Category: Taylor Johnson

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Constructed by: Taylor Johnson & Chandi Deitmer
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Double Bill

Themed answers each comprise the title of a PLAY/film WITHIN another PLAY/film’s title:

• 123A Embedded narrative, and a description of the answer to each starred clue : PLAY WITHIN A PLAY

• 23A *”This should be just right, my furry friends”? : AS YOU CATS LIKE IT (“Cats” within “As You Like It”)
• 32A *Peculiar pair at the office? : THE ODD COMPANY COUPLE (“Company” within “The Odd Couple”)
• 53A *Things that make you go hmm … ? : THE DOUBT PRODUCERS (“Doubt” within “The Producers”)
• 69A *Salon pro who’s a genius with AquaNet? : THE HAIR SPRAY WIZ (“Hairspray” within “The Wiz”)
• 92A *Lament from a Red Sox fan? : DAMN WICKED YANKEES (“Wicked” within “Damn Yankees”)
• 109A *Eerie Midwestern downtown area? : A STRANGE CHICAGO LOOP (“Chicago” within “A Strange Loop”)

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

Bill’s time: 16m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Some small dogs : TOYS

The toy group of dogs is made up of the smallest breeds. The smallest of the small breeds are sometimes called teacup breeds.

5 Musubi wrap : NORI

Nori is an edible seaweed that we used to know as “laver” when we were living in Wales. Nori is usually dried into thin sheets. Here in the US, we are most familiar with nori as the seaweed used as a wrap for sushi.

Spam musubi is a snack food comprising a slice of grilled Spam and a block of rice, both wrapped in nori (dried edible seaweed from traditional Japanese cuisine). Spam musubi are particularly popular in Hawaii and Guam.

14 African capital where Akan is spoken : ACCRA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

21 Russian crepes : BLINI

A blintz (also “blintze” and “blin”, plural “blini”) is a thin pancake similar to a crêpe, although unlike a crêpe, a blintz may contain yeast.

22 Frasier’s brother : NILES

In the sitcom “Frasier”, Niles is the brother of the title character Frasier Crane. Frasier is played by Kelsey Grammer and Niles is played by David Hyde Pierce. Frasier was originally intended to be an only child in the show’s storyline, but the producers decided to add a brother when they noted the remarkable similarity in appearance between David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer.

23 *”This should be just right, my furry friends”? : AS YOU CATS LIKE IT (“Cats” within “As You Like It”)

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s source material for his hit musical “Cats” was T. S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”. Eliot’s collection of whimsical poems was published in 1939, and was a personal favorite of Webber as he was growing up. My wife and I have seen “Cats” a couple of times and really enjoyed it …

“As You Like It” is one of Shakespeare’s comedies. It tells the tale of Rosalind fleeing from her Uncle’s court along with her cousin Celia and the court jester Touchstone. Rosalind lives in exile in the Forest of Arden, disguised as a male shepherd called Ganymede. The play is perhaps most memorable for an oft-quoted monologue that starts with:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players …

26 Liquid-Plumr rival : DRANO

To clean out drains we might buy Crystal Drano, which is sodium hydroxide (lye) mixed with sodium nitrate, sodium chloride (table salt) and aluminum. The contents of Drano work in concert to clear the clog. The lye reacts with any fats creating soap which may be enough to break up the clog. Also, the finely-divided aluminum reacts with the lye generating hydrogen gas that churns the mixture. Any hair or fibers are cut by the sharp edges of the nitrate and chloride crystals. Having said all that, I find that boiling water poured down the drain quite often does the job …

28 Fair-hiring initials : EEO

“Equal Employment Opportunity” (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.

31 Color that is equal parts blue and green : CYAN

“Cyan” is short for “cyan blue”. The term comes from the Greek word “kyanos” meaning “dark blue, the color of lapis lazuli”.

32 *Peculiar pair at the office? : THE ODD COMPANY COUPLE (“Company” within “The Odd Couple”)

“Company” is a comedy stage musical by Stephen Sondheim that premiered on Broadway in 1970. The show was originally titled “Threes”, a reference to the three girlfriends that the main character juggles.

“The Odd Couple” is a play by the wonderfully talented Neil Simon that was first performed on Broadway, in 1965. This great play was adapted for the big screen in 1968, famously starring Jack Lemmon (as Felix Unger) and Walter Matthau (as Oscar Madison). The success of the play and the film gave rise to an excellent television sitcom that ran from 1970-1975, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. In 1985, Neil Simon even went so far as to adapt the play for an all-female cast, renaming it “The Female Odd Couple”. I’d like to see that one …

40 Bout enders, briefly : TKOS

Technical knockout (TKO)

41 “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” director Lemmons : KASI

“Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody” is a 2022 biographical musical film about the life of singer Whitney Houston. English actress Naomi Ackie plays the title role.

42 Dwarf planet named for a goddess of discord : ERIS

Eris is the largest known dwarf planet in our solar system. It is also the ninth largest body orbiting the sun, a fact that helped relegate Pluto (the tenth largest body) from its status of planet in 2006. Eris was discovered in 2005, and named for the goddess of discord.

43 MYOB part : OWN

Mind your own business (MYOB)

45 Dam on the Nile : ASWAN

The Aswan Dam on the River Nile is actually two dams. The Low Dam was first built in 1902 (and modified later). The High Dam was completed in 1970.

49 Escher museum site, with “The” : … HAGUE

“Den Haag” is the Dutch name for the city in the Netherlands that we know in English as “The Hague”. Even though the Hague is the seat of the Dutch parliament and is where Queen Beatrix resides, it is not the country’s capital city. That honor goes to Amsterdam.

M. C. Escher was a graphic artist from the Netherlands. Escher was noted for creating works inspired by mathematics, often works that were physical impossibilities. One such work is “Drawing Hands” (1948) in which a pair of hands emerge from a piece of paper and actually draw themselves. He also created a drawing in which a group of red ants are crawling around a Möbius strip, never reaching the end.

52 Sleepy pal : DOC

In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale called “Snow White”, the seven dwarfs were not given any names. The names were added for the 1937 classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The seven dwarfs are:

• Doc (the leader of the group)
• Grumpy (that would be me, according to my wife …)
• Happy
• Sleepy
• Bashful
• Sneezy
• Dopey

53 *Things that make you go hmm … ? : THE DOUBT PRODUCERS (“Doubt” within “The Producers”)

“Doubt: A Parable” is a play by John Patrick Shanley that premiered off-Broadway in 2004. It won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2005. It was adapted into a very powerful 2008 film titled “Doubt” starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

“The Producers” is a 1968 satirical movie written and directed by Mel Brooks, and was indeed the first film he ever directed. Brooks adapted the movie into a hugely successful Broadway musical that won a record 12 Tony Awards. The original leads in the stage show, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, then appeared in a 2005 movie adaptation of the musical version of the original film.

60 ABC News anchor David : MUIR

Journalist and TV anchor David Muir started hosting the show “ABC World News Tonight with David Muir” in 2014. Apparently, Muir’s reporting received more airtime than any other American journalist in 2012 and 2013. Muir also made it onto “People” magazine’s list of Sexiest Men Alive in 2014.

61 Duds : TOGS

“Toggery” is another word for clothing that is sometimes shortened to “togs”. For example, back in Ireland we call a bathing suit “swimming togs”. The term “toggery” comes from the Latin “toga”.

64 Reef-dwelling Pixar character : 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.

67 “Be prepared” org. : BSA

As every little boy (of my era) knows, the Scouting movement was founded by Lord Baden-Powell, in 1907. He also founded the Girl Guide and Girl Scout organization in 1910, along with this sister Agnes Baden-Powell. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) soon followed, also in 1910. The Boy Scouts motto is “Be Prepared”.

69 *Salon pro who’s a genius with AquaNet? : THE HAIR SPRAY WIZ (“Hairspray” within “The Wiz”)

The stage musical “Hairspray” is based on the original 1988 film by John Waters. The stage musical was in turn adapted for the big screen, in a film of the same name released in 2007 and starring John Travolta.

“The Wiz”, the 1974 musical, was written by Charlie Smalls and is an African-American adaptation of Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. The film version of the stage show was released in 1978, starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. I haven’t seen it, though. “The Wizard of Oz” scares me, as the flying monkeys creep me out. There, I’ve admitted it in public …

75 Butterfield of “Sex Education” : ASA

Asa Butterfield is an actor from London whose breakthrough came with the title role in the 2008 Holocaust movie “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. More recently, he starred in the excellent Netflix comedy-drama series “Sex Education”, alongside Gillian Anderson.

“Sex Education” is a marvelous Netflic comedy-drama show made for Netflix that stars Gillian Anderson as a single-mother and sex therapist, and Asa Butterfield as her insecure teenage son. Highly recommended …

79 Old-timey dagger : SNEE

A snee is a type of dagger, one formerly used by Scottish highlanders.

91 Many Vegas lights : NEONS

The Neon Museum in Las Vegas opened in 1996 and features many old signs from the heyday of the Las Vegas Strip. Much of the museum is a “boneyard”, housing about 150 signs on 6 acres of land.

92 *Lament from a Red Sox fan? : DAMN WICKED YANKEES (“Wicked” within “Damn Yankees”)

“Wicked” (more completely, “Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz”) is a 2003 stage musical that is a retelling of the L. Frank Baum novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. The musical is based on a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire” called “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West”.

In the musical show “Damn Yankees”, the title refers to the New York Yankees baseball team that dominated the sport in the fifties. That said, the show tells the story of a man who sells his soul to help his beloved Washington Senators team beat the Yankees and win the pennant. So, “Damn Yankees” is yet another version of the classic German legend of “Faust”. The show was written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, a production that turned out to be a very successful follow-up to their prior hit, “The Pajama Game”. The future was looking really rosy for Adler and Ross but, sadly, Jerry Ross died of obstructive lung disease only a few weeks after “Damn Yankees” opened on Broadway in 1955. He was just 29 years old.

97 1981 cable debut : MTV

The first video played at the launch of MTV the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” (I love that song), followed by Pat Benatar singing “You Better Run”.

98 Teeny bit : SKOSH

“Skosh” is a slang term meaning “a little bit”, and was originally military slang that came out of the Korean War. “Skosh” derives from the Japanese word “sukoshi” which translates as “few, little, some”.

99 Skating legend Sonja : HENIE

Sonja Henie was a World and Olympic Champion figure skater from Oslo, Norway who competed in the days when “amateur” sports stars were not paid. Henie made up for her lack of income from competing by developing a career in Hollywood. She was one of the highest-paid film stars at the height of her movie career.

100 Hill worker? : ANT

Anthills are actually underground nests. The ants in the colony excavate below ground, resulting in a pile of sand or soil above ground.

109 *Eerie Midwestern downtown area? : A STRANGE CHICAGO LOOP (“Chicago” within “A Strange Loop”)

The wonderful 1975 musical “Chicago” is based on a 1926 play of the same name written by a news reporter called Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins had been assigned to cover the murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the “Chicago Tribune”, and used the story that unfolded as the basis for her play. Annan became the character Roxie Hart, and Gaertner became Velma Kelly. I’ve only ever seen the movie version of “Chicago” and never a live performance …

“A Strange Loop” is a Pulitzer-winning 2019 musical by Michael R. Jackson. The main character works at a theater showing “The Lion King”. His name is Usher, and he works as an usher. If that’s not confusing, there’s also the storyline: Usher is a Black queer man writing a musical about a Black queer man writing a musical.

115 “Grease” actress Conn : DIDI

Didi Conn, born Edith Bernstein, played a great character named “Frenchy” in the “Grease” films. Conn also played Stacy Jones in the children’s television show “Shining Time Station” in the late eighties-early nineties.

“Grease” is a very successful stage musical with a blockbuster film version released in 1978. The movie stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Travolta wasn’t the first choice for the lead role. It was first offered to Henry Winkler of “Happy Days” fame in which he played “the Fonz”. Winkler turned down the role for fear of being typecast as a leather-clad fifties “hood”.

118 Hasbro game that requires quick reflexes : BOP IT

Bop It is a line of toys with a speaker that issues commands to activate input devices on the toy, devices such as handles, cranks, wheels and switches. The commands come in a series of increasing length, and at increasing speed. So, I guess Bop It is a test of memory and dexterity.

130 Not pizzicato : ARCO

“Arco” is a musical direction instructing a string player to return to normal bowing technique after a passage played using some other technique (perhaps pizzicato).

“Pizzicato” is an Italian term meaning “plucked, pinched”. It is used as a musical direction on a score, instructing the player of a stringed instrument to pluck the strings instead of using the bow.

135 __ buco : OSSO

Osso buco is a traditional Italian dish that is typically made with veal shanks that are braised with vegetables and herbs. The name “osso buco” means “bone with a hole” in Italian, which refers to the marrow-filled bone in the center of the veal shank. The marrow is considered a delicacy and is often scooped out and served with the dish.

Down

3 Rock the baby, around the world, etc. : YO-YO TRICKS

Would you believe that the first yo-yos date back to 500 BC? There is even an ancient Greek vase painting that shows a young man playing with a yo-yo. Centuries later Filipinos were using yo-yos as hunting tools in the 1500s. “Yo-yo” is a Tagalog (Filipino) word meaning “come-come” or simply “return”.

5 “Night Court” TV network : NBC

“Night Court” is an entertaining sitcom that first ran from 1984 until 1992. It is set in a Manhattan municipal court during the night shift, with comedian/magician Harry Anderson playing presiding judge Harry Stone.

6 British pop singer Rita : ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

9 Sac fly result : RBI

That would be baseball.

10 Antlered ruminant : ELK

Ruminants are animals that “chew the cud”. Ruminants eat vegetable matter but cannot extract any nutritional value from cellulose without the help of microbes in the gut. Ruminants collect roughage in the first part of the alimentary canal, allowing microbes to work on it. The partially digested material (the cud) is regurgitated into the mouth so that the ruminant can chew the food more completely, exposing more surface area for microbes to do their work. We also use the verb “to ruminate” in a figurative sense, to mean “to muse, ponder, chew over”.

11 Olds of old : CIERA

Oldsmobile made the Cutlass Ciera from 1982 to 1996. The Ciera was the most successful model that bore the Oldsmobile badge.

13 __ Gritty Dirt Band : NITTY

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (NGDB) is a country rock band that got together in 1966 in Long Beach, California. For several years, the band performed as the Dirt Band.

16 Skeet target : CLAY PIGEON

Skeet shooting is one of three types of competitive shotgun target shooting sports, along with trap shooting and sporting clays. The word “skeet” comes from the Scandinavian word “skot,” which means “to shoot.”

25 Gander : LOOK

To take a gander is to take a long look. “Gander” is a term we’ve been using in this sense since the 1880s, coming from the idea that in taking a long look one might be craning one’s neck like a goose (or gander).

33 Short “And yet … ” : OTOH …

On the other hand (OTOH)

34 Woodworking connector : DOWEL

A dowel is a rod made from plastic, wood or metal. In its complete form, it is referred to as a “dowel rod”. We are perhaps more used to the rod cut into short lengths known as “dowel pins”.

35 Utah city near two national parks : MOAB

Moab is a city in eastern Utah that attracts a lot of visitors each year, mainly those heading for Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, which are nearby.

37 Lanikai Beach’s island : OAHU

Lanikai Beach in Oahu is a small, half-mile strip of sandy shore that is also known as Kaʻohao Beach. The “Lanikai” name is an invention, a creation of a developer in the 1920s. Apparently, Lanikai Beach is often listed among the best beaches in the world.

44 Confidentiality doc : NDA

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

46 Typist’s meas. : WPM

Words per minute (wpm)

47 Curaçao neighbor : ARUBA

Aruba is one of the so-called ABC islands located off the northern coast of Venezuela. “ABC Islands” is a name given to the three westernmost islands of the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean. The nickname comes from the first letters of the island names: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. All three of the ABC islands are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

53 “Intelligence for Your Life” host John : TESH

“Intelligence for Your Life” is a TV show hosted by pianist and composer John Tesh and his wife, actress Connie Sellecca. The same title is used for a radio show that Tesh hosts. Both shows feature tips on how to navigate the complications of daily life.

58 Charles River sch. : MIT

The Charles River runs for 80 miles through eastern Massachusetts, taking a twisting route through 23 cities before emptying into the Atlantic in Boston. That circuitous flow reflects the river’s Native-American name “Quinobequin”, meaning “meandering”. The river’s English name was chosen by English king Charles I, who named it after himself.

63 Andante and adagio : TEMPI

The tempo (plural “tempi”) of a piece of music is usually designated with an Italian word on the score. For example, “grave” is slow and solemn, “andante” is at a walking pace, “scherzo” is fast and light-hearted, and “allegro” is fast, quickly and bright.

65 Hotmail provider : MSN

Hotmail was one of the first web-based email services, launched on July 4, 1996. “Hotmail” was initially spelled as “HoTMaiL” to emphasize its use of HTML for web pages. In 1997, Microsoft acquired the service, later rebranding it as Outlook.com.

66 La Scala performance : OPERA

La Scala Opera House opened in 1778. It was built on the site of the church of Santa Maria della Scala, which gave the theater its Italian name “Teatro alla Scala”. Because of bomb damage in WWII, La Scala had to be rebuilt, and reopened in 1946.

70 Flask filler : HOOCH

In the Klondike gold rush, a favorite tipple of the miners was “Hoochinoo”, a liquor made by the native Alaskans. Soon after “hooch” (also “hootch”) was adopted as a word for cheap whiskey.

74 “Big Little Lies” actress Kravitz : ZOE

Zoë Kravitz is an actress and singer. Zoë has a couple of famous parents, namely musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet.

“Big Little Lies” is a 2017 TV miniseries that is based on a 2014 novel of the same name. It stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley as three women who, while dealing with their own emotional problems, find themselves involved in a murder investigation. I haven’t seen this one, but hear very good things …

81 Orchard fruit originally from Ohio : ROME APPLES

A Rome apple is a cooking apple. Supposedly, the first Rome apple was planted by Alanson Gillett in 1817 on the banks of the Ohio River near Rome Township. Originally called “Gillett’s Seedling”, it was eventually given the name “Rome Beauty”.

83 Answered an invite : RSVP’D

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

85 Puts in a Hall of Fame, say : ENSHRINES

The first Hall of Fame (HOF) established in the US was the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, an outdoor sculpture gallery located in the grounds of Bronx Community College in New York City. Completed in 1900, it is an open-air colonnade featuring the bronze busts of renowned Americans such as President George Washington, author Henry David Thoreau, musician John Philip Sousa and baseball legend Jackie Robinson. The Hall of Fame of Great Americans was inspired by the Ruhmeshalle (“Hall of Fame” in German) located in Munich, Germany that exhibits busts of important people from Bavaria.

87 Kylo of the “Star Wars” sequels : REN

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

90 Sport with bamboo swords : KENDO

Kendo is a Japanese martial art based on sword fighting. Participants wear protective armor, and use bamboo swords.

94 Share hot goss : DISH

Our word “gossip” comes from the Old English “godsibb” meaning “godparent”. Back then, the term was used for female friends who attended a birth, and later for anyone engaging in idle talk.

95 Himalayan recluse : YETI

The yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, is a beast of legend. “Yeti” is a Tibetan term, and the beast is fabled to live in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Our equivalent legend in North America is that of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch. The study of animals whose existence have not yet been substantiated is called cryptozoology, and a cryptid is a creature or plant that isn’t recognized by the scientific community, but the existence of which has been suggested.

108 Asian noodle : SOBA

Soba is a thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. In Japan, the word “soba” tends to describe any thin noodle, in contrast with the thicker noodle called “udon”.

110 Instrument in Hindi cinema : SITAR

The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. It is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

111 Pet in a tank : GUPPY

The guppy is a very popular aquarium fish. It also goes by the names “millionfish” and “rainbow fish”..

112 Zhou who hosted Nixon : ENLAI

Zhou Enlai (also “Chou En-lai”) was the first government leader of the People’s Republic of China and held the office of Premier from 1949 until he died in 1976. Zhou Enlai ran the government for Communist Party Leader Mao Zedong, often striking a more conciliatory tone with the West than that of his boss. He was instrumental, for example, in setting up President Nixon’s famous visit to China in 1972. Zhou Enlai died just a few months before Mao Zedong, with both deaths leading to unrest and a dramatic change in political direction for the country.

114 Walt Disney Concert Hall architect Frank : GEHRY

Frank Gehry is an architect from Toronto who is based in Los Angeles. Listed among Gehry’s famous creations are the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao in Spain, The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and his own private residence in Santa Monica, California. More recently, he designed the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial located in Washington, D.C.

124 Luxury bag monogram : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

126 Broomball surface : ICE

Broomball is a team sport played on ice or snow that is most popular in North America. It is similar to hockey in that the object is to score goals in a net, but it differs in that “brooms” are used instead of hockey sticks, and special shoes instead of skates. There is some evidence that the sport originated with the First Nations in what is now Canada.