Category: Susan Gelfand

Advertisement

Constructed by: Susan Gelfand
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Wrench Set

Themed answers each end with a kind of WRENCH:

• 59A Good gift for a handy homeowner, and what the ends of 17-, 23-, 35-, and 49-Across are? : WRENCH SET

• 17A Ocular opening : EYE SOCKET (giving “socket wrench”)
• 23A Rum and vodka cocktail : BRASS MONKEY (giving “monkey wrench”)
• 35A Actress who played dance teacher Lydia Grant on “Fame” : DEBBIE ALLEN (giving “Allen wrench”)
• 49A Muffler attachment on a car : EXHAUST PIPE (giving “pipe wrench”)

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

Bill’s time: 4m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Famous __ cookies : AMOS

Wally Amos was a talent agent, one who was in the habit of taking home-baked cookies with him as an enticement to get celebrities to see him. He was urged by friends to open a cookie store (the cookies were that delicious, I guess) and this he did in Los Angeles in 1975 using the name “Famous Amos”. The store was a smash hit and he was able to build on the success by introducing his cookies into supermarkets. The brand was eventually purchased, making Wally a rich man, and Famous Amos cookies are still flying off the shelf. Wally Amos also became an energetic literacy advocate. He hosted 30 TV programs in 1987 entitled “Learn to Read” that provided reading instruction targeted at adults.

5 Iranian currency : RIAL

The rial is the currency of Iran (as well as Yemen, Oman and Tunisia). Generally, there are 1,000 baisa in one rial.

21 Peak in the Cascade Range : SHASTA

Mount Shasta is in northern California. The origin of the name “Shasta” seems to be unclear. It may have come from the Russian “tchastal” meaning “white, clean, pure”, a name given to the volcanic peak by early Russian immigrants.

23 Rum and vodka cocktail : BRASS MONKEY (giving “monkey wrench”)

A brass monkey cocktail is basically a screwdriver to which rum is added. The drink gained popularity after the Beastie Boys released their single “Brass Monkey” in 1987. One recipe is: one part dark rum, one part vodka, orange to taste, and served over ice.

To throw a monkey wrench into something is to sabotage it. Back in Ireland, we use the similar expression “to throw a spanner in the works” with the equivalent meaning. We don’t use the term “monkey wrench”, and call the same tool an “adjustable spanner”.

26 Some cars and trucks made in the early 1900s : REOS

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale 8 and the REO Flying Cloud.

32 V, on a battery : VOLTS

The volt is a unit of electric potential, or voltage. I always think of electrical voltage as something like water pressure. The higher the pressure of water (voltage), the faster the water flows (the higher the electric current that flows).

35 Actress who played dance teacher Lydia Grant on “Fame” : DEBBIE ALLEN (giving “Allen wrench”)

Debbie Allen is an actress, dancer and choreographer who is best known for playing dance teacher Lydia Grant on the great TV show “Fame” in the 1980s. Allen is the younger sister of actress Phylicia Rashad, who played Calir Huxtable on the sitcom “The Cosby Show”.

The Allen wrench (or “Allen key”, as we call it back in Ireland) is a successful brand of hex wrench that was trademarked in 1943 by the Allen Manufacturing Company of Hartford , Connecticut. However, the hex wrench had in fact been around since the mid-to-late 1800s.

49 Muffler attachment on a car : EXHAUST PIPE (giving “pipe wrench”)

A muffler is a device attached to an internal combustion engine that is designed to reduce noise from the exhaust. We don’t use the term “muffler” on the other side of the Atlantic, opting instead for “silencer”.

54 Patient care pros : RNS

Registered nurse (RN)

55 Song sung by sailors : SHANTY

A sea shanty (also “chantey”) is a song sung by sailors, often when they are working away on some repetitive task.

56 Capital of Oman : MUSCAT

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

58 Diviner’s deck : TAROT

Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future. The list of tarot cards includes the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man and the Lovers.

64 Green pod that thickens gumbo : OKRA

Gumbo is a type of stew or soup that originated in Louisiana. The primary ingredient can be meat or fish, but to be true gumbo it must include the “holy trinity” of vegetables, namely celery, bell peppers and onion. Okra used to be a requirement but this is no longer the case. Okra gave the dish its name as the vernacular word for the African vegetable is “okingumbo”, from the Bantu language spoken by many of the slaves brought to America.

67 Yellow jacket, for one : WASP

“Yellowjackets” is a name commonly used in North America for what are often referred to simply as “wasps” in other English-speaking parts of the world. Both terms describe several different species.

Down

1 Bonobo or gibbon : APE

The bonobo used to be called the pygmy chimpanzee, and is a cousin of the common chimpanzee. The bonobo is an endangered species that is now found in the wild only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. Along with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest species to humans genetically.

Gibbons are referred to as lesser apes as they differ in size and behavior from the great apes e.g. chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans.

10 Times New __: common font : ROMAN

Times New Roman is a typeface that was designed in 1931 for “The Times” (of London) newspaper. Although the typeface is still very popular today, “The Times” itself moved away from Times New Roman in the 1970s.

11 Baked __: dessert covered with meringue : ALASKA

The dessert known as baked Alaska consists of ice cream quickly baked in a sponge covered with meringue in an oven at high temperature. Supposedly, the dish was the 1867 creation of chef Antoine Alciatore as part of a celebration for the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire.

18 Wagering site, briefly : OTB

Off-track betting (OTB) is the legal gambling that takes place on horse races outside of a race track. A betting parlor can be referred to as an OTB.

24 Builds a nest egg : SAVES UP

A nest egg is an amount of money laid down as a reserve. This is the figurative use of “nest egg” that originally described an artificial egg left in a nest to encourage a hen to lay real eggs in that spot. So our financial nest egg is set aside in anticipation of continued growth, more eggs being laid.

25 Greek portico : STOA

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). We get our adjective “stoic”, meaning “indifferent to pleasure or pain”, from the same root.

“Portico” is an Italian word that describes a porch or roofed walkway leading to the entrance of a building.

31 Agcy. that helps entrepreneurs : SBA

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a government agency with the mission of assisting small businesses. The SBA doesn’t give loans itself, but it does act as a guarantor under the right circumstances. The SBA was set up in 1953, and isn’t a favorite with fiscal conservatives.

33 Pampering initials : TLC

Tender loving care (TLC)

34 “Buona __”: Italian “Good evening” : SERA

“Buona sera” is Italian for “good evening”.

38 Lincoln’s locale : NEBRASKA

The city of Lincoln is the second-largest in Nebraska, and is the state capital. In the days of the Nebraska Territory, the capital was the larger city of Omaha. When the territory was being considered for statehood, most of the population (which lived south of the River Platte) was in favor of annexation to Kansas. The pro-statehood legislature voted to move the capital nearer to that population in a move intended to appease those favoring annexation. As this conflict was taking place just after the Civil War, a special interest group in Omaha arranged for the new capital to be named Lincoln, in honor of the recently-assassinated president. The thought was that the populace south of the River Platte had been sympathetic to the Confederate cause and so would not pass the measure to move the capital if the Lincoln name was used. But the measure passed, the capital was moved, and Nebraska became the thirty-seventh State of the Union in 1867.

43 Prynne of “The Scarlet Letter” : HESTER

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”.

45 “Doctor Zhivago” actor Omar : SHARIF

Omar Sharif was a great Hollywood actor from Egypt, someone who played major roles in memorable movies such as “Doctor Zhivago” and “Lawrence of Arabia”. But to me, he was my bridge hero (referring to the card game). In his heyday, Sharif was one of the best bridge players in the world.

“Doctor Zhivago” is an epic novel by Boris Pasternak that was first published in 1957. I haven’t tried to read the book, but the 1965 film version is a must-see, directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif in the title role. The story centers on Yuri Zhivago, a doctor and poet, and how he is affected by the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War.

50 Battery part : ANODE

A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electric energy. A simple battery is made up of three parts: a cathode, an anode and a liquid electrolyte. Ions from the electrolyte react chemically with the material in the anode producing a compound and releasing electrons. At the same time, the electrolyte reacts with the material in the cathode, absorbing electrons and producing a different chemical compound. In this way, there is a buildup of electrons at the anode and a deficit of electrons at the cathode. When a connection (wire, say) is made between the cathode and anode, electrons flow through the resulting circuit from the anode to cathode in an attempt to rectify the electron imbalance.

57 Grub : CHOW

“Chow” is a slang term for “food” that originated in California in the mid-1800s. “Chow” comes from the Chinese pidgin English “chow-chow” meaning “food”.

61 Spigot : TAP

Back in the 15th century, a spigot was specifically a plug to stop a hole in a cask. Somewhere along the way, a spigot had a valve added for variable control of flow.