Tag: Smooth sailing crossword clue

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Constructed by: Brian Keller

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: First Half

The FIRST part of each themed answer is a 4-letter prefix meaning “HALF”:

• 60A Game division, or what can be found in 16-, 26-, and 44-Across : FIRST HALF

• 16A Star of “Ghost” and “The Substance” : DEMI MOORE
• 26A “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” for one : HEMINGWAY NOVEL
• 44A Indigenous people of Oklahoma who originated in Florida : SEMINOLE NATION

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

Bill’s time: 5m 23s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Perlman of “Cheers” : RHEA

Rhea Perlman’s most famous role has to be Carla Tortelli, the irascible waitress in the long-running sitcom “Cheers”. Perlman is also a successful children’s author, and has published a series of six books called “Otto Undercover”. She married Hollywood actor Danny DeVito in 1982.

15A “Hello,” in Mandarin : NI HAO

Mandarin Chinese is a group of dialects that are spoken across northern and southwestern China. If Mandarin is considered as one language, then it has more native speakers than any other language on the planet.

16A Star of “Ghost” and “The Substance” : DEMI MOORE

Demi Moore was born Demi Guynes and took the name Demi Moore when she married her first husband, Freddy Moore. Moore’s second husband was Bruce Willis. She changed her name to Demi Guynes Kutcher a few years after marrying her third husband, Ashton Kutcher. However, Kutcher and Moore split in 2013.

The fabulous film “Ghost” was the highest-grossing movie at the box office in 1990, bringing in over $500 million, despite only costing $21 million to make. Stars of the film are Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. You might get a chance to check out the stage musical adaptation “Ghost The Musical”, which debuted in 2011 and toured the UK and US.

“The Substance” is a horror movie (so I haven’t seen it). It stars Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid, the former portraying an aging film star, and the latter portraying the producer who fires her for being too old. The actress takes “The Substance”, a black market drug that creates a younger version of herself. But, there are unintended, and horrifying consequences.

26A “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” for one : HEMINGWAY NOVEL

“For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a 1940 novel by author Ernest Hemingway that tells the story of an American fighting for a republican guerilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. The novel is based on Hemingway’s own experiences during the conflict. The title is taken from a work by metaphysical poet John Donne called “Devotions upon Emergent Occasions”.

32A Supergirl accessory : CAPE

Kara Zor-El is Superman’s cousin, and is also known as Supergirl. Supergirl’s father and Superman’s father were brothers. On Earth, Supergirl uses the name “Linda Lee”.

34A One-named singer whose studio albums have numerical titles : ADELE

“Adele” is the stage name of English singer Adele Adkins. Adele’s debut album is “19”, named after the age she was during the album’s production. Her second album was even more successful than the first. Called “21”, the second album was released three years after the first, when Adele was three years older. Her third studio album “25”, released in 2015, broke the first-week sales records in both the UK and the US. “30” followed in 2021.

36A Thawing of diplomatic tensions : DETENTE

“Détente” is a French word meaning “loosening, reduction in tension” and in general it is used to describe the easing of strained relations in a political situation. In particular, the policy of détente came to be associated with the improved relations between the US and the Soviet Union in the seventies.

39A Digital collectible: Abbr. : NFT

Non-fungible token (NFT). I admit it; I don’t understand NFTs (or the related cryptocurrencies).

44A Indigenous people of Oklahoma who originated in Florida : SEMINOLE NATION

The Seminole people originally came from what is now called Florida. Increasing migration of European Americans into Seminole lands led to the three Seminole Wars, the first starting in 1818, the last ending in 1858. The basic outcome of the wars was the relocation of the vast majority of Seminoles to reservations in Oklahoma. So, today there is a Seminole Nation of Oklahoma as well as a Seminole Nation of Florida.

50A No. 1 pal : BFF

Best friend forever (BFF)

54A French island near Sardinia : CORSICA

Corsica (“La Corse” in French) is a large island in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to France. Napoléon Bonaparte was born on Corsica, in the town of Ajaccio.

Sardinia is an autonomous region of Italy, and an island in the Mediterranean off the west coast of the country. It lies to the south of the French island of Corsica. Sardinia is the second largest island in the whole of the Mediterranean Sea (Sicily is the largest).

64A Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant : IGOR

The character Igor, the hunchbacked assistant to Dr. Frankenstein, is perhaps as well known as the “good” doctor himself. However, in Mary Shelley’s original 1818 novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”, Dr. Frankenstein works alone. There is no assistant named Igor, nor any hunchbacked lab helper.

67A __ stick : POGO

What we know today as a pogo stick was invented in Germany by Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall. The name “pogo” comes from the first two letters in each of the inventors’ family names: Po-hlig and Go-ttschall. The highest jump on a pogo stick (11 feet, 2.25 inches) was achieved by Dalton Smith, who is also famous for jumping over three consecutive cars on a pogo stick.

Down

1D Gucci of fashion : ALDO

Gucci was founded in Florence, in 1921, by Guccio Gucci. Guccio’s son Aldo took over the company after his father’s death in 1953. It was Aldo who established the international presence for the brand and opened the company’s first overseas store, in New York City.

3D Gold fabric : LAME

Lamé is a fabric that has metallic yarns included in the weave. It is a popular fabric for stylish evening wear, and also in the sport of fencing. The metallic threads are conductive and so help register a touch by an épée.

4D Perfect example : EPITOME

The more common meaning of “epitome” is “perfect example of a group, quality, type”. An epitome is also an abstract or summary of a book or article.

5D Jimmy Choo creation : SHOE

Jimmy Choo is a designer of handmade women’s shoes who was born in Malaysia but grew up and was educated in London. Choo sold the 50% stake that he had in his shoe manufacturing company in 2001, for 10 million pounds.

7D Spanish rice dish seasoned with saffron : PAELLA

Paella is sometimes referred to as the Spanish national dish, but not by Spaniards. In Spain, paella is regarded as a typical regional dish from Valencia. The name “paella” means “frying pan” in Valencian, and is a reference to the shallow vessel traditionally used to cook the dish over an open fire.

Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice by weight. It is derived from the saffron crocus. The spice itself is the dried stigma found in the flower of the plant.

12D Dog who visits Oz : TOTO

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.

14D Nora Roberts genre : ROMANCE

Nora Roberts is a very successful author who has written over 165 romance novels. Roberts is published under a number of pen names, i.e. J.D. Robb, Jill March and Sarah Hardesty.

24D Center defender in soccer : SWEEPER

In soccer, sweeper is a specialized defensive position situated slightly behind the main line of defenders. The player in this position is free from man-marking responsibilities, and acts as a roaming last line of defense to “sweep up” any loose balls that get past the primary defense.

27D __ salts: bathwater additive : EPSOM

The Surrey town of Epsom in England is most famous for its racecourse (Epsom Downs), at which the Epsom Derby is run every year, one of the three races that make up the English Triple Crown. We also come across “Epsom salts” from time to time. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, originally prepared by boiling down mineral waters. Epsom was indeed a spa town at one time. The town is also home to Epsom College, an English “public school” (which actually means “private, and expensive”). One of Epsom’s “old boys” was the Hollywood actor Stewart Granger.

29D Mobile payment app : VENMO

Venmo is a smartphone payment app that is now owned by PayPal. The first version of the product was introduced in 2009 by two entrepreneurs who had met as freshman students at the University of Pennsylvania. They sold the company in 2012 for over $26 million, and then PayPal acquired it the following year for a whopping $800 million. I wonder if PayPal ever buys blogs …

32D Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas : CASS

Cass Elliot (born “Ellen Cohen”) was one of the four singers in the Mamas and the Papas, a sensational group from the sixties. “Mama Cass” was performing sold-out concerts in London in 1974 when she was found dead one morning, having had a heart attack. She was only 32 years old. Eerily, Elliot died in the same flat (on loan from Harry Nilsson) in which the Who’s drummer Keith Moon would die just four years later.

37D Diarist Anaïs : NIN

Anaïs Nin was a French author who was famous for the journals that she wrote for over sixty years from the age of 11 right up to her death. Nin also wrote highly regarded erotica and cited D. H. Lawrence as someone from whom she drew inspiration. Nin was married to banker and artist Hugh Parker Guiler in 1923. Decades later in 1955, Nin married former actor Rupert Pole, even though she was still married to Guiler. Nin and Pole had their marriage annulled in 1966, but just for legal reasons, and they continued to live together as husband and wife until Nin passed away in 1977.

38D Pot insulator, in England : TEA COSY

A tea cozy is an insulated cover for a teapot, something to keep the tea hot. I don’t know what I’d do without my tea cosy/cozy …

43D Blimp, for one : AIRSHIP

There is an important difference between an airship like the Goodyear Blimp and an airship like a zeppelin. The latter is a rigid structure with an internal framework that helps maintain the shape of the airbag, whereas the former uses the pressure of the helium gas inside the airbag to give it shape.

45D Peace 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

46D Exfoliating scrubber : LOOFAH

The loofah (also “loofa”, “lufah” and “luffa”, all Arabic words) is a vine, with fruit that’s very popular in Asia and Africa. If the fruit is allowed to mature, it can be processed to remove everything but the more rigid xylem structure (remember your high school botany class?) leaving a soft, sponge-like mass that is used as a skin polisher.

55D “Aladdin” parrot named for a Shakespeare villain : IAGO

In the 1992 Disney feature “Aladdin”, there is a parrot called Iago. Iago is voiced by the comic Gilbert Gottfried.

61D __ Jima : IWO

Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located south of Tokyo that today is uninhabited. The name is Japanese for “Sulfur Island”, referring to the sulfur mining on which Iwo Jima’s economy once depended. There were about a thousand Japanese civilians living on the island prior to WWII. In 1944, there was a massive influx of Japanese military personnel in anticipation of the inevitable US invasion. As the Japanese military moved in, the civilians were forced out and no one has lived there since. Control of the island was wrested from the Japanese in the five-week Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Said battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific theater in WWII.