Tag: Sandos with two spreads crossword clue

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Constructed by: Doug Peterson

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Built to Scale

Themed answers are all in the down-direction. Hidden within each, CLIMBING upwards, is a kind of SHOE:

• 58D Footwear for boulderers, and what can be found in this puzzle’s circled letters : CLIMBING SHOES

• 3D “Boom Boom” blues legend : JOHN LEE HOOKER (climbing HEEL)
• 7D Approach that emphasizes fundamentals : BACK TO BASICS (climbing SABOT)
• 9D Group that can play a symphony : PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (climbing CROC)
• 21D “What a shame” : THAT’S TOO BAD (climbing BOOT)
• 62D Hygiene tool on a spool : DENTAL FLOSS (climbing FLAT)
• 65D “How many sugars?,” quaintly : ONE LUMP OR TWO? (climbing MULE)

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

Bill’s time: 14m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Restaurant chain co-founded by chef Matsuhisa : 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.

9 Star’s entourage : POSSE

Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”

19 Country with a Persian-speaking majority : IRAN

Before 1935, the country we know today as Iran was referred to as Persia by the Western world. The official name of the country since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is the “Islamic Republic of Iran”.

20 Operational launch time : H-HOUR

The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat operation is to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that D just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

23 Checkbook no. : ACCT

Checks and checking accounts caused me some language trouble when I first came to the US. Back in Ireland (and the UK) we write “cheques” using funds from our “current” accounts.

25 Actress Bailey : HALLE

Singer and actress Halle Bailey started her singing career as a young girl on a YouTube channel with her sister, performing cover songs as “Chloe x Halle”. In 2019, Halle was given her first lead role as an actress, playing Ariel in the 2023 live-action remake of 1989’s “The Little Mermaid”.

26 Big Apple team : YANKS

Apparently, the first published use of the term “Big Apple” to describe New York City dates back to 1909. Edward Martin wrote the following in his book “The Wayfarer in New York”:

Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.

Over ten years later, the term “big apple” was used as a nickname for racetracks in and around New York City. However, the concerted effort to “brand” the city as the Big Apple had to wait until the seventies and was the work of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau.

28 Alpine course : SKI SLOPE

Alpine skiing is also known as downhill skiing.

30 Spoke like a boxer : BARKED

The boxer breed of dog (one of my favorites) originated in Germany. My first dog was a boxer/Labrador mix, a beautiful combination. My wife and I also had a boxer/pug mix, and he was another gorgeous animal.

31 Explorer Erikson : LEIF

Leif Erikson (sometimes “Ericson”) was a Norse explorer and the first European to land in North America, some 500 years before Christopher Columbus’s landing in 1492. The Norsemen named the area they discovered “Vinland”, which might translate as “Wine Land” or “Pasture Land”. Erikson built a small settlement called Leifsbudir, which archaeologists believe they have found in modern day Newfoundland, at L’Anse aux Meadows. The settlement discovered in Newfoundland is definitely Norse, but there is some dispute over whether it is actually Erikson’s Leifsbudir.

38 Div. of Labor : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

39 Williams with four Olympic gold medals : VENUS

Venus Williams is the older of the two Williams sisters playing professional tennis. In 2002, Williams became the first African-American woman to earn the World No. 1 ranking by the Women’s Tennis Association in the Open Era.

44 Specter : WRAITH

“Wraith” was originally a Scottish word, one meaning “ghost, specter”.

48 Lake near Carson City : TAHOE

Lake Tahoe (often referred to simply as “Tahoe”) is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is located right on the border between California and Nevada. It is the largest alpine lake in the country. Tahoe is also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada, and was named for the Carson River. The river was named for Kit Carson, the scout who accompanied the team of European Americans who first arrived in the area in 1843. Carson City was designated state capital in 1864.

50 Charcuterie board selections : SALAMIS

“Salame” (note the letter E at the end) is an Italian sausage that is traditionally associated with the peasant classes. The meat in the sausage is preserved with salt, and it can be hung and stored for as long as ten years. The name “salame” comes from “sale”, the Italian word for salt, and “-ame”, a suffix indicating a collective noun. Our English word “salami” is actually the Italian plural for “salame”.

In French, a “charcutier” is a pork butcher, although the term “charcuterie” has come to describe a genre of cooking focused on prepared meats such as bacon, ham, sausage and pâté. Although these meats often feature pork, it is not exclusively so. The word “charcuterie” comes from the French “chair” meaning “flesh” and “cuit” meaning “cooked”.

56 Activist Yoko : ONO

Artist Yoko Ono operates the website ImaginePeace.com. I checked it out once and found these two lovely quotes:

• Imagine all the people living life in peace … John Lennon
• A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is reality … Yoko Ono

61 Multivolume ref. : OED

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

63 Herb on a bánh mì sandwich : CILANTRO

What we know here in North America as cilantro is called coriander in my home nation of Ireland and in other parts of the world. “Cilantro” is the Spanish name for the herb.

The French introduced the baguette into Vietnam in the days the country was a French colony. Today, a single-serving baguette is known in Vietnam as “bánh mì” (meaning “wheat bread”). The term has been extended, particularly here in the US, to describe a Vietnamese sandwich.

66 Govt. securities : T-BILLS

A Treasury note (T-note) is a government debt that matures in 1-10 years. A T-note has a coupon (interest) payment made every six months. The T-note is purchased at a discount to face value, and at the date of maturity can be redeemed at that face value. A Treasury bill (T-bill) is a similar financial vehicle, but it matures in one year or less, and a T-bond matures in 20-30 years.

67 Capacious craft : ARK

Something described as “capacious” is spacious, capable of holding a lot.

72 Artemis org. : NASA

NASA’s Artemis program is an initiative aimed at returning humans to the Moon, with the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable lunar presence and paving the way for future human exploration of Mars.

74 “__ complicated” : IT’S

Yes, it is …

77 Treats flavored with syrup : SNO-CONES

A sno-cone (also “snow cone”) is just a paper cone filled with crushed ice and topped with flavored water. Italian ice is similar, but different. Whereas the flavoring is added on top of the ice to make a sno-cone, Italian ice is made with water that is flavored before it is frozen.

84 Siglo de __: era of El Greco and Cervantes : ORO

The Spanish Golden Age (“Siglo de Oro”) is often defined as the period between 1492 (when Christopher Columbus started his voyages) and 1659 (the end of the Franco-Spanish War). It was an era when arts and literature flourished in Spain. Prominent figures of the era were novelist Miguel de Cervantes, playwright Lope de Vega, and artists Diego Velázquez and El Greco.

El Greco (“the Greek”, in Spanish) was the nickname of the artist whose real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos. He was born in Crete in 1541, and moved to Venice to study art when he was in his early twenties. A few years later he moved to the city of Toledo in central Spain, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.

The full name of the author of “Don Quixote” was Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. As a young man in 1570, Cervantes was a soldier fighting for the Spanish Navy, stationed in Naples, at that time a possession of Spain. He was injured in battle, receiving three gunshot wounds including two to the chest. His injuries left him without the use of his left arm. After recuperating, he returned to active service, and in 1575 he was captured by Algerian corsairs, and spent the next five years in slavery in North Africa. His parents found him and bought his freedom, and brought him home to his native Madrid.

86 Long-legged wader : 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”!

89 Billy of “Titanic” : ZANE

Billy Zane is an actor from Chicago, Illinois. One of Zane’s most prominent roles was the title character in the 1996 superhero film called “The Phantom”. He also played the somewhat creepy bad guy in the 1989 thriller movie called “Dead Calm”.

When James Cameron made his epic movie “Titanic”, released in 1997, it was the most expensive film ever made and cost about $200 million. It was a good investment for the studio as it became the highest-grossing film of all time, bringing in over $1.8 billion. “Titanic” remained the highest-grossing film until 2010, when Cameron eclipsed the prior record with “Avatar”.

90 Fortnite Frenz 4 Ever Blaster, for one : NERF GUN

Nerf is a soft material used in a whole series of toys designed for “safe” play indoors. The Nerf product is used to make darts, balls and ammunition for toy guns. “NERF” is an acronym, standing for Non-Expanding Recreational Foam.

93 Milk source in the Sahara : CAMEL

The name “Sahara” means “desert” in Arabic. The Sahara is just that, a great desert covering almost 4 million square miles of Northern Africa. That’s almost the size of the United States.

96 Mural on plaster : FRESCO

A fresco is a painting created on a moist plaster, usually on a wall or ceiling. The plaster is “freshly” laid when the image is created, and “fresco” is the Italian for “fresh”.

98 Subject that includes set theory : MATH

In mathematics, a set is defined as a collection of distinct objects. Remember those Venn diagrams at school? Each of the circles in a Venn diagram represents a set.

102 __ Loops : FROOT

Froot Loops (ugh!) is a breakfast cereal from Kellogg’s that has been around since 1963. The little loops come in different colors, originally red, orange and yellow, but now there are green, purple and blue loops as well. Notice I said “different colors” not “different flavors”. Each loop tastes the same, so I wonder where the color comes from …?

104 Court target : HOOP

Basketball is truly a North American sport. It was created in 1891 by Canadian James Naismith at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. His goal was to create something active and interesting for his students in the gym. The first “hoops” were actually peach baskets, with the bottoms of the baskets intact. When a player got the ball into the “net”, someone had to clamber up and get the ball back out again in order to continue the game!

110 Islanders’ NHL division, familiarly : METRO

The New York Islanders are an NHL team, one of three such franchises in the New York City area (along with the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers). When the team was founded in 1972, it was designated as a “Long Island franchise”, and it was expected to be named the Long Island Ducks, but “New York Islanders” it was to be.

111 Animation collectibles : CELS

Animation cels are transparent sheets made of celluloid acetate that were used in traditional hand-drawn animation to create animated films. They were first introduced in the 1930s and were widely used in animation production until the late 1990s, when digital animation techniques began to dominate the industry.

113 List of specialized terms : GLOSSARY

A gloss is a brief explanation of a complex term, one perhaps written in the margin of a text. A “glossary” is a collection of “glosses”.

116 “Dos Mujeres” painter : KAHLO

Frida Kahlo’s 1928 painting “Dos Mujeres” depicts two maids, Salvadora and Herminia, who worked in her mother’s household and whom Kahlo had known since she was a child. It was the very first painting she ever sold, and she received 300 pesos (in 1929). The painting is now in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

121 Sporty car roof : T-TOP

A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

125 Episcopal figure : VICAR

A vicar is a member of the clergy in several Christian traditions. In more general terms, we can use the word “vicar” for a person who acts in the place of another, i.e. a deputy. It was the latter usage of the term that gave rise to the religious usage, as a vicar in a church was considered a person acting for God.

The Episcopal Church in the US is a branch of the Anglican Communion, and so is associated with the Church of England. The Episcopal Church is descended from the Church of England’s presence in the American colonies, prior to the American Revolution. The American Anglicans split with the mother church, largely because the clergy of the Church of England are required to swear allegiance to the British monarch. Members of the Episcopal Church are known as Episcopalians. “Episcopal” is an adjective and “Episcopalian” is a noun.

126 Stealthy flyers : OWLS

Much of an owl’s diet consists of small mammals. As a result, humans have used owls for centuries to control rodent populations, usually by placing a nest box for owls on a property. Despite the fact that owls and humans live together in relative harmony, owls have been known to attack humans from time to time. Celebrated English bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye when attacked by a tawny owl that he was trying to photograph. Hosking wrote a 1970 autobiography with the wry title “An Eye for a Bird”.

127 Clark from Smallville : KENT

Superman was sent to Earth in a rocket as a child by his parents, who remained on the doomed planet of Krypton. On Earth, the child was discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent, farmers who lived near the fictional town of Smallville. The Kents raised the infant as their own, giving him the name Clark, which was Ma Kent’s maiden name.

129 Walled Spanish city : AVILA

The Spanish city of Ávila is famous for the walled defenses around the old city (“la muralla de Ávila”) that date back to 1090. They were constructed out of brown granite, and are still in excellent repair. There are nine gateways and eighty-towers in all. Even the cathedral built between the 12th and 14th centuries is part of the city’s defenses, so it looks like an imposing fortress.

Down

2 __ Raton : BOCA

The name of the city of Boca Raton in Florida translates from Spanish as “Mouse Mouth”. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive etymology of the name but one plausible explanation is a nautical one. “Boca”, as well as meaning “mouth” can mean “inlet”. “Ratón”, as well as meaning “mouse” was also used to describe rocks that chewed away at a ship’s anchor cable. So possibly Boca Raton was named for a rocky inlet.

3 “Boom Boom” blues legend : JOHN LEE HOOKER (climbing HEEL)

John Lee Hooker was a blues singer and songwriter. One of Hooker’s more memorable compositions is the song “Boom Boom”, which he wrote and recorded himself in 1961. A version of “Boom Boom” performed by Big Head Todd and the Monsters serves as the theme song for the TV drama “NCIS: New Orleans”.

4 “__ and the Bandit” : SMOKEY

“Smokey and the Bandit” is a 1977 comedy action film starring Burt Reynolds as “the Bandit” and Jackie Gleason as “Smokey Bear”.

5 “Candyman” director DaCosta : NIA

Nia DaCosta was the first woman to direct a superhero movie, doing so for 2023’s “The Marvels”.

“Candyman” is a 2021 movie described as a “supernatural, slasher film”. Not for me …

6 Brutish Tolkien characters : ORCS

According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth (also called “Mordor”). They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

7 Approach that emphasizes fundamentals : BACK TO BASICS (climbing SABOT)

There is a story that disgruntled textile workers would kick their wooden shoes, called “sabots”, into the looms in order to disable them so that they didn’t have to work. This act of vandalism was named for the shoe, an act of … “sabotage”.

9 Group that can play a symphony : PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (climbing CROC)

The term “philharmonic” comes from the Greek words “philos,” meaning “loving,” and “harmonia,” meaning “harmony.” It was originally used in the 19th century to describe musical societies or orchestras that were devoted to the performance of classical music. The first organization to use the name was the Royal Philharmonic Society, founded in London in 1813.

Crocs are foam clogs that were originally designed as shoes to be worn at health spas. I bought a pair of crocs, and then my kids said they would stop talking to me …

13 Workplaces for triage nurses: Abbr. : ERS

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

14 Leafy vegetable : CHARD

Chard is a lovely leafy vegetable, in my humble opinion. It is the same species as the garden beet, but chard is grown for the leaves and beet is grown for the roots. Chard also goes by the names Swiss chard, silver beet and mangold. In some parts of Australia, it’s even known as spinach.

15 More opalescent : MILKIER

An opal is often described as having a milky iridescence known as opalescence.

27 Sustained attack : SIEGE

Our word “siege” comes from a 13th-century word for a “seat”. The military usage derives from the concept of a besieging force “sitting down” outside a fortress until it falls.

29 Phonetic symbol : SCHWA

A schwa is an unstressed and toneless vowel found in a number of languages including English. Examples from our language are the “a” in “about”, the “e” in “taken” and the “i” in pencil.

30 Furnace meas. : BTU

British Thermal Unit (BTU)

32 Pres. who created the “alphabet agencies” : FDR

The collection of New Deal programs created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt became popularly known as “FDR’s alphabet soup” because they were so numerous and were almost always referred to by their acronyms. Many of these agencies were temporary, like the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and the WPA (Works Progress Administration). However, several are still fundamental parts of American life today, including the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), and the SSA (Social Security Administration).

43 Pet welfare org. : ASPCA

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

47 South Indian rice cake : IDLI

Idli (also “idly”) are savory rice cakes in the cuisine from the Indian subcontinent. The cakes are made from de-husked, fermented black lentils incorporated into a batter and then steamed.

51 Word rapper Bow Wow dropped from his stage name : LIL’

“Bow Wow”, formerly “Lil’ Bow Wow”, is the stage name of rapper and actor Shad Moss. He was given the name by Snoop Dogg, who discovered him while performing in the early 1990s on the Chronic Tour, a major hip-tour headlined by Dr. Dre. Bow Wow dropped the “Lil'” in 2002, to signify that he was growing up.

65 “How many sugars?,” quaintly : ONE LUMP OR TWO? (climbing MULE)

A mule is a shoe without a back and usually with a closed toe. The original mule was a shoe worn by the highest magistrates in ancient Rome.

67 Lee with two Best Director Oscars : ANG

When Ang Lee won his first Academy Award for Best Director for 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain”, he became the first person of color to win in that category. He won a second Oscar for directing 2012’s “Life of Pi”.

68 “West Coast” singer Lana Del __ : REY

“Lana Del Rey” is the stage name of singer/songwriter Elizabeth Grant. Del Rey calls herself a “self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra”. Nice …

70 Powerful engine named for its shape : V-TEN

The engine known as a V10 is configured with two rows of five cylinders mounted on the crankcase. The rows of cylinders are offset from each other around the crankshaft at right angles, or perhaps a little less. This arrangement of ten cylinders in a V-shape gives rise to the name “V10”.

73 Mountain pose, for one : ASANA

Mountain pose is a yoga pose that is also known as tadasana. It is yoga’s basic standing pose.

88 Toffee candy bar : SKOR

The candy bar named “Skor” is produced by Hershey’s. “Skor” is Swedish for “shoes”, and the candy bar’s wrapping features a crown that is identical to that found in the Swedish national emblem. What shoes have to do with candy, I don’t know …

91 __ the bill : FOOTS

To foot the bill is to pay it, to pay the total at the “foot” of the bill.

93 Made a two-piece chess move : CASTLED

In the game of chess, the move known as “castling” involves the king moving two squares towards one of the rooks, and then placing that rook in the square over which the king crossed. It is the only chess move involving two pieces at the same time.

95 Like axolotls : MEXICAN

An axolotl is a salamander that is native to Central Mexico. The name “axolotl” translates as “water monster”, It’s an ugly little creature …

97 Colorful character? : ROY G BIV

“Roy G. Biv” can be used as a mnemonic for the colors in a rainbow:

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Indigo
• Violet

99 Flix sister station : TMC

The Movie Channel is owned by Showtime, which in turn is a subsidiary of CBS. The channel’s name is often abbreviated to “TMC”, although this is informal usage.

Flix is a cable television channel that screens feature films released from the 1970s to the present day. The network uses two slogans: “Movies You Grew Up With” and “Cool Classics for the Movie Generation”.

103 Actor Funches of Apple TV+’s “Loot” : RON

Comedian and actor Ron Funches is perhaps best known for playing IT specialist Howard on the comedy TV show “Loot”. In addition to his career in acting and stand-up comedy, Funches is a fan of professional wrestling, and hosts a wrestling podcast called “One Fall with Ron Funches”.

105 One on the stump : ORATOR

“To stump” can mean “to go on a speaking tour during a political campaign”. This peculiarly American term dates back to the 19th century. Back then, a stump speech was an address given by someone standing on a large tree stump that provided a convenient perch to help the speaker get his or her message across to the crowd.

107 “North to the Future” state : ALASKA

The motto of the state of Alaska is “North to the Future”. The motto was chosen after a competition held in 1967 on the occasion of the centennial of the Alaska Purchase.

114 Focal points : LOCI

“Locus” (plural “loci”) is Latin for “place”, and is used in English with the same meaning. The term can also be used to describe a center of power or activity. In mathematics, a locus is a set of points that satisfy some property. For example, a locus might be a straight line, part of a line, a surface, or perhaps a curve.

115 “Let’s do it!” hashtag : YOLO!

You only live once (YOLO)

120 Gardner of “Show Boat” : AVA

In the 1951 film adaptation of the stage musical showboat “Show Boat”, Ava Gardner plays leading lady, Julie La Verne. Given the role, she had some big numbers to perform, including “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”. Gardner had a decent singing voice, by all accounts, and she reportedly practiced for the part for months before the start of filming. To this day, we can hear her singing on the movie’s soundtrack album. However, for the movie itself, producers weren’t impressed with Gardner’s vocals, and so had them dubbed by vocalist and jazz stylist Annette Warren. Apparently, Gardner was not happy at all about that decision.