Category: Tom Locke

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Constructed by: Tom Locke
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Two-Suiter

Themed answers each comprise TWO words, both of which are kinds of SUIT:

• 56A Piece of carry-on luggage, and what the answer to each starred clue literally is : TWO-SUITER

• 16A *Result of a hockey penalty, often : POWER PLAY (power suit & playsuit)
• 23A *Field of expertise for corporate attorneys : BUSINESS LAW (business suit & lawsuit)
• 32A *Primate passenger on a rocket ship : SPACE MONKEY (spacesuit & monkey suit)
• 48A *Good find for a traveler on a budget : CHEAP FLIGHT (cheap suit & flight suit)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13 Protected, at sea : ALEE

Alee is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing aweather. The sheltered side of an island, for example, might be referred to as the “lee” side.

15 Georgia’s state fruit : PEACH

The US state of Georgia has two nicknames: the Peach State, and the Empire State of the South.

19 Heavy shoe : BROGAN

A brogan is a heavy boot, with the original brogans being boots worn by soldiers on both sides during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Apparently some British soldiers in the Revolutionary War wore brogans that could be worn on either foot in an attempt to get more even wear.

27 DDE’s WWII command : ETO

Dwight D. Eisenhower first took command of the European Theater of Operations (ETO) during WWII in June 1942, after serving with the General Staff in Washington. In November of 1942, Eisenhower was given command of the North African Theater of Operations (NATO). He resumed command of the ETO in January of 1944, and maintained that command until suspension of hostilities in May 1945.

29 Tolstoy’s “__ Karenina” : ANNA

I have to admit to not having read Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”, but I did see the excellent 1977 British television adaptation starring Nicola Pagett. I also saw the 2012 film adaptation with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard and found that to be far from excellent, awful in fact. I am no Stoppard fan …

32 *Primate passenger on a rocket ship : SPACE MONKEY (spacesuit & monkey suit)

“Monkey suit” and “penguin suit” are slang names for a tuxedo.

Apparently, the style of men’s evening dress called a “tuxedo” was first worn to a country club event in 1886 in New York. The use of a dark dinner jacket without tails became fashionable at the club with the members, and the tradition spread from there. The country club was located in Tuxedo Park, New York, giving the style of dress its name.

37 Mary, Queen of __ : SCOTS

Mary, Queen of Scots ruled over Scotland from 1542 until 1567, even though she spent most of that reign in France where she had grown up. 16-year-old Mary married 9-year-old Francis, the Dauphin of France in 1558, and the following year became queen consort when her husband acceded to the throne. Francis only ruled for a year before dying of natural causes. The young widow returned to Scotland, the country of her birth, in 1561. In 1567, Mary was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favor of her one-year-old son James, after an uprising against Mary and her third husband, the Earl of Bothwell. Mary fled south to seek the protection of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England. As Mary had once claimed Elizabeth’s throne as her own, Elizabeth had Mary imprisoned. Mary was held in confinement for over 18 years and eventually beheaded in 1587, having been found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth.

45 Ethyl __: nail polish remover option : ACETATE

Ethyl acetate is an ester made by reacting ethanol with acetic acid. It is a common solvent found in things like nail polish removers and glues. As I recall from my long-gone days in a lab, ethyl acetate has a very nice fruity smell.

52 Starlike flowers : ASTERS

Apparently, most aster species and cultivars bloom relatively late in the year, usually in the fall. The name “aster” comes into English via Latin from the Greek word “astéri” meaning “star”, a reference to the arrangement of the petals of the flower.

60 Dorothy and Toto creator L. Frank __ : BAUM

Dorothy Gale is the protagonist in L. Frank Baum’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, and indeed a major character in almost all of the “Oz” series of novels. There is a suggestion that the young heroine was named for Baum’s own niece Dorothy Gage, who died as an infant.

Toto is Dorothy’s dog in the film “The Wizard of Oz”, and in the original book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. Toto was played in the movie by a dog called Terry, but Terry’s name was soon changed to Toto in real life due to the success of the film.

62 Restaurant review app : YELP

yelp.com is a website that provides a local business directory and reviews of services. The site is sort of like Yellow Pages on steroids, and the term “yelp” is derived from “yel-low p-ages”.

63 Retired fliers: Abbr. : SSTS

The most famous supersonic transport (SST) is the retired Concorde. Concorde was developed and produced under an Anglo-French treaty by France’s Aérospatiale and the UK’s British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Concordes were mainly operated by Air France and British Airways, with both companies buying the planes with substantial subsidies from the French and British governments. The final Concorde flight was a British Airways plane that landed in the UK on 26 November 2003.

Down

2 “Xanadu” band, familiarly : ELO

The title song of the 1980 movie “Xanadu” was performed by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and Olivia Newton-John (who starred in the film). Despite the popularity of ELO around the world, the song “Xanadu” was the band’s only number-one hit back in their homeland of the UK.

4 Antelope’s playmate on the range, in song : DEER

“Where the deer and the antelope play” is a line from the classic western song “Home on the Range”. There aren’t any antelopes native to North America, so the reference in the song is to the pronghorn, which is sometimes referred to as the pronghorn antelope and is actually related to the horse.

5 Tom Cruise film with a “Maverick” sequel : TOP GUN

“Top Gun” is an entertaining action movie released in 1986 starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. The movie is all about pilots training at the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School. A lot of footage was shot on board the Navy’s carrier the USS Enterprise during flight operations. At one point in a day’s shooting, the commander of the Enterprise changed course as needed for normal operations, but this altered the light for the cameras that were filming at the time. Director Tony Scott asked for the course to be changed back, but was informed that a course change would cost the Navy $25,000. Scott wrote out a check there and then, and he got another five minutes of filming with the light he needed.

7 Tehran inhabitant : IRANI

Tehran is the capital of Iran and is the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of about 8.5 million. Iran has been around a really long time and Tehran is actually the country’s 31st national capital.

8 Sam Smith’s “__ Me Down” : LAY

Sam Smith is a singer from London. Their biggest hit was probably 2014’s “Stay with Me”, but they also co-wrote and recorded “Writing’s on the Wall”, the theme song for the 2015 James Bond film “Spectre”.

11 High-speed Amtrak trains : ACELAS

The Acela Express is the fastest train routinely running in the US, as it gets up to 150 mph at times. The service runs between Boston and Washington D.C. via Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Introduced in 2000, the brand name “Acela” was created to evoke “acceleration” and “excellence”.

12 Molelike mammals : SHREWS

Shrews are mammals that look like small moles or long-nosed mice. They are the only terrestrial mammals that are known to echolocate, using a series of ultrasonic squeaks to examine their nearby surroundings.

21 Clean water org. : EPA

The main legislation governing water pollution in the US is the Clean Water Act (CWA), which became law in 1972.

24 Wolfe of fiction : NERO

Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective and the hero of many stories published by author Rex Stout. There are 33 Nero Wolfe novels for us to read, and 39 short stories. There are also movie adaptations of two of the novels: “Meet Nero Wolfe” (1936) which features a young Rita Hayworth, and “The League of Frightened Men” (1937). One of Wolfe’s endearing traits is his love of good food and beer, so he is a pretty rotund character.

30 Some govt. leaders : PMS

Prime Minister (PM)

33 Class for some HS juniors : ACT PREP

ACT is an abbreviation for American College Testing. The ACT is an entrance exam used by many universities. It has four sections, English, Reading, Math and Science, and an optional 30-minute essay.

34 Hairstyles : COIFS

A coif is a hairdo. The term “coif” comes from an old French term “coife” describing a skull-cap that was worn under a helmet back in the late 13th century.

43 Gas, to a Brit : PETROL

“Petrol” is the chiefly British-English term used for gasoline. “Petrol” comes via French from the Latin “petroleum”, itself derived from “petra” meaning “rock” and “oleum” meaning “oil”.

47 “__, Brute?” : ET TU

It was Shakespeare who popularized the words “Et tu, Brute?” (meaning “And you, Brutus?”). They appear in his play “Julius Caesar”, although the phrase had been around long before he penned his drama. It’s not known what Julius Caesar actually said in real life (if anything at all) as he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate in Rome.

49 “The Fox and the Crow” storyteller : AESOP

“The Fox and the Crow” is one of Aesop’s Fables. In the story, a crow is eating a piece of cheese in a tree. A fox wants the cheese, and flatters the crow and goads it into singing. When the song opens its bill to let out a caw, the cheese falls to the ground and is eaten by the fox.

50 “__ a dark and stormy night … ” : IT WAS

Edward Bulwer-Lytton was an English politician and writer. Among his writings, Bulwer-Lytton came up with some phrases that have endured, such as:

• “the great unwashed”
• “pursuit of the almighty dollar”
• “the pen is mightier than the sword”
• “It was a dark and stormy night …”

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