Tag: Filmmaker with a distinctive style crossword clue

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Constructed by: John Michael Currie
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Amendment Needed

Themed answers are common phrases, from which we must TAKE THE FIFTH letter:

• 130A With this puzzle’s circled letters, exercise a certain constitutional right, and how to answer each starred clue : TAKE (THE FIFTH)

• 25A *Accidentally scorch the appetizers? : CHAR A COURSE (take the T from “chart a course”)
• 31A *”You can’t wrestle a chimney sweep and come out clean,” e.g.? : SOOT SAYING (take the H from “soothsaying”)
• 44A *Mission of the Blue Origin rockets carrying William Shatner and Michael Strahan? : STARS INTO SPACE (take the E from “stares into space”)
• 56A *Finish a crossword with a spelling error? : GOOF THE GRID (take the F from “go off the grid”)
• 82A *Say no to a date? : PASS ON FRUIT (take the I from “passion fruit”)
• 92A *Run-ins with soft cheese? : BRIE ENCOUNTERS (take the F from “brief encounters”)
• 108A *Exhale in a game of hide-and-seek? : SIGH UNSEEN (take the T from “sight unseen”)
• 115A *Florists who specialize in purple bouquets? : IRIS SETTERS (take the H from “Irish setters”)

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

Bill’s time: 13m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Oldest Simpson kid : BART

Bart Simpson is the main character in television’s “The Simpsons”. His name was chosen by the writers as it is an anagram of “brat”. Bart is voiced by actress and comedian Nancy Cartwright.

8 Model plane wood : BALSA

Balsa is a very fast-growing tree that is native to parts of South America. Even though balsa wood is very soft, it is actually classified as a hardwood, the softest of all the hardwoods (go figure!). Balsa is light and strong, so is commonly used in making model airplanes. In WWII, a full-size British plane, the de Havilland Mosquito, was built largely from balsa and plywood. No wonder they called it “The Wooden Wonder” and “The Timber Terror”.

13 Motor City pro : PISTON

The NBA’s Detroit Pistons team was founded in 1941 as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons of the National Basketball League. The team was owned by Fred Zollner, who supplied pistons to the automotive industry. The Pistons moved from Indiana to Detroit in 1957.

19 State with an astronaut on its quarter : OHIO

The Ohio state quarter features the phrase “BIRTHPLACE OF AVIATION PIONEERS”. There is an image of the Wright Flyer, the first heavier-than-air powered aircraft, which was built and flown by Ohioans Wilbur and Orvile Wright. The coin also bears an image of an astronaut, which is a nod to Ohioan space travelers such as John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, James Lovell, and Judith Resnik.

20 Aunt, in Acapulco : TIA

The Mexican city of Acapulco is on the southwest coast of the country, in the state of Guerrero. The name “Acapulco” translates from the local language into “at the big reeds”.

29 Gibbs of “The Jeffersons” : MARLA

Marla Gibbs is an actress from Chicago who is best known for playing Florence Johnston, the maid on the sitcom “The Jeffersons” in the seventies and eighties. Gibbs was also a singer who released several albums. She also owned a jazz club for almost 20 years in South Central L.A. called “Maria’s Memory Lane Jazz and Supper Club”.

The very popular sitcom called “The Jeffersons” ran from 1975 until it came to an abrupt end in 1985. CBS canceled the show without even allowing a series finale that “wrapped things up”. In fact, lead actor Sherman Hemsley learned of the show’s cancellation in the newspaper.

31 *”You can’t wrestle a chimney sweep and come out clean,” e.g.? : SOOT SAYING (take the H from “soothsaying”)

A soothsayer is someone who claims to have the ability to predict the future. The term “soothsayer” comes from “sooth”, an archaic word for “truth”. So a soothsayer was supposedly one who told the “truth” (about the future).

39 3D ring shape : TORUS

A torus (plural “tori”) is a shape resembling a doughnut.

41 Amarillo-to-Austin dir. : SSE

Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle, is known as “The Yellow Rose of Texas” because Amarillo is the Spanish for “yellow”. The city was originally called Oneida.

Austin is the capital of the state of Texas. When the area was chosen to be the capital of the Republic of Texas, it was known as Waterloo. The name was changed in honor of Stephen F. Austin, a native of Virginia who was raised in Missouri and led the first successful colonization of Texas.

44 *Mission of the Blue Origin rockets carrying William Shatner and Michael Strahan? : STARS INTO SPACE (take the E from “stares into space”)

Blue Origin is an aerospace and launch service provider that was founded in 2000 by billionaire Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Jeff Bezos, and his brother Mark Bezos, were passengers on Blue Origin’s first crewed mission into sub-orbital space in 2021. Actor William Shatner made a similar trip in the same vehicle a few months later, followed by TV personality Michael Strahan just before the end of the year.

54 “Only Time” artist : ENYA

“Only Time” is a song written and recorded by Irish singer Enya. Released in 2000, “Only Time” is the biggest solo hit for Enya in the US.

56 *Finish a crossword with a spelling error? : GOOF THE GRID (take the F from “go off the grid”)

To be off the grid is to adopt a lifestyle that eschews the support of remote infrastructure, such as the electrical grid and public sewer system. My personal observation is that more and more people in the West are striving to live off-the-grid, although not many seem interested in breaking the link to the Internet …

61 “The Hangover” role for Ed Helms : STU

Comedic actor Ed Helms got his big break in television on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”, after which he joined the cast of “The Office”. Helms is now making a name for himself on the big screen. Notably, he co-stars in “The Hangover” series of films.

“The Hangover” is a comedy film released in 2009. The action revolves around a bachelor party in Las Vegas. The critics liked this one, although I didn’t really enjoy it too much.

63 “Eureka!” elicitor : IDEA

“Eureka” translates from Greek as “I have found it”. The word is usually associated with Archimedes, uttered as he stepped into his bath one day. His discovery was that the volume of water that was displaced was equal to that of the object (presumably his foot) that had been submerged. He used this fact to determine volume (and density) of a crown, something he needed in order to determine if it was made of pure gold or was a forgery.

64 Golden Fleece seeker : ARGONAUT

The Golden Fleece was the fleece of a winged ram made from pure gold that was held by King Aeëtes in Colchis, a kingdom on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. The fleece is central to the tale of Jason and the Argonauts, who set out on a quest to steal the fleece by order of King Pelias.

67 Unlikely to be discussed : TABOO

The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

69 Classic Ford, familiarly : T-BIRD

Ford manufactured the Thunderbird (T-Bird) from 1955 to 2005. Originally a two-seater sporty convertible, the T-Bird was introduced as a competitor to Chevrolet’s new sports car, the Corvette. The “Thunderbird” name is a reference to a legendary creature from the culture of several Native-American peoples. There’s also a story that the name is a direct reference to the Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California of which the then chairman of Ford’s board was a member.

74 Airbnb alternative : VRBO

VRBO is an online marketplace for vacation rentals. The initialism stands for Vacation Rentals by Owner. VRBO was founded in 1995, and is headquartered in Austin.

Airbnb is a website-based service that matches people wanting to rent out short-term living quarters to people seeking accommodation. The company was founded in 2008 as AirBed & Breakfast. The original concept was renting out an “air bed” and providing “breakfast” to someone looking for cheap, temporary accommodation. That’s right; the “Air” in “Airbnb” has nothing to do with “air” travel …

77 Twice-monthly shoreline occurrence : NEAP TIDE

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

80 Minnesota representative Ilhan : OMAR

Ilhan Omar has been representing Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in the US House since 2019. At that time, she became one of the first two Muslim women, as well as the first Somali American, to serve in the US Congress.

81 Aquaman’s domain : SEA

Aquaman is a comic book superhero who first appeared in 1941. He was inspired by a character in a Russian science-fiction novel named “Amphibian Man”.

86 Arctic seal refuges : BERGS

An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that is floating freely after having broken away from a glacier or ice shelf. Our use of “iceberg” comes from the Dutch word for the same phenomenon “ijsberg”, which translates literally as “ice mountain”.

88 __’acte : ENTR

The term “entr’acte” comes to us from French, and is the interval “entre deux actes” (between two acts) of a theatrical performance. The term often describes some entertainment provided during that interval.

97 Watery defense : MOAT

A moat is a protective trench that surrounds a castle, say, or an exhibit in a zoo. A moat may or may not be filled with water.

102 Fitbit unit : STEP

Fitbits are wearable activity trackers that are mainly used to track the number of steps walked, although more and more features have been added over time. A Fitbit was even used as evidence in at least one murder case. A Connecticut man claimed that a home intruder had shot and killed his wife. Police used data from the wife’s Fitbit to disprove the husband’s story, and ended up charging him with the murder.

111 Posh : LUXE

No one really knows the etymology of the word “posh”. The popular myth that “posh” is actually an acronym standing for “port out, starboard home” is completely untrue, and is a story that can actually be traced back to the 1968 movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. The myth is that wealthy British passengers traveling to and from India would book cabins on the port side for the outward journey and the starboard side for the home journey. This trick was supposedly designed to keep their cabins out of the direct sunlight.

114 Pan-fries : SAUTES

“Sauté” is a French word. The literal translation from the French is “jumped” or “bounced”, a reference to the tossing of food while cooking it in a frying pan.

115 *Florists who specialize in purple bouquets? : IRIS SETTERS (take the H from “Irish setters”)

An Irish setter is a breed of dog …
… or maybe someone from Dublin who sets crosswords …

123 Olympic projectile : DISCUS

The discus throw is an event that dates back to the original Olympic Games held in ancient Greece. It was resurrected for the first modern Summer Olympics, held in Athens in 1896. However, women didn’t compete in the discus event until the 1928 games in Amsterdam.

124 Sarnia’s lake : HURON

Sarnia is a city in Ontario that sits on Lake Huron. It was named Port Sarnia in 1836, a renaming of the settlement called The Rapids. “Port Sarnia” was suggested by Sir John Colborne, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. He had been Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. “Sarnia” is Latin for “Guernsey”.

125 Simu of “Barbie” : LIU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings”.

130 With this puzzle’s circled letters, exercise a certain constitutional right, and how to answer each starred clue : TAKE (THE FIFTH)

The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. It addresses a number of issues associated with criminal procedure, including the right not to testify against oneself in a criminal trial (“taking the fifth”).

Down

4 “War and Peace” novelist : TOLSTOY

I have to confess that I have tried to read Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” twice in my life, and failed both times (it is l-o-n-g; 1,225 pages in the first published edition). Even though the 1956 movie adaptation runs for 3 1/2 hours, it’s still the easy way out! The film version stars Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova and Henry Fonda as Count Pierre Bezukhov.

6 Pageant crown : TIARA

The oldest beauty pageant still operating in the US is the Miss America contest. The Miss America beauty pageant started out as a marketing ploy in the early twenties to attract tourists to the Atlantic City boardwalk after Labor Day. Today, contestants must be between 17 and 24 years of age. Before those limits were introduced, Marian Bergeron won the 1933 title at only 15 years of age.

8 Telly channel : BBC

The marvelous British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is mainly funded by the UK government through a television “licence” (British spelling, as opposed to “license”!) fee that is levied annually on all households watching TV transmissions.

“Telly” is a term commonly used in Britain and Ireland that is short for “television”.

10 Youngest Hemsworth brother : LIAM

Liam Hemsworth is an Australian actor who is best known these days for playing Gale Hawthorne in “The Hunger Games” series of films. Hemsworth met Miley Cyrus while working on the movie “The Last Song”, and the two actors were engaged for a while. Liam is a younger brother of actor Chris Hemsworth, who plays the superhero “Thor” on the big screen.

12 Space City pro : ASTRO

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

The city of Houston (sometimes “H-Town”) was named for General Sam Houston, who served as President of the Republic of Texas and then as Governor after Texas was annexed as a US state in 1845. As the city is home to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston was officially given the nickname “Space City” in 1967.

13 Cubism pioneer : PICASSO

In the art movement known as Cubism, objects that are the subject of a painting are broken up and reassembled in an abstract form. The pioneers of the Cubist movement were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

17 Director Welles : ORSON

Orson Welles is perhaps best-remembered in the world of film for his role in 1941’s “Citizen Kane”. In the world of radio, Welles is known for directing and narrating 1938’s famous broadcast of “The War of the Worlds”, a broadcast that convinced many listeners that the Earth was indeed being invaded by aliens.

24 Calle __: street in Miami’s Little Havana : OCHO

The Miami neighborhood known as Little Havana is home to many migrants from Cuba, hence the name. It is located immediately west of Downtown Miami. The main drag in Little Havana is “Calle Ocho” (Eighth Street).

26 “You’re in good hands” sloganeer : ALLSTATE

Allstate is the second-largest provider of personal insurance in the US, after State Farm. Allstate started doing business in 1931 as part of Sears Roebuck, and indeed I can remember when Allstate offices were located in Sears stores. Sears spun off Allstate in 1993.

28 EGOT winner Moreno : RITA

Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress Rita Moreno is one of the few performers to have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony (EGOT). Moreno got her big break, and won her Oscar, for playing Anita in the 1961 screen adaptation of “West Side Story”. And, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2004.

33 Gardening brand : ORTHO

Ortho is a brand of weed killer owned by Scotts Miracle-Gro.

35 Ph.D. seeker’s test : GRE

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

42 Hockey great Tikkanen : ESA

Esa Tikkanen is a retired hockey player from Finland. He was on the winning team in five Stanley Cup finals, between 1985 to 1994.

44 West End district : SOHO

The area of London called Soho had a very poor reputation for most of the 20th century as it was home to the city’s red-light district. Soho went through a transformation in recent decades, and has been a very fashionable neighborhood since the 1980s.

The West End of London is part of the central area of the city that contains many tourist attractions and in particular a large number of theaters. The West End of London is also home to the most expensive office space in the world.

45 Many a YA hero : TEEN

Young adult (YA)

46 Where Ferrari is RACE : NYSE

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) can give some quite descriptive ticker symbols to companies, for example:

• Anheuser-Busch (BUD, for “Budweiser”)
• Molson Coors Brewing Company (TAP, as in “beer tap”)
• Steinway Musical Instruments (LVB, for “Ludwig van Beethoven”)
• Sotheby’s (BID, for the auction house)

The Italian sports car company Ferrari was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939. Ferrari built the most expensive car ever sold: a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that exchanged hands for over $38 million in 2012.

49 “True Grit” filmmakers : COENS

The classic 1969 Western movie “True Grit” starring John Wayne is a screen adaptation of a 1968 novel by Charles Portis. The Coen brothers released another big screen adaption of the novel using the same title in 2010 starring Jeff Bridges in the Rooster Cogburn role previously played by John Wayne.

52 Prefix with futurism : AFRO-

Afrofuturism is a broad cultural movement that incorporates science-fiction and futuristic elements with the history and identity of the African diaspora. The term “Afrofuturism” was coined in 1994 by author and cultural critic Mark Dery.

53 Newsom and Hochul, once: Abbr. : LT GOVS

Gavin Newsom is a former Mayor of San Francisco (2004-2011) who took over as the Governor of California in 2019. Newson is a member of the Democratic Party, and a very outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump. From 2001 to 2006, Newson was married to Kimberley Guilfoyle, a former attorney and fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. Guilfoyle is a very outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Kathy Hochul became Governor of New York in 2021, making her the first woman to assume the office. As a native of Buffalo, she also became the first governor from Upstate New York since 1920.

57 Jeweler to the Romanovs : FABERGE

Fabergé eggs are beautiful jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. The tradition of fabricating the eggs started when Tsar Alexander III commissioned Fabergé to create a jeweled egg for his wife in 1885. After this, the House of Fabergé produced more and more elaborate designs, year after year.

60 Turner memoir : I, TINA

“I, Tina” is a 1986 autobiography by Tina Turner. The book was so successful it was adapted into a movie called “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” The film version was released in 1993 and stars Angela Bassett as Tina Turner. The first chapter of the biography is called “Nut Bush”, a reference to the small farming community of Nutbush, Tennessee where Turner was born (as Anna Mae Bullock).

62 Bearlike : URSINE

Something described as ursine is related to a bear. The term “ursine” comes from “ursus” (plural “ursi”), Latin for “bear”.

65 Smartphone precursors, for short : PDAS

Personal digital assistant (PDA)

67 Proctor’s tool : TIMER

A proctor is a supervisor, and especially a person overseeing a school examination or a dormitory. The word “proctor” originated in the late 1500s, and is a contraction of the word “procurator”, the name given to an official agent of a church.

72 Many e-forms : PDFS

Portable Document Format (PDF)

73 __ salad : COBB

Ty Cobb’s first cousin, Robert H. Cobb, owned the Brown Derby chain of restaurants. One of his regular customers was the famous Sid Grauman, who ran Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Late one night, Grauman asked for a snack, and Cobb came up with a chopped salad simply made from ingredients he happened to have in the refrigerator. Grauman liked it so much that he continued to request it, and the Cobb salad was born.

76 Judge’s seat : BANC

“Banc” is the French word for “bench, seat”.

79 Helps to water-ski : TOWS

The sport of water-skiing dates back to 1922, when it was invented by one Ralph Samuelson on Lake Pepin, located on the Mississippi River near Saint Paul in Minnesota.

82 Leith of “The Great British Baking Show” : PRUE

Prue Leith is a restaurateur and TV personality from South Africa. She has a very colorful demeanor, which no doubt helped her take over from the marvelous Mary Berry as a judge of the hit UK show “The Great British Bake Off” (“The Great British Baking Show” in the US).

85 “Grand” peak : TETON

Grand Teton National Park (NP) is located just south of Yellowstone NP, and a must-see if you are visiting the latter. The park is named after the tallest peak in the magnificent Teton Range known as Grand Teton. The origins of the name “Teton” is not very clear, although one story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French is a slang term meaning “breasts”.

87 Airport near San Jose, Calif. : SFO

The San Francisco Bay Area is served by three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC).

95 TNT start : TRI-

Trinitrotoluene (TNT)

100 Filmmaker with a distinctive style : AUTEUR

We use the term “auteur” to describe a film director with a distinctive style, and someone who is distinguished enough to overcome the influence of a movie studio and other commercial pressures. Examples often cited are Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and Jean Renoir. “Auteur” is a French word meaning “author”.

103 Italy’s first capital : TURIN

Turin (“Torino” in Italian) is a major city in the north of Italy that sits on the Po River. Back in 1861, when the Kingdom of Italy was formed, Turin was chosen as the first capital of the country.

105 Joe of “Bupkis” : PESCI

Joe Pesci got his big break in movies with a supporting role in “Raging Bull” starring Robert De Niro, earning Pesci an Oscar nomination early in his career. There followed a string of gangster roles played alongside De Niro, namely “Once Upon a Time in America”, “Goodfellas” and “Casino”. But I like Pesci’s comedic acting best of all. He was marvelous in the “Home Alone” films, the “Lethal Weapon” series, and my personal favorite, “My Cousin Vinny”. Pesci gets a mention in the stage musical “Jersey Boys”, which isn’t too surprising as he is one of the show’s producers.

“Bupkis” is a comedy drama TV show created by and starring comedian Peter Davidson, supported by Edie Falco and Joe Pesci. Apparently, episodes are inspired by Davidson’s own life.

107 Jacuzzis, e.g. : BATHS

“Jacuzzi” is one of those brand names that has become so much associated with the product that it is often assumed to be a generic term. The Jacuzzi company was founded in 1915 by the seven(!) Jacuzzi brothers in Berkeley California. The brothers, who were Italian immigrants, pronounced their name “ja-coot-si”, as one might suspect when one realizes the name is of Italian origin. The company started off by making aircraft propellers and then small aircraft, but suspended aircraft production in 1925, when one of the brothers was killed in one of their planes. The family then started making hydraulic pumps, and in 1948 developed a submersible bathtub pump so that a son of one of the brothers could enjoy hydrotherapy for his rheumatoid arthritis. The “hydrotherapy product” took off in the fifties with some astute marketing towards “worn-out housewives” and the use of celebrity spokesman Jack Benny.

109 “Se __ español” : HABLA

“Habla español?” is Spanish for “Do you speak Spanish?” “Aquí se habla español” translates as “Spanish is spoken here”.

110 Spring bloom : TULIP

We usually associate the cultivation of tulips with the Netherlands, but they were first grown commercially in the Ottoman Empire. The name “tulip” ultimately derives from the Ottoman Turkish word “tulbend” that means “muslin, gauze”.

113 Fictional sleuth Wolfe : 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.

116 Modest digs : HUT

“Digs” is short for “diggings” meaning “lodgings”. Where “diggings” came from, no one seems to know.

117 Down Under hopper : ROO

“Digs” is short for “diggings” meaning “lodgings”. Where “diggings” came from, no one seems to know.

121 Large deer : ELK

“Digs” is short for “diggings” meaning “lodgings”. Where “diggings” came from, no one seems to know.

122 Bill for education? : NYE

That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. In addition to his career as a science educator, Nye is also a comedian. He performed stand-up comedy during his early years as an engineer.