Tag: Staying away from the spotlight crossword clue

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Constructed by: Caroline Hand

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): The “Olly” Ladies

Themed answers are all actresses with given names in the format xOLLY:

• 17A “The Piano” Best Actress Oscar winner : HOLLY HUNTER
• 28A Actress known for saying “Kiss my grits!” on the sitcom “Alice” : POLLY HOLLIDAY
• 48A “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club” actress : MOLLY RINGWALD
• 64A Country music legend who founded the nonprofit literacy program Imagination Library : DOLLY PARTON

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

Bill’s time: 5m 58s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Venomous African snake : MAMBA

Mambas, most famously black mambas, are highly venomous snakes that used to be responsible for a great number of fatalities before anti-venoms became available. Mamba venom is a deadly mix of neurotoxins that attack the nervous system and cardiotoxins that attack the heart. A bite, if left untreated, causes the lungs and the heart to shut down.

6A On __ nine: elated : CLOUD

I don’t think that anyone is really certain of the etymology of the term “on cloud nine” meaning “elated”, but I do like the following explanation. The 1896 “International Cloud-Atlas” was a long-standing reference used to define cloud shapes that was based on a classification created by amateur meteorologist Luke Howard some decades earlier. The biggest and fluffiest of all cloud shapes (and most comfortable-looking to lie on) is cumulonimbus. And you guessed it, of the ten cloud shapes defined in the atlas, cumulonimbus was cloud nine …

11A Celebrity chef Fieri : GUY

Guy Fieri is a restaurant owner and television personality. Fieri is known as “the face of the Food Network” as several of his television series on that channel are very popular.

16A Card game based on Crazy Eights : UNO

The card game called Crazy Eights is named for the former military designation “Section 8”. Section 8 referred to a category of discharge from the US military, reserved for personnel deemed mentally unfit for duty.

17A “The Piano” Best Actress Oscar winner : HOLLY HUNTER

“The Piano” is a 1993 film set and filmed in New Zealand starring Harvey Keitel, Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin. The movie tells the story of a mute piano player and her daughter, and her efforts to regain her piano after it is sold. Holly Hunter managed to get three screen credits in “The Piano”. She was credited for her acting role, for playing her own piano pieces in the film, and for being the sign-language coach for young Anna Paquin.

19A Disco __ of “The Simpsons” : STU

On “The Simpsons”, the character Disco Stu is voiced by Hank Azaria, although the original intent was for him to be voiced by Phil Hartman.

21A Iowa college town : AMES

Iowa State University of Science and Technology (ISU) is located in Ames, Iowa. Among many other notable milestones, ISU created the country’s first school of veterinary medicine, in 1879. The sports teams of ISU are known as the Cyclones.

26A “Aquarius” and “Good Morning Starshine” musical : HAIR

The full name of the famed show from the sixties is “Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical”, although the 1979 film adaptation was simply titled “Hair”. This controversial work outraged many when it was first performed in the sixties, as it attacked many aspects of life at the time. For example, the song “Air” is a satirical look at pollution, sung by a character who comes onto the stage wearing a gas mask. The opening lines are “Welcome, sulfur dioxide. Hello carbon monoxide. The air … is everywhere”. How things have changed over the past few decades said he, satirically …

28A Actress known for saying “Kiss my grits!” on the sitcom “Alice” : POLLY HOLLIDAY

Actress Polly Holliday got her big break playing the role of waitress Florence “Flo” Castleberry on the 70s/80s sitcom “Alice”. That character’s catchphrase “Kiss my grits” was so popular that it entered American vernacular, and is used in conversation to this day. Flo got her own spin-off sitcom, called “Flo”, but it only lasted for two seasons.

The sitcom “Alice” is set in Mel’s Diner, which is supposedly frequented by locals and truckers on the outskirts of Phoenix. There is a real Mel’s Diner in Phoenix, and the restaurant’s sign is used in the opening credits. The real-world Mel’s was called “Chris’ Diner”, but the owner agreed to a temporary change in name for the purposes of the show. But, “Chris” never came back, and “Mel’s” is still serving customers today.

33A Khaki kin : CHINO

Chino is a twill cloth that is most often used to make hard-wearing pants. The pants themselves have come to be referred to as chinos. Chino cloth was originally developed for use by the military, but quickly became popular with civilians.

35A Ambient music composer Brian : ENO

Brian Eno was one of the pioneers of the genre of ambient music. He composed an album in 1978 called “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, which was the first in a series of four albums with an ambient theme. Eno named the tracks, somewhat inventively, 1/1, 1/2, 2/1 and 2/2.

37A Tyrannosaurus __ : REX

The Tyrannosaurus rex was a dinosaur known for its powerful legs and disproportionately small arms. Hence the quip, “T. rex hates pushups”.

45A “The Bluest __”: Toni Morrison novel : EYE

“The Bluest Eye” is a 1970 novel by Toni Morrison, her first to be published. The book addresses directly some difficult subjects including incest, child molestation and racism. As a result, “The Bluest Eye” is often a target of book-banning movements.

48A “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club” actress : MOLLY RINGWALD

Actress Molly Ringwald is best known for her roles in 1980s teen films. She rose to fame through her collaborations with director John Hughes, starring in classics like “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “Pretty in Pink.” Ringwald is fluent in French, and moved to Paris in the mid-1990s. There, she starred in several French movies, and was married to French author Valéry Lameignère from 1999 to 2002.

“Sixteen Candles” is a 1984 John Hughes movie starring Molly Ringwald as a sophomore suffering through the day of her 16th birthday. The family has overlooked her birthday as everyone is focused on her older sister, who is getting married the next day. A cute film, but not nearly as good as Hughes’ next film “The Breakfast Club”, which also starred Molly Ringwald. Young actor Anthony Michael Hall also appears in both movies.

“The Breakfast Club” is a fabulous teen drama film (a genre which I usually avoid like the plague) released in 1985. It is directed by John Hughes, and stars Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy as the students at a Saturday school detention class.

53A Map publisher __ McNally : RAND

Rand McNally is a company long associated with the city of Chicago. Its roots go back to 1856 when William Rand opened a printing shop in the city. Two years later he hired an Irish immigrant named Andrew McNally and the pair turned to printing tickets and timetables for the railroad industry. They diversified into “railroad guides” in 1870, including the first Rand McNally map in the December 1872 edition. When automobile travel started to become significant, Rand and McNally turned their attention to roads and they published their first road map in 1904, a map of New York City. Rand and McNally popularized the use of highway numbers, and indeed erected many roadside highway signs themselves, long before the state and federal authorities adopted the idea.

54A American buffalo : BISON

There are two species of bison left (four species are extinct). We are most familiar with the American bison (commonly called the American buffalo), but there is also a European bison, which is sometimes called a “wisent”.

59A “¿Cómo __ usted?” : ESTA

“¿Cómo está usted?” is a more formal way of asking “How are you?” in Spanish.

64A Country music legend who founded the nonprofit literacy program Imagination Library : DOLLY PARTON

Dolly Parton is a country music singer-songwriter, as well as an actress. Parton has written over 3,000 songs, my favorite of which is “I Will Always Love You” that was a huge hit for herself and for Whitney Houston.

67A East Lansing sch. : MSU

Michigan State University (MSU) is located in East Lansing, Michigan. MSU has the largest study-abroad program of any single-campus university in the US. Programs are offered on all continents of the world, including Antarctica. The MSU athletic teams are known as the Spartans.

Down

5D Actress Poehler : AMY

Amy Poehler was a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” from 2001 to 2008, notable for appearing in many great sketches, including those where she played Hillary Clinton opposite Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin. Poehler also starred with Fey in the 2008 movie “Baby Mama”. And, Poehler led the cast of the sitcom “Parks and Recreation” for its seven-season run.

12D “Do __ others … ” : UNTO

The Golden Rule is also known as the ethic of reciprocity, and is a basis for the concept of human rights. A version of the rule used in the Christian tradition is attributed to Jesus:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

A derivative phrase often heard today is “Love thy neighbor (as thyself)”.

29D Oscar winner Mirren : HELEN

Helen Mirren, one of my favorite English actresses, has played three different queens on film and television. She played Queen Elizabeth II on the 2006 film “The Queen”, the title role in the TV drama “Elizabeth I”, and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of the title character in the 1994 film “The Madness of King George”. Mirren won the “Triple Crown of Acting” for playing:

• Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen” (winning Best Actress Oscar)
• Queen Elizabeth II in “The Audience” (winning Best Actress in a Play Tony)
• Detective Jane Tennison in “Prime Suspect” (winning Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy)

41D Graceful lake bird : SWAN

An adult male swan is a cob and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.

44D Palo __, California : ALTO

The city of Palo Alto, California takes its name from a specific redwood tree called El Palo Alto (Spanish for “the tall stick”) that is located within the bounds of the city. The tree is 110 feet tall and over a thousand years old.

58D Actress Sommer : ELKE

Elke Sommer is a German-born actress who was at the height of her success on the silver screen in the sixties. Sommer won a Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer Actress for her role opposite Paul Newman in 1963’s “The Prize”. She also sings and has released several albums. Now Sommer focuses on painting, producing artwork that is strongly influenced by the work of Marc Chagall.

60D Kerfuffle : STIR

“Kerfuffle” comes from the Scottish “curfuffle”, with both words meaning “disruption”.

62D Targets of Terro insect traps : ANTS

Terro is a borax-based bait used to treat ant infestation. Borax is toxic to ants, and acts very slowly. Because it is slow-acting, worker ants carry it back to the nest and poison the colony.