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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11A Actress Diana of “All Creatures Great and Small” (2020) : RIGG

Diana Rigg was a marvelous actress from England who was best known for playing Emma Peel on the hit sixties show “The Avengers”. Rigg also won an Emmy for her performance in a 1997 television adaptation of “Rebecca”. In my humble opinion, she was also the best-ever “Bond girl” (opposite George Lazenby, the worst-ever Bond guy), in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” …

James Herriot was the pen name of British veterinarian and author Alf Wight. Herriot wrote an incredibly successful semi-autobiographical series of books titled “All Creatures Great and Small”. I must admit to walking surreptitiously past the author’s veterinary office in the Yorkshire town of Thirsk while my wife and I were on our honeymoon back in the eighties, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man. No luck, although we did get the inside scoop on the characters in the books from the lady running our B&B, over a cup of tea. An enjoyable bit of gossip …

16A Classic Langston Hughes poem with a comma in its title : I, TOO

Langston Hughes was a poet active in the Harlem Renaissance, and someone who helped develop the literary form known as “jazz poetry”. His poem “I, Too, Sing America” was published in 1925.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed–

I, too, am America.

17A It features high wind movements : OBOE SONATA

The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”.

19A What might be seen around a star : POSSE

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

20A Shape of Saturn’s rings : DISC

Saturn is easily visible from Earth with the unaided eye, but we need some help to see the planet’s famous rings. Galileo was the first person to see Saturn’s rings, when he turned his primitive telescope towards the night sky in 1610. However, he misinterpreted what he was observing and assumed that the rings were in fact two smaller planets located at either side of the larger Saturn.

21A Star of TV and film who wrote the memoir “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I’ve Learned” : ALDA

Even though actor Alan Alda is the son of fellow actor Robert Alda, both were born with the family name “D’Abruzzo”. Alan is a vocal advocate for science education. He is a founder of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, where he became a visiting professor. He also hosted the TV show “Scientific American Frontiers” for 14 years.

24A Awards honoring excellence in magazine publishing : ELLIES

The National Magazine Awards are familiarly known as “the Ellies”. The term “Ellie” is short for “elephant”, as the award itself is a copper-colored statue resembling an abstract elephant.

36A Terms of a trade : LINGO

Lingo is specialized vocabulary. Journalese and legalese would be good examples.

40A Quinta of “Abbott Elementary” : BRUNSON

Actress and writer Quinta Brunson got her artistic break on Instagram, with a much-watched, self-produced series of comedic videos titled “Girl Who Has Never Been on a Nice Date”. A few years later, she produced a single-camera pilot that she called “Harrity Elementary”, which had a storyline based on her own school experiences. ABC picked up that pilot, and it started airing as “Abbot Elementary” in 2021.

45A Its official languages are Chamorro and English : GUAM

Guam is a US territory in the western Pacific Ocean, and is the largest of the Mariana Islands. Guam is also the first territory in the United States to see the sun rise on any particular day. As such, the territory has adopted the motto, “Where America’s day begins”. During WWII, the US territory of Guam was occupied by the Japanese for 31 months until it was liberated in the Battle of Guam in July 1944. Of the 18,000 Japanese men holding the island, only 485 surrendered, so almost all perished in the invasion. One Japanese sergeant hid out on the island for an incredible 28 years, finally surrendering in 1972!

46A “Dese ___ Dose” (Glenn Miller composition) : DEM

Famously, Glenn Miller signed up with the US Air Force Band during World War II, and disappeared while flying from the South of England to entertain troops that had just liberated Paris. Miller is still listed as missing in action …

47A Mideast port with a natural harbor : ADEN

Aden is a seaport in Yemen that is located on the Gulf of Aden by the eastern approach to the Red Sea. Aden has a long history of British rule, from 1838 until a very messy withdrawal in 1967. A native of Aden is known as an Adeni. Some believe that Cain and Abel are buried in the city.

58A Member of a sub-Saharan matriarchal clan : HYENA

Hyenas have the reputation of being cowardly scavengers. That said, the spotted hyena that lives in Sub-Saharan Africa actually kills about 95% of its food and a pack of spotted hyenas are capable of driving off leopards or lionesses before they can consume their kill.

66A ___ Sea, body of water between Borneo and the Philippines : SULU

The Sulu Sea is found to the southwest of the Philippines, and the northeast of Borneo. Gene Roddenberry named the “Star Trek” character Hikaru Sulu after the Sulu Sea.

67A Convention challenger : ICONOCLAST

Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of society’s icons, either religious or cultural. The term applies more to a rebellious action from within a society, as opposed to an act by external forces invading another culture. As such, the term “iconoclast” has come to have a broader meaning, describing anyone who stands up against established convention.

69A Adjunct faculty? : SIXTH SENSE

The so-called sixth sense is extrasensory perception (ESP). It is also referred to as second sight.

Down

3D Biblical prophet whom Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as “an extremist for justice” in his “Letter From Birmingham Jail” : AMOS

The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a 1963 open letter penned by Martin Luther King, Jr. defending nonviolent resistance to racism. King wrote the letter in several pieces, using the margins of newspapers as this was the only paper available to him while in jail.

11D Sooner, to a Longhorn : RIVAL

In college football, the rivalry between the Oklahoma Sooners (University of Oklahoma) and the Texas Longhorns (University of Texas) is sometimes referred to as the Red River Shootout. The Red River forms part of the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma, and has been the subject of conflict between the two states in the past. And so, the moniker “Red River Shootout” is used for the rivalry between the two schools.

13D First score during extra time in sudden-death soccer : GOLDEN GOAL

In some sports, a tied game or match is decided in overtime, with the winner being the first team or player to score a point or a goal. That game-winning score might be referred to as the “golden goal”.

25D Doozy : LULU

We call a remarkable thing or a person a lulu. The term “lulu” was coined in honor of Lulu Hurst, the Georgia Wonder, who was a stage magician active in the 1880s.

A doozy is something extraordinary or bizarre. The exact origins of the word “doozy” aren’t clear, but it might be a derivative of the name Eleanora Duse, an Italian actress popular early in the 20th century. Some say that the term comes from the Duesenberg brand of automobile, which was indeed referred to as a “duesy”. However, the use of “doozy” in print occurs before the Duesenberg hit the market.

26D Rush to find a mate? : SPEED CHESS

Speed chess is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. There is speed, and there is speed:

• Rapid chess: each player has 15 minutes to make all of their moves.
• Blitz chess: each player has 5 minutes to make all of their moves.
• Bullet chess: each player has 3 minutes to make all of their moves.

28D Series of hoops and hurdles : RIGAMAROLE

“Rigmarole” (sometimes “rigamarole”) is a lovely word, used for an elaborate and complicated procedure. According to the OED, the term evolved from a medieval game of chance called “Ragman’s Roll”. I guess it was a complicated game …

35D Jane who says “Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation” : EYRE

Charlotte Brontë was the eldest of the three Brontë sister authors. Her most famous work is the novel “Jane Eyre”, which she published under the pen name Currer Bell. The pen name veiled her gender, but preserved the initials of her real name. After “Jane Eyre” was published, Brontë started to move in the same circles as other successful novelists of the day, including William Makepeace Thackeray and Elizabeth Gaskell. Just two years after Bronte died in her late thirties, it was Gaskell who published the first biography of Charlotte Brontë.

37D Kansas-born playwright with a Pulitzer : INGE

During his career, dramatist William Inge was known as the “Playwright of the Midwest”, as many of his works were set in the American heartland and explored small town life. When Inge was 60 years old, he committed suicide by poisoning himself with carbon monoxide. He was buried in his hometown of Independence, Kansas. Inge’s grave is marked with a headstone that reads simply “Playwright”.

59D Law school for Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor : YALE

Associate Justice Samuel Alito was nominated to the US Supreme Court by President George W. Bush. Alito is the second Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court (Antonin Scalia was the first). Alito studied law at Yale and while in his final year he left the country for the first time in his life, heading to Italy to work on his thesis about the Italian legal system.

Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to succeed Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh took the oath of office in 2018, after what can only be described as a contentious confirmation hearing. He has been married since 2004 to Ashley Estes, who served as Personal Secretary to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2004.

Clarence Thomas is the second African American to serve on the US Supreme Court. Thomas replaced Thurgood Marshall who was the first American with African heritage to serve. Thomas is generally regarded as the most conservative member of the court. He doesn’t have a lot say, verbally anyway. Thomas made a joking remark in January 2013 during oral argument, the first time he had spoken at all during oral argument for almost seven years.

“My Beloved World” is a 2013 memoir by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. It covers her life from childhood through to 1992, and so does not deal with her time on the Supreme Court bench. Here is some advice that Sotomayor offers in the book:

…you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. The real value is in stirring within us the will to aspire.

62D Las pinturas de Frida Kahlo, por ejemplo : ARTE

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter famous for her self-portraits. She was married to the equally famous artist Diego Rivera. Kahlo was portrayed by actress Salma Hayek in a film about her colorful life called “Frida” released in 2002.

65D “I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say ___” (“The Simpsons” episode) : D’OH

“The Simpsons” is one of the most successful programs produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. Homer Simpson’s catchphrase is “D’oh!”, which became such a famous exclamation that it has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2001. “D’oh!” can be translated as “I should have thought of that!”