Tag: Place for a cross crossword clue

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Constructed by: Scott Hogan

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Big Shots

Themed answers are common phrases, all reinterpreted as BIG SHOTS:

• 22A Big shot in the bulb industry? : LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
• 35A Big shot in the sci-fi awards industry? : HUGO BOSS
• 42A Big shot in the paver industry? : BRICK CHEESE
• 61A Big shot in the podiatry industry? : FOOT BALLER
• 67A Big shot in the treasure-hunting industry? : FINDING GOD
• 89A Big shot in the champagne glass industry? : FLUTE PLAYER
• 95A Big shot in the cab industry? : RED BARON
• 109A Big shot in the refrigeration industry? : COOLING SENSATION

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

Bill’s time: 14m 31s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Béla Fleck’s instrument : BANJO

Béla Fleck is a banjo player who performed with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. He was born in New York City and was given the name Béla Anton Leoš Fleck. He was named after Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Austrian composer Anton Webern, and Czech composer Leoš Janáček. That’s quite a name to live up to, but by all accounts Fleck is one of the most technically proficient banjo players the world has ever known.

6A Pricey German imports : BMWS

The initialism “BMW” stands for “Bayerische Motoren Werke”, which translates into Bavarian Motor Works. BMW was making aircraft engines during WWI, but had to cease that activity according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The company then started making motorcycles, and moved into automobile production starting in 1928. BMW moved back into aircraft engine manufacturing during the build-up of the Luftwaffe prior to WWII.

20A Overly caffeinated, perhaps : MANIC

Caffeine is a naturally occurring stimulant that is found in several plants. The chemical serves as a natural pesticide by paralyzing and killing certain insects that would otherwise feed on the plant. Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug that is consumed by humans across the world.

21A Social sci. major : ECON

The social sciences are the collection of academic disciplines devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within societies. Included in the collection are anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, psychology and political science.

26A Henry VI’s school : ETON

King Henry VI of England succeeded to the throne when he was just nine months old, making him the youngest monarch ever to sit on the English throne.

27A ___ of Man : ISLE

The Isle of Man is a large island located in the middle of the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. I used to spend a lot of time there in my youth, and find it a very interesting place indeed. The Isle of Man is classed as a British Crown Dependency and isn’t part of the United Kingdom at all. It is self-governing and has its own parliament called the Tynwald. The Tynwald was created in AD 979 and is arguably the oldest continuously-running parliament in the world. The inhabitants of the island speak English, although they do have their own language called Manx, which is very similar to Irish Gaeilge and Scottish Gaelic. And then there are those Manx cats, the ones without any tails. I’ve seen lots of them, and can attest that they are indeed found all over the island.

35A Big shot in the sci-fi awards industry? : HUGO BOSS

The Hugo Awards are presented annually for excellence in science fiction and fantasy writing. The awards are named for Hugo Gernsback, founder of the sci-fi magazine “Amazing Stories”.

Hugo Boss started a clothing company in a small town just south of Stuttgart in Germany in 1924. He joined the Nazi party before the war, and made a lot of money as an official supplier of uniforms to the likes of the SS and Hitler Youth. He paid the price of collaboration after the war (a fine), but his business survived. Boss (the boss) died in 1948, but the Hugo Boss company is still going strong today.

40A Fort ___, Florida : MYERS

Fort Myers is a city on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It was built on the site of the old Fort Myers, a facility built by the US Army as a base of operations against the Seminole Native Americans.

42A Big shot in the paver industry? : BRICK CHEESE

The phrase “the big cheese” doesn’t have its roots in the word “cheese” at all. The original phrase was “the real cheese” meaning “the real thing”, and was used way back in the late 1800s. “Chiz” is a Persian and Hindi word meaning “thing”, and it’s not hard to see how the expression “the real chiz” morphed into “the real cheese”. In early-20th century America, instead of “the real cheese”, the most influential person in a group was labeled as “the big cheese”.

44A Shrewd : CANNY

The adjective “canny” is of Scottish origin, and was formed from the verb “to can” meaning “to know how to”. The idea is that someone who is “knowing” is careful, canny.

45A Stocky antelope : GNU

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch word meaning “wild beast”.

57A Salty five : OCEANS

The interconnected system of oceanic waters around our planet is known as the World Ocean. Comprising almost 71% of the Earth’s surface, the World Ocean is divided into, from largest to smallest:

1. The Pacific Ocean
2. The Atlantic Ocean
3. The Indian Ocean
4. The Southern (Antarctic) Ocean
5. The Arctic Ocean

61A Big shot in the podiatry industry? : FOOT BALLER

“Baller” is a slang word describing someone who is very successful, wealthy, and lives a lavish lifestyle. The term originally comes from “b-baller”, referring to a highly skilled and well-paid basketball player.

Podiatry is a branch of medicine dealing with the foot, ankle and lower extremities.

76A Old sub titles? : U-BOATS

“U-boat” stands for the German “Unterseeboot” (undersea boat). Notably, a U-boat sank the RMS Lusitania in 1915, an event that helped propel the US into WWI.

80A Home of the world’s largest irrigation project : LIBYA

Crossword Asst.
Custom Gem
Libya’s Great Man-Made River Project (GMRP) is the world’s largest irrigation project. It’s a massive network of underground pipes, stretching thousands of miles, transporting fresh water from the Sahara to coastal cities. The water source is the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, an ancient groundwater reserve in southern Libya that was discovered during oil exploration in 1953. The project began in 1984, but its completion has been stalled for years by the nation’s civil wars.

81A Source of some travel reservations? : JET LAG

For many years, I had to deal with jet lag almost every couple of months. I swear by the diet supplement melatonin, which you can buy over the counter here in the US. But, I am no doctor so don’t listen to anything I say …

85A Arequipa’s land : PERU

Arequipa is located in the south of Peru and is the second-most populous city in the country, after the capital Lima. Arequipa has been the center of many uprisings since the city was founded in 1540, and was declared the nation’s capital on two occasions, in 1835 and in 1883.

86A Baton Rouge sch. : LSU

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the state of Louisiana. The name “Baton Rouge” is French for “red stick” or “red staff”. The exact reason why such a name was given to the city isn’t really clear.

87A Drywall supports : STUDS

In home construction, a wall stud is a vertical member providing support inside a wall.

89A Big shot in the champagne glass industry? : FLUTE PLAYER

The narrow bowl of a champagne flute is usually preferred over the wide bowl of a champagne coupe as the smaller surface area of the wine helps retain its carbonation.

92A Battery terminal : ANODE

The anode and cathode are the two electrodes in an electrical device, like a battery. Anodes “give away” electrons, and cathodes “accept” electrons. In a typical battery powering a device, the anode gives away electrons that travel through the device (like a lightbulb, making it light up). Those electrons then flow to the cathode, which accepts them, completing the circuit.

94A Edmonton NHL team : OILERS

The National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers are so called because they are located in Alberta, Canada … oil country.

95A Big shot in the cab industry? : RED BARON

The cabernet sauvignon (often just “cab”) grape has been around since the 17th century, and is the result of a chance crossing in southwestern France of the cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc grapes.

Manfred von Richthofen was a famous WWI fighter pilot flying for the Germans and was known as the Red Baron. He was credited with more kills than any other pilot fighting on either side of the conflict, recording over 80 combat victories. Von Richthofen didn’t survive the war though, as he was shot down near Amiens in France in 1918.

98A Folk-rock supergroup, familiarly : CSNY

The supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) is made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. The band can grow to “CSNY” when the trio is joined by Neil Young. Fans have been known to call the act “C, S, N and sometimes Y”, a play on the expression that names all the vowels, “A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y”.

101A Sanskrit honorific : SRI

Sanskrit is an Indo-Aryan language and one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. It has a rich tradition and is the language in which many historical and religious texts are written. There aren’t many speakers of the language today although efforts are underway to revive spoken Sanskrit.

102A Ruler who commissioned the Taj Mahal, for one : SHAH

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is a magnificent marble mausoleum. It was built in the mid-17th century by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her 14th child in 1631. When Shah Jahan himself died in 1666, he was buried in the Taj Mahal, alongside his wife.

108A Game that can only be played right-handed : POLO

Polo rules dictate that all players hold the mallet in their right hand. This ensures all players approach the ball on the same “traffic” side, preventing high-speed, head-on collisions that could occur if a left-handed player approached the ball on the opposite line.

114A “Tell Mama” singer James : ETTA

“Tell Mama” is a 1967 song recorded by Etta James that was written by singer Clarence Carter. Carter had released a 1966 version of the song himself, under the original title “Tell Daddy”.

119A Actor Postlethwaite : PETE

Pete Postlethwaite was an English actor who started out in the business at the famous Liverpool Everyman Theatre. He was a contemporary of the likes of Bill Nighy (“Love Actually”, “Valkyrie”) and Julie Walters (“Educating Rita”, “Calendar Girls”). You might have seen Postlethwaite in 1993’s “In the Name of the Father”, for which he earned an Oscar nomination. He is one of the few English actors that can put on a great Irish accent (my personal opinion), as he showed in that movie.

120A Scandinavian capital : OSLO

Oslo, the capital of Norway, is an ancient city that was founded around 1048. The medieval city was destroyed by fire in 1624 and was rebuilt by the Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV and renamed to Christiania. In 1877 there was an official change of the spelling of the city’s name to “Kristiana”, and then more recently in 1925 the name was restored to the original Oslo. Things have almost gone full circle and now the center of Oslo, the area that would have been contained by the original medieval walls, has apparently been renamed to Christiania.

Down

4D Antihero played by Keanu Reeves : JOHN WICK

“John Wick” is a 2014 action movie starring Keanu Reeves in the title role. Reeves plays a retired hitman who goes on a killing spree to avenge the murder of his dog. There’s quite a body count …

9D Chicago WNBA team : SKY

The Chicago Sky is a WNBA basketball team that plays home games at Wintrust Arena, located in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago. The Sky was founded in 2006, and the team’s mascot is a Sky Guy, a blue and yellow bird with a basketball for a head.

10D Like the subject of a Carly Simon classic : VAIN

“You’re So Vain” is a Carly Simon song that was released in 1972. The song is about a self-absorbed man and is supposedly one of Simon’s former lovers. The subject of the song has led to much speculation for decades. Simon agreed to reveal the name of the subject to the highest bidder in a charity auction in 2003. The president of NBC Sports Dick Ebersol won that auction, and he has pledged never to reveal what he was told. Simon did allow him to give one clue to the public, that the name contains the letter E.

11D Gerund maker : -ING

A gerund is a form of a verb that can be used as a noun. For example, the gerund of the verb “to solve” is “solving”, as in the phrase “we really enjoyed the solving of the crossword”.

12D Medical research org. : NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) organization is made up of 27 different institutes that coordinate their research and services. Examples of member institutes are the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Aging.

13D Umbrella shape, typically : OCTAGON

Our term “umbrella” ultimately derives from the Latin “umbra” meaning “shade, shadow”.

20D Asks for more catnip, perhaps : MEOWS

About 50% of all cats are affected in some way by the plant catnip. There is a terpenoid in the oil of the plant called nepetalactone that the cat inhales and that can cause anything from drowsiness to anxiety.

24D “Infected be the air ___ they ride”: Macbeth : WHEREON

In William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, the title character yells out “Infected be the air whereon they ride, And damned all those that trust them!”, referring to the three witches just after they vanish.

30D Part of some security checkpoints : BODY SCAN

The AIT (Advanced Imaging Technology) full-body scanners at airports are “millimeter wave” scanners. They get their name because they use safe, non-ionizing radio waves, with wavelengths measured in millimeters (between 1 and 10 mm), to see if anything is hidden under your clothes.

34D Jean Valjean’s story, familiarly : LES MIS

Victor Hugo’s famous 1862 novel “Les Misérables” has been translated into English several times. However, the title is usually left in the original French as a successful translation of “les misérables” seems to be elusive. Some suggestions for an English title are “The Wretched”, “The Victims” and “The Dispossessed”. The novel follows the lives of several characters including an ex-convict Jean Valjean, a fanatic police inspector Javert, a beautiful prostitute Fantine, and Fantine’s illegitimate daughter Cosette.

40D Descriptive piece of HTML code : META TAG

HTML Meta tags are snippets of information, primarily directed at search engines, that reveal basic information about a web page. Examples of meta tags are title tags, that give the title of the page, and description tags, that describe the content of the page.

46D State bird of Hawaii : NENE

The nene is a bird that is native to Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is an imitation of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful. The nene was named State Bird of Hawaii in 1957.

47D Space race initials : USSR

The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite towards the end of 1957 in a development that shocked the establishment in the US. Within months, President Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now DARPA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Space Race had begun …

51D Third in a ring : REF

That might be boxing.

53D Wife of Hägar the Horrible : HELGA

“Hägar the Horrible” is a comic strip that was created by the late Dik Browne and is now drawn by his son, Chris Browne. “Hägar the Terrible” (not “Horrible”) was the nickname given to Dik by his sons. The strip’s title character is a red-bearded Viking living on the Norwegian coast during the Middle Ages. Hägar lives with his overbearing wife Helga, his sensitive son Hamlet, his pretty daughter Honi, and his clever dog Snert.

57D Four Tops singer Benson : OBIE

Obie Benson, as well as being the bass singer and a founding member of the legendary Motown group, the Four Tops, also co-wrote the 1971 landmark protest anthem “What’s Going On”. After witnessing police brutality at an anti-war protest, he began the song and brought it to Marvin Gaye after the Four Tops felt it was too political for them.

60D IRS tracking info : SSNS

The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an identity number to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children on their tax returns who did not actually exist. So starting in 1986, the IRS made it a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the age of 5. Sure enough, seven million dependents “disappeared” in 1987. Today, a SSN is required for a child of any age in order to receive a tax exemption.

63D Blue, in Burgundy : TRISTE

In French, someone feeling blue is “triste” (sad).

The Burgundy region of France is famous for its wine production. If you’re looking at a label that isn’t translated into English though, you’ll see Burgundy written in French, namely “Bourgogne”.

68D Wading bird in Egyptian art : IBIS

The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!

69D Japanese-Peruvian fusion chain : NOBU

Nobu Matsuhisa is a celebrity chef from Japan. Nobu was invited to open a Japanese restaurant in Lima, Peru in 1973, and while in South America developed his own Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine. He moved to the US a few years later, and opened a restaurant named Matsuhisa in Los Angeles. Actor Robert De Niro visited that restaurant, and suggested to Matsuhisa that he open a restaurant in New York City. Eventually, after De Niro offered to participate in a joint venture, Matsuhisa agreed and opened the first Nobu. Now there are “Nobu” and “Matsuhisa” restaurants all over the world.

70D Third key in a reboot sequence : DEL

Ctrl-Alt-Delete is a keyboard command on IBM PC compatible systems used for a soft reboot, or more recently to bring up the task manager in the Windows operating system. Bill Gates tells us that the command was originally just a device to be used during development and was never meant to “go live”. He once said that “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” was a mistake, and that he would have preferred a dedicated key on the keyboard that carried out the same function.

71D Sleeve style : RAGLAN

The verb “to boot”, as used in the world of computers, comes from the phrase “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”. The idea is that the software that has to be loaded before a computer can do anything useful is called a “bootstrap load”.

73D “Poppycock!” : MY EYE!

It is thought that the relatively gentle term “poppycock”, meaning “nonsense”, comes from a Dutch word for “dung” combined with a Latin word for “excrete”. Not so gentle after all …

75D San Antonio team : SPURS

The Spurs are a professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. The team was founded as the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967.

81D Grand Slam Tokyo discipline : JUDO

A Judo Grand Slam is a top-tier international tournament in the sport, second only in importance to the World Championships and the Olympics.

84D Multiple ages : EPOCHS

Geologic time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

• supereon
• eon (also “aeon”)
• era
• period
• epoch
• age

85D Tree on South Carolina’s flag : PALMETTO

The palmetto is a genus of palms that are native to the tropical regions of the Americas. The Sabal palmetto is the state tree of both Florida and South Carolina. South Carolina’s state flag also features a silhouette of a Sabal palmetto tree.

90D Government Grant? : ULYSSES

Ulysses S. Grant (USG) had risen to commander of all Union armies by the end of the Civil War. He was elected as the 18th president of the US in 1869. Grant served two terms as president, and also made a failed bid for a third term. Grant’s reputation was tarnished by his apparent tolerance of corruption in his administration. On the other hand, Grant worked hard to protect African Americans during Reconstruction after the Civil War, and pursued peaceful relations with Native Americans.

91D 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”. He also played one of the Ken dolls in 2023’s “Barbie”.

93D Hanging in the theater : SCRIM

“Scrim” is the name given to that transparent fabric that hangs down onto a theater’s stage. It is often used with special lighting for various effects.

97D Airline that grew from a crop-dusting operation founded in 1925 : DELTA

Delta was the world’s largest airline for a while (after merging with Northwest Airlines in 2008) and is the oldest airline still operating in the US. Delta’s roots go back to 1924 before it started carrying passengers when it was Huff Daland Dusters, a crop-dusting company based in Macon, Georgia. The name “Delta Air Service” was introduced in 1928.

99D Panasonic subsidiary : SANYO

Sanyo is a Japanese electronics manufacturer based near Osaka and founded in 1947. The company name means “three oceans” reflecting the company’s original aim to sell its products all around the world (across three oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian).

103D “Inferno” setting : HELL

In Dante’s “Inferno”, Hell is represented as nine circles of suffering. The nine circles of Hell are:

1. Limbo
2. Lust
3. Gluttony
4. Greed
5. Anger
6. Heresy
7. Violence
8. Fraud
9. Treachery

111D Province between Man. and Que. : ONT

The Canadian province of Ontario takes its name from the Great Lake. In turn, Lake Ontario’s name is thought to be derived from “Ontari:io”, a Huron word meaning “great lake”. Ontario is home to the nation’s capital of Ottawa as well as Toronto, Canada’s most populous city (and the capital of the province).

112D Prefix with cache : GEO-

Geocaching is a game rather like hide and seek that is played outdoors using hi-tech equipment. The idea is that someone places a waterproof container in a specific location with known GPS coordinates. The container has a logbook inside, so that players who find the “cache” can record their discovery along with any notes of interest. The location of the container is listed on special sites on the Internet for anyone to access. You can check out caches near you at www.geocaching.com. You will probably be surprised at how many there are! I know I was …

113D Bat wood : ASH

Ash wood has historically been a favored material for baseball bats due to its flexibility and strength, allowing for a good balance of power and durability. However, in recent years, maple has become more popular due to ash’s tendency to splinter.