count.