Tag: Unlikely to approve of horseplay crossword clue

Advertisement

Constructed by: Geoffrey Brown
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Parting Words

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted as PARTING WORDS relevant to the corresponding clues:

• 20A Parting words from a hide-and-seek player? : CATCH YOU LATER
• 31A Parting words from a masseuse? : KEEP IN TOUCH
• 40A Parting words from an escape room participant? : I’M OUTTA HERE
• 53A Parting words from a magazine vendor? : UNTIL NEXT “TIME”

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

Bill’s time: 6m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Unit of cilantro : SPRIG

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.

6 Sasquatch kin : YETI

The sasquatch (also “bigfoot”) is our North American equivalent of the yeti, the ape-like creature said to inhabit the Himalayas. Bigfoot is supposedly hiding out mainly in the Pacific Northwest of North America.

10 Nursery school song subject : ABCS

“The Alphabet Song” was copyrighted in 1835 in the US. The tune that goes with the words is the French folk song “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman”, used by Mozart for a set of piano variations. The same tune is used for the nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.

14 Massey of old films : ILONA

Ilona Massey was a Hollywood actress, and a native of Budapest in Hungary. Given her cultural background and the period at which she hit the big screen, Massey was marketed by the studios as “the new Dietrich”.

19 City with a country within its borders : ROME

According to tradition, Rome was founded by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus. The pair had a heated argument about who should be allowed to name the city and Romulus hit Remus with a shovel, killing him. And so, “Rome” was born, perhaps instead of “Reme”!

Vatican City is a sovereign city-state that is walled off within the city of Rome. Vatican City is about 110 acres in area, and so is the smallest independent state in the world. With about 800 residents, it is also the smallest state in terms of population. Although the Holy See dates back to early Christianity, Vatican City only came into being in 1929. At that time, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed a treaty with the Holy See on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy that established the city-state.

23 Country between Thailand and Vietnam : LAOS

The official name for the country of Laos is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the Lao language, the country’s name is “Meuang Lao”. The French ruled Laos as part of French Indochina, having united three separate Lao kingdoms. As there was a plural of “Lao” entities united into one, the French added the “S” and so today we tend to use “Laos” instead of “Lao”.

28 Hugo Award genre : SCI-FI

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”.

30 Filmmaker Ang : LEE

Ang Lee made history at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002 when he won the Best Director award for “Brokeback Mountain.” He became the first Asian person to win the award and the first non-white person to win in the category.

31 Parting words from a masseuse? : KEEP IN TOUCH

I suggest that we’ve moved on from the use of the term “masseuse”, finding that “massage therapist” is more appropriate these days.

39 City on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula : NOME

In 1899, the Alaska city of Nome was briefly known as Anvil City by locals to avoid confusion with the nearby city of Cape Nome. However, the US Post Office refused to approve the change, and so the name was immediately changed back to Nome.

The Seward Peninsula in Alaska is a remnant of the land bridge that once connected Alaska with Siberia during the last Ice Age. The peninsula is named for Secretary of State William Seward who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia.

46 Any “Cheers” episode, now : RERUN

The wonderful sitcom “Cheers” ran for eleven seasons on NBC, from 1982 to 1993. “Cheers” spawned an equally successful spin-off show called “Frasier”, which also ran for eleven seasons and often featured guest appearances of characters from the original “Cheers”. The Cheers bar was styled on the Bull & Finch Pub in Boston (in which I’ve had a pint of Guinness or two!). The owner of the Bull & Finch cleverly agreed to the initial interior and exterior shots, charging only one dollar. Since then he has made millions from selling “Cheers” memorabilia, and also from increased trade.

49 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.

52 Nabe in London and NYC : SOHO

The area of London called Soho had a very poor reputation for most of the 20th century as it was home to the city’s red-light district. Soho went through a transformation in recent decades, and has been a very fashionable neighborhood since the 1980s.

The Manhattan neighborhood known today as SoHo was very fashionable in the early 1900s, but as the well-heeled started to move uptown the area became very run down and poorly maintained. Noted for the number of fires that erupted in derelict buildings, SoHo earned the nickname “Hell’s Hundred Acres”. The area was then zoned for manufacturing and became home to many sweatshops. In the mid-1900s artists started to move into open loft spaces and renovating old buildings as the lofts were ideal locations in which an artist could both live and work. In 1968, artists and others organized themselves so that they could legalize their residential use of an area zoned for manufacturing. The group they formed took its name from the name given to the area by the city’s Planning Commission i.e “South of Houston”. This was shortened from So-uth of Ho-uston to SoHo as in “SoHo Artists Association”, and the name stuck.

53 Parting words from a magazine vendor? : UNTIL NEXT “TIME”

“TIME” was the first weekly news magazine in the US. It was founded in 1923 by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce. Hadden and Luce had previously worked together as chairman and managing editor of the “Yale Daily News”.

57 Schlep : TOTE

Our word “schlep” (sometimes “schlepp”) means “carry, drag”. “Schlep” comes from Yiddish, with “shlepen” having the same meaning.

58 Wrestling form with a salt purification ritual : SUMO

Sumo is a sport that is practiced professionally only in Japan, the country of its origin. There is an international federation of sumo wrestling now, and one of the organization’s aims is to have the sport accepted as an Olympic event.

59 Inner circle : 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.

63 __ code : AREA

Area codes were introduced in the 1940s. Back then, the “clicks” one heard when dialing a number led to mechanical wear on various pieces of equipment. In order to minimize overall mechanical wear, areas with high call volumes were given the most efficient area codes (lowest number of clicks). That led to New York getting the area code 212, Los Angeles 213 and Chicago 312.

66 Billings’ st. : MONT

Billings is the only city in Montana with a population greater than 100,000 people. It was founded as a railroad town in 1882 and experienced such rapid growth that it was nicknamed the Magic City. The town’s name was chosen in honor of a former president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Frederick H. Billings.

67 Heaviest internal organ : LIVER

The human liver has many functions, one of which is to store vital substances. The list of substances stored in the liver includes glucose (as glycogen), vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B12, vitamin K, iron and copper. Another function of the liver is to produce bile, a substance stored in the gallbladder that aids in the digestion of fats.

Down

1 __ card: cellphone chip holder : SIM

Most cell phones have SIM cards these days. SIM cards hold the personal information of the subscriber, with the acronym being short for “Subscriber Identity Module”.

3 Campus military org. : ROTC

The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) is a training program for officers based in colleges all around the US. The program was established in 1862 when as a condition of receiving a land-grant to create colleges, the federal government required that military tactics be part of a new school’s curriculum.

5 Car part missing on a Tesla : GAS TANK

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 as a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world’s best selling plug-in electric vehicle of 2015. Tesla Motors shortened its name to Tesla in early 2017.

8 The Powerpuff Girls, e.g. : TRIO

“The Powerpuff Girls” is a children’s animated television show that airs on the Cartoon Network.

9 Hormone that regulates blood sugar : INSULIN

The hormone insulin is secreted by structures in the pancreas called the islets of Langerhans, which are named for their island-like appearance under a microscope and for their discoverer Paul Langerhans. The hormone is named for the “islets”, as the Latin for island is “insula”.

11 Wellingtons, e.g. : BOOTS

Wellington boots are waterproof footwear made of rubber. The name “Wellington” comes from Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who fought successfully at the Battle of Waterloo and twice served as UK Prime Minister. He was fond of the boot and popularized its use among the British aristocracy.

12 Brief appearance in a film : CAMEO

Even in my day, a cameo role was more than just a short appearance in a movie (or other artistic piece). For the appearance to be a cameo, the actor had to play himself or herself, and be instantly recognizable. With this meaning it’s easy to see the etymology of the term, as a cameo brooch is one with the recognizable carving of the silhouette of a person. Nowadays, a cameo is any minor role played by a celebrity or famous actor, regardless of the character played.

21 Dove’s home : COTE

The Old English word “cote” was used to describe a small house. Our modern word “cottage” comes from “cote”. We now use “cote” to describe a small shelter on a farm for sheep or birds.

25 “__ Want for Christmas Is You” : ALL I

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a 1994 song recorded by Mariah Carey that has become a holiday standard. The song was co-written by Carey with Walter Afanasieff … in just 15 minutes.

26 20 quires : REAM

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

28 Hall of Fame pitcher Warren who holds the record for most wins by a southpaw : SPAHN

Warren Spahn was a left-handed pitcher who won 363 games, more than any other left-handed pitcher in history. The Warren Spahn Award has been presented annually by the Oklahoma Sports Museum since 1999.

33 Tucson school, for short : U OF A

The University of Arizona (UA, or “U of A”) was the first university founded in the state, opening its doors for students in Tucson in 1885 (which was actually 27 years before the territory was granted statehood).

42 Classic Pontiac muscle car : TRANS AM

The Trans Am, produced from 1969 to 2002, was a specialty version of the Pontiac Firebird. My favorite Trans Am is KITT, the artificially intelligent car in the eighties TV show “Knight Rider” …

48 Mogadishu resident : SOMALI

Mogadishu is a major port city on the east coast of Africa, and is the capital of Somalia. The city is known locally as “Xamar”.

52 Summer ermine : STOAT

The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is used for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

54 Continental capital : EURO

The euro is the official currency of most of the states in the European Union, but not all. The list of EU states not using the euro includes Denmark and Sweden.

55 Marvel Comics mutants : X-MEN

In the Marvel Comics universe, mutants are beings with an X-gene. Such mutants are humans who naturally develop superhuman powers. The most celebrated of these mutants are known as the X-Men.

56 1999 satire about a reality show : EDTV

“EDtv” is a comedy film directed by Ron Howard starring Matthew McConaughey that was released in 1999. The plot has a “Big Brother” feel to it, as it is about a TV show broadcasting someone’s life, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

60 Issa of “Barbie” : RAE

In the 2023 hit movie “Barbie”, actress Issa Rae plays President Barbie, the ruler of Barbieland.