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Constructed by: Jeffrey Wechsler
Edited by: Rich Norris
Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Depression
Themed answers include geographic depressions, canyon-like features:
- 17A. Flowering plant also called May bells : LILY OF THE VALLEY
- 25A. Pig out : GORGE ONESELF
- 35A. 1960 King Coleman dance song : DO THE HULLY GULLY
- 43A. “Galveston” singer : GLEN CAMPBELL
- 59A. Title subject of a children’s song that ends with “cheese stands alone” : FARMER IN THE DELL
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
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Bill’s time: 6m 34s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
10. Those with privileges, briefly : VIPS
Very important person (VIP)
14. Sturm und __ : DRANG
“Sturm und Drang” translates from the German into “Storm and Stress” or perhaps “Storm and Impulse”. “Sturm und Drang” was the name given to a movement in German literature and music in the latter half of the 18th century. The writer Johann Goethe was a major proponent of the movement, which took its name from a play by Maximilian Klinger. The term “Sturm und Drang” has come to mean “turmoil, upheaval”.
15. Midshipman-to-be: Abbr. : USNA CADET
The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is located in Annapolis, Maryland. The USNA was founded in 1845 and educates officers for both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. The motto of the USNA is “Ex Scientia Tridens”, which translates as “From Knowledge, Sea Power”.
17. Flowering plant also called May bells : LILY OF THE VALLEY
Also known as May bells and Our Lady’s tears, “Lily of the Valley” is the common name for a highly poisonous flowering plant that is found in woodlands across much of the world.
20. Big name in riding mowers : DEERE
John Deere invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Prior to Deere’s invention, farmers used an iron or wooden plow that constantly had to be cleaned as rich soil stuck to its surfaces. The cast-steel plow was revolutionary as its smooth sides solved the problem of “stickiness”. The Deere company that John founded uses the slogan “Nothing Runs Like a Deere”, and has a leaping deer as its logo.
21. Actress Arthur : BEA
Actress Bea Arthur’s most famous roles were on television, as the lead in the “All in the Family” spin-off “Maude” and as Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls”. Arthur also won a Tony for playing Vera Charles on stage in the original cast of “Mame” in 1966, two years after she played Yente the matchmaker in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”.
22. __ Lingus : AER
Aer Lingus is my favorite airline! Well, the service isn’t that great, but when I get on board an Aer Lingus plane I feel like I am back in Ireland. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland, with “Aer Lingus” being a phonetic spelling of the Irish “aer-loingeas” meaning “air fleet”. These days Aer Lingus can only lay claim to the title of Ireland’s oldest airline as it is no longer the biggest. That honor goes to the controversial budget airline called Ryanair.
24. Leftover food bit : ORT
Orts are small scraps of food left after a meal. “Ort” comes from Middle English, and originally described scraps left by animals.
33. Like the light at twilight : DIM
Twilight is the light experienced when the sun is below the horizon, both in the morning and the evening. The prefix “twi-” seems to come from the sense of “half”, and in “half light”. There appears to be no connection to the word “twice”, despite twilight occurring twice each day.
35. 1960 King Coleman dance song : DO THE HULLY GULLY
King Coleman was an R&B singer who is perhaps best known for providing overdubbed vocals for a 1960 recording of “(Do the) Mashed Potatoes” by James Brown and his band. Brown couldn’t overtly record the song for contractual reasons, and so his recording was overdubbed by local DJ Coleman to obscure Brown’s voice, and the record was attributed to “Nat Kendrick and the Swans”. Coleman went on to record numerous singles in his own right, including “Do the Hully Gully” and “The Mash Potato Man”.
41. Quarterback Manning : ELI
Eli Manning plays as quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning retired from football as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 2015. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback. Eli, Peyton and Archie co-authored a book for children titles “Family Huddle” in 2009. It describes the Mannings playing football together as young boys.
42. Proof word : ERAT
The initialism “QED” is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. QED stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.
43. “Galveston” singer : GLEN CAMPBELL
I went to a Glen Campbell concert in Reno many, many years ago, and I was surprised by how many hits the man had over the years. He really was one of the original crossover artists between country and popular music, as evidenced by his winning Grammy Awards in both categories in 1967. That year he won the country award for “Gentle on My Mind” and the pop award for “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”.
“Galveston” was composed by Jimmy Webb and recorded by Glen Campbell in 1969. Webb actually wrote it as an anti-war song while the Vietnam War was raging. It tells of a soldier whose hometown is Galveston, Texas, and who is getting ready to head off to fight.
48. Caveman Alley : OOP
“Alley Oop” is a comic strip that ran for four decades starting in 1932. “Alley Oop” was drawn by V. T. Hamlin. The title character lived in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo, although for much of the strip’s life, Alley Oop had access to a time machine. Alley Oop also had a girlfriend called Ooola. I had assumed that Ooola’s name was a play on “hula hoop”, but that wasn’t invented until the 1950s (a kind blog reader informs me) …
50. “A Wrinkle in Time” director DuVernay : AVA
“A Wrinkle in Time” is a book by Madeleine L’Engle. Published in 1962, it is described as a science fantasy. Included in the book’s cast of characters are Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, all of whom turn out to be supernatural beings who transport the antagonists through the universe. “A Wrinkle in Time” was adapted into a 2018 movie of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling as the three “Mrs” characters.
Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker who became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, a feat she achieved in 2012 for her feature film “Middle of Nowhere”. “Middle of Nowhere” tells the story of a woman who drops out of medical school to focus on husband when he is sentenced to 8 years in prison. DuVernay also directed the 2014 film “Selma” about the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
56. Rhodes __ : SCHOLAR
The Rhodes Scholarship is an award that funds postgraduate study at Oxford University. The scholarship dates back to 1902, when it was established by English mining magnate and politician Cecil Rhodes. Several Rhodes Scholars have gone on to head governments including, Bill Clinton (US), John Turner (Canada) and there Australian Prime Ministers (Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull). The program is not without controversy. For decades, it was only open to males, and in fact only males who were not black Africans.
59. Title subject of a children’s song that ends with “cheese stands alone” : FARMER IN THE DELL
“The Farmer in the Dell” is a nursery rhyme and singing game that probably originated in Germany.
The farmer in the dell
The farmer in the dell
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The farmer in the dell
64. Renée’s “Chicago” role : ROXIE
The wonderful 1975 musical “Chicago” is based on a 1926 play of the same name written by a news reporter called Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins had been assigned to cover the murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the “Chicago Tribune”, and used the story that unfolded as the basis for her play. Annan became the character Roxie Hart, and Gaertner became Velma Kelly. I’ve only ever seen the movie version of “Chicago” and never a live performance …
Renée Zellweger’s big break came in the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire”. A few years later, Zellweger followed that up with a string of successes in “Bridget Jones Diary” (2001), “Chicago” (2002) and “Cold Mountain” (2003). My wife and I love watching her play Bridget Jones, and as someone coming from the British Isles, I have to say that Zellweger does a remarkable job with the accent. She worked hard to perfect that accent, and of course she had a voice coach. She also went “undercover” and worked as a temp in an office for three weeks fine-tuning her skills.
67. Floorboard repair nails : BRADS
A brad is a slender wire nail with a relatively small head that is typically used to tack pieces of wood together, i.e. to fasten either temporarily or with minimal damage to the wood. Nowadays, brads are commonly applied using a nail gun.
Down
1. Many a Robin Williams bit : AD LIB
“Ad libitum” is a Latin phrase meaning “at one’s pleasure”. In common usage, the phrase is usually shortened to “ad lib”. On the stage, the concept of an ad lib is very familiar.
Actor and comedian Robin Williams started his performing career as a standup in the San Francisco Bay Area. His big break came when he was cast as an alien named Mork in a 1978 episode of the sitcom “Happy Days”. That led to the spinoff sitcom “Mork & Mindy” that aired from 1978 to 1982. Williams’ first major film role was as the title character in 1980’s “Popeye”. Sadly, Williams committed suicide in 2014.
3. Taquería bowlful : SALSA
“Salsa” is simply Spanish for “sauce”.
4. “Orinoco Flow” singer : ENYA
Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!
6. Grated spice : NUTMEG
The fruit of the nutmeg tree yields two very different spices. What we call “nutmeg” comes from the seed of the tree. “Mace” is the dried covering of the seed.
7. Tree with “helicopter” seeds : ASH
“Helicopter seed” and “whirlybird” are familiar names given to a type of fruit more correctly called a samara. A samara has a flattened wing or wings made of papery tissue from the ovary wall. These wings enable the wind to carry the seed farther from the parent tree. Samaras are produced by several species of tree and shrub, including elm and ash trees.
8. Suffix with salt : -INE
F. L. Sommer & Company of St. Joseph, Missouri starting making wafer thin soda crackers in 1876. The crackers were later marketed as Saltines, due to the baking salt that was a key ingredient. The company subsequently lost trademark protection of the term “saltine”.
9. Loo : LAV
Our word “lavatory” (sometimes “lav”) originally referred to a washbasin, and comes from the Latin “lavatorium”, a place for washing. In the 1600s, “lavatory” came to mean a washroom, and in the 1920s a toilet.
10. Restaurant workers with lots of keys : VALETS
A varlet was an attendant or servant, and perhaps a knight’s page. The term “varlet” comes from the Old French “vaslet” meaning “squire, young man”. “Vaslet” also gave us our contemporary word “valet”.
13. Lid inflammation : STYE
A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.
16. Specially trained group : CADRE
A cadre is most commonly a group of experienced personnel at the core of a larger organization that the small group trains or heavily influences. “Cadre” is a French word meaning “frame”. We use it in the sense that a cadre is a group that provides a “framework” for the larger organization.
18. “Then live, Macduff. What need I __ of thee?”: Macbeth : FEAR
Thanes were Scottish aristocrats. The most famous thanes have to be the Shakespearean characters Macbeth (the Thane of Glamis, later Thane of Cawdor, and still later King of Scotland) and MacDuff (the Thane of Fife). Other thanes in “Macbeth” are Ross, Lennox and Angus, as well as Menteith and Caithness.
28. First name in jazz vocals : ELLA
Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, had a hard and tough upbringing. She was raised by her mother alone in Yonkers, New York. Her mother died while Ella was still a schoolgirl, and around that time the young girl became less interested in her education. She fell in with a bad crowd, even working as a lookout for a bordello and as a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in reform school, from which she escaped, and found herself homeless and living on the streets for a while. Somehow Fitzgerald managed to get herself a spot singing in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. From there her career took off and as they say, the rest is history.
30. Word with house or horse : -FLY
Houseflies are very difficult to swat away. That’s because they can process visual information about seven times more quickly than humans. In effect, houseflies see movement in slow motion.
Horse-flies are biting insects. It’s only the females that bite, doing so to extract protein from blood to support egg production.
32. French 101 infinitive : ETRE
The verb “to be” translates into German as “sein”, and into French as “être”.
35. 2018 Chinese New Year animal : DOG
The 12-year cycle in the Chinese calendar uses the following animals in order:
- Rat
- Ox
- Tiger
- Rabbit
- Dragon
- Snake
- Horse
- Goat
- Monkey
- Rooster
- Dog
- Pig
37. Einstein’s birthplace : ULM
Ulm is a city in the south of Germany that sits on the River Danube. Ulm is famous as home to the tallest church in the world, Ulm Minster, a Gothic building with a steeple that is 530 feet tall, with 768 steps to climb. Ulm is also the birthplace of Albert Einstein, and is where the entire Austrian army surrendered to Napoleon after the Battle of Ulm in 1805.
39. Result of Googling : URL
An Internet address (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a Uniform Resource Locators (URL).
50. One taking home orders? : ALEXA
Amazon’s Alexa is a personal assistant application that is most associated with the Amazon Echo smart speaker. Apparently, one reason the name “Alexa” was chosen is because it might remind one of the Library of Alexandria, the “keeper of all knowledge”.
52. Van Gogh’s “Bedroom in __” : ARLES
“Bedroom in Arles” is the title given to three similar but different paintings by Vincent van Gogh. The artist himself used the title “The Bedroom” for all three works. The room in question was his own bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles in the south of France where he rented rooms in 1888. We can view the first version in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the second in the Art Institute of Chicago, and the third in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
53. Ozone-depleting chemicals, briefly : CFCS
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used to be widely used as propellants in aerosols, and as refrigerants in cooling systems. CFCs make their way up into the ozone layer and trigger a chain reaction that converts ozone (O3) into regular oxygen (O2). That conversion creates “holes” in the ozone layer. Regular O2 is good stuff, but we need O3 to absorb harmful UV radiation raining down on us. CFC is not good stuff …
54. Spy Nathan : HALE
Nathan Hale fought for the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and was most famous for operating as a spy against the British. It was Nathan Hale who uttered the words, just before he was hanged by his British captors, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”.
55. Environs : AREA
“Environ” is the French word for “round” or “round about”. We use “environ” as a verb in English, meaning to surround, form a circle around. The related plural noun “environs” is used to mean “surroundings, environment”.
57. Catnip, e.g. : HERB
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.
58. Air Wick target : ODOR
The first Air Wick air freshener was introduced in the United States in 1943.
62. ATM giant : NCR
NCR is an American company that has been in business since 1884 and was originally called the National Cash Register Company. The company has done well in a market where new technologies seem to be constantly disrupting the status quo. NCR is a leading supplier of automated teller machines and barcode scanners.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1. Quite puzzled : AT SEA
6. Often-painted body part : NAIL
10. Those with privileges, briefly : VIPS
14. Sturm und __ : DRANG
15. Midshipman-to-be: Abbr. : USNA CADET
17. Flowering plant also called May bells : LILY OF THE VALLEY
19. “That’s precious!” : IT’S A GEM!
20. Big name in riding mowers : DEERE
21. Actress Arthur : BEA
22. __ Lingus : AER
24. Leftover food bit : ORT
25. Pig out : GORGE ONESELF
31. Equipment : GEAR
33. Like the light at twilight : DIM
34. Small, in a small way : LIL’
35. 1960 King Coleman dance song : DO THE HULLY GULLY
40. Whitewater rafter’s need : OAR
41. Quarterback Manning : ELI
42. Proof word : ERAT
43. “Galveston” singer : GLEN CAMPBELL
48. Caveman Alley : OOP
49. Wasn’t active : SAT
50. “A Wrinkle in Time” director DuVernay : AVA
53. Bewitch : CHARM
56. Rhodes __ : SCHOLAR
59. Title subject of a children’s song that ends with “cheese stands alone” : FARMER IN THE DELL
63. Underpass concern : CLEARANCE
64. Renée’s “Chicago” role : ROXIE
65. Corporate symbol : SEAL
66. Bit of news : WORD
67. Floorboard repair nails : BRADS
Down
1. Many a Robin Williams bit : AD LIB
2. Overused : TRITE
3. Taquería bowlful : SALSA
4. “Orinoco Flow” singer : ENYA
5. Flabbergasted : AGOG
6. Grated spice : NUTMEG
7. Tree with “helicopter” seeds : ASH
8. Suffix with salt : -INE
9. Loo : LAV
10. Restaurant workers with lots of keys : VALETS
11. Not occupied : IDLE
12. __ review : PEER
13. Lid inflammation : STYE
16. Specially trained group : CADRE
18. “Then live, Macduff. What need I __ of thee?”: Macbeth : FEAR
23. Facial features in many cosmetics ads : RED LIPS
24. “__ honor!”: “Promise!” : ON MY
25. Cry of frustration : GAH!
26. Natural resource : ORE
27. Natural resource : OIL
28. First name in jazz vocals : ELLA
29. Bouncy tune : LILT
30. Word with house or horse : -FLY
31. Score on the ice : GOAL
32. French 101 infinitive : ETRE
35. 2018 Chinese New Year animal : DOG
36. Disorganized pile : HEAP
37. Einstein’s birthplace : ULM
38. Salon goop : GEL
39. Result of Googling : URL
44. As expected : NORMAL
45. Rising star : COMER
46. Like juicy turkeys : BASTED
47. Mark for good : ETCH
50. One taking home orders? : ALEXA
51. Not expired, as a license : VALID
52. Van Gogh’s “Bedroom in __” : ARLES
53. Ozone-depleting chemicals, briefly : CFCS
54. Spy Nathan : HALE
55. Environs : AREA
57. Catnip, e.g. : HERB
58. Air Wick target : ODOR
60. Unprocessed : RAW
61. Italian diminutive suffix : -INO
62. ATM giant : NCR
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