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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A “Planet of the ___” : APES

The “Planet of the Apes” franchise of films is based on a French novel by Pierre Boulle called “La Planète des singes”. The book was published in English as “Monkey Planet”, but was re-released as “Planet of the Apes” when Hollywood had made its choice for a movie title.

16A Crystal-filled rock : GEODE

A geode is a rock in which there is a cavity that is lined or filled with crystal formations. The crystals inside a geode form when mineral-rich water seeps into a cavity in a rock, leaving behind dissolved minerals that gradually build up over time. Some of the largest geodes ever discovered have been as big as a room and can take millions of years to form.

18A *Title of a 1990s ABC sitcom and a 1990s New Kids on the Block hit : STEP BY STEP

“Step by Step” is a sitcom that originally aired from 1991 to 1998. It is about two single parents who get married and form a blended family. The mom and dad are played by Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers.

20A Cereal often found with pretzels in a party snack mix : RICE CHEX

Chex Mix is a party mix that includes Chex cereal as a major ingredient. The first recipe appeared on boxes of Chex cereal in 1952.

24A “___ to Go!,” 2024 Chappell Roan hit sometimes compared to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” : HOT

Chappell Roan’s hit “Hot to Go!” was inspired by her childhood dream of becoming a cheerleader. The song gained viral popularity for its accompanying dance, where audiences spell out the song’s title with their arms. As a result, Roan has herself described “Hot to Go!” as “like the ‘Y.M.C.A.’ but gayer”.

33A Shape for a red-and-white striped Christmas candy : CANE

Apparently, candy canes were created at the behest of the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany in 1670. The sweet sticks were basically used as bribes to keep children quiet during services. The choirmaster specified that the candy sticks should have a crook at the top so that they reminded the children of the three shepherds who visited the infant Jesus just after his birth.

36A Raisins, when on a celery-and-peanut-butter “log” : ANTS

Ants on a log is a snack food prepared by spreading something like peanut butter or cream cheese on celery and placing raisins on top. If you leave out the raisins, the snack becomes “ants on vacation”.

37A Wrinkly citrus fruit : UGLI

The ugli fruit is a hybrid of a tangerine and a grapefruit that was first discovered growing wild in Jamaica where most ugli fruit comes from today. “UGLI” is a trademark name that is a variant of “ugly”, a nod to the fruit’s unsightly wrinkled rind. Another distributor uses the brand name “Uniq”, which does suggest a more appetizing treat.

39A Riverbank deposit : SILT

Today, we mostly think of silt as a deposit of sediment in a river. Back in the mid-1400s, silt was sediment deposited by seawater. It is thought that the word “silt” is related to “salt”, as found in seawater.

42A Zellweger of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” : RENEE

Renée Zellweger’s big break came with the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire”. A few years later, Zellweger followed that up with a string of successes in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001), “Chicago” (2002) and “Cold Mountain” (2003). My wife and I love watching her play Bridget Jones, and as someone coming from Britain and Ireland, 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.

“Bridget Jones’s Diary” is a 1996 novel by English novelist Helen Fielding. The novel is a clever adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and even includes a lead character named Darcy. “Bridget Jones’s Diary” was adapted into a very successful movie released in 2001. Colin Firth plays Darcy in the movie, and also played Mr. Darcy in a famous television version of “Pride and Prejudice” in 1995.

47A LAX posting : ETA

Los Angeles International Airport is the sixth busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and the busiest here on the West Coast of the US. The airport was opened in 1930 as Mines Field and was renamed to Los Angeles Airport in 1941. On the airport property is the iconic white structure that resembles a flying saucer, which is called the Theme Building. The airport used to be identified by the letters “LA”, but when the aviation industry went to a three-letter standard for airport identification, this was changed to “LAX”. Apparently, the “X” has no significant meaning.

48A Frito-___ : LAY

The manufacturers of Frito and Lay potato chips merged to form Frito-Lay in 1961. Frito-Lay then merged with Pepsi-Cola in 1965 to form PepsiCo.

55A *Many an off-road vehicle … or a literal description of the answer to each asterisked clue (including this one!) : FOUR-BY-FOUR

A 4×4 vehicle has a four-wheel drive system where the engine can send power to all four of its wheels simultaneously. In contrast, a standard 4×2 vehicle also has four wheels, but the engine only powers two of them, either the front or the rear.

60A It means slow (not big!) in music : LARGO

Largo is an instruction to play a piece of music with a very slow tempo. “Largo” is an Italian word meaning “broadly”. The instruction “larghetto” means “play broadly”, and “Larghissimo” means “play very, very slowly”.

61A “Well, ___ that special!” : ISN’T

Dana Carvey, along with the likes of Phil Hartman and Kevin Nealon, was part of the new breed of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) comedians credited with resurrecting the show in the late eighties. One of Carvey’s most popular characters was the Church Lady (“Well, isn’t that special?”), and he became so associated with her that among fellow cast members Carvey was often referred to simply as “the Lady”. Another favorite Carvey character was Garth Algar who went on to feature in the “Wayne’s World” movies. Carvey had open-heart surgery in 1998 to clear a blocked artery, but the surgical team operated on the wrong blood vessel. To recover, he had to have five more procedures. He ended up suing for medical malpractice and donated his $7.5 million compensation payment to charity.

62A Poetry competition : SLAM

A poetry slam is a competition in which poets read their own work (usually), with winners being chosen by members of the audience. Apparently the first poetry slam took place in Chicago in 1986. Now there is a National Poetry Slam that takes place each year, with representatives from the US, Canada and France.

64A Brooklyn basketballers … and what they swish : NETS

The NBA’s Brooklyn Nets were the New Jersey Nets until 2012, and were based in Newark. Prior to 1977, the team was known as the New York Nets and played in various locations on Long Island. Ten years earlier, the Nets were called the New Jersey Americans and were headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Down

2D Big ___ (nickname of baseball’s David Ortiz) : PAPI

The Dominican American baseball player David Ortiz has the nickname “Big Papi”. After each home run that Ortiz scores, he looks upwards and points to the sky in a tribute to his mother who died in a car crash in 2002 when she was only 46 years old.

3D Company bigwig : EXEC

A bigwig is someone important. The use of the term “bigwig” harks back to the days when men of authority and rank wore … big wigs.

5D Strut down the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” runway, say : SASHAY

To sashay is to strut along in a showy manner. “Sashay” is an Anglicized form of the French word “chassé”, a sliding step used in square dancing.

In the TV reality competition show “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, RuPaul announces the fate of the bottom two competitors with the terms “shantay” and “sashay away”. The former, a play on the French greeting “enchanté”, is used in place of “you stay”. The latter is a dismissal.

7D Visa or Mastercard rival, informally : AMEX

“Amex” is short for “American Express”, the name of the financial services company that is best known for its credit card, charge card and traveler’s check businesses. The company name is indicative of its original business. American Express was founded in 1850 in Buffalo, New York as an express mail service.

9D Home of the Great Pyramid : EGYPT

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and yet it is the only one of the Wonders that is basically intact today. Egyptologists believe that the structure took ten to twenty years to complete, and that it dates back to around 2560 BC. The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest man-made structure in the world for nearly 3,900 years, until it was surpassed by Lincoln Cathedral in England in 1311 AD.

10D Loch ___ monster : NESS

The Surgeon’s Photograph is an image that was taken in 1934, supposedly of the Loch Ness Monster. It is perhaps the most famous picture of Nessie to this day, the one with a “head” and “neck” sticking up out of the water. The picture’s renown doesn’t seem to have abated, even though in the mid-nineties the photograph was shown to be a hoax. The picture is called the Surgeon’s Photograph because it was taken by a Dr. Wilson.

12D Sappho’s “___ to Aphrodite” : ODE

Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet born on the Greek island of Lesbos. Sappho was much admired for her work, although very little of it survives today. She was renowned for writing erotic and romantic verse that dealt with the love of women as well as men. It was because of this poetry that the word “lesbian” (someone from Lesbos) is used to describe a gay woman.

21D ___ San Lucas, Mexico : CABO

Cabo San Lucas is a major tourist destination at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. “Cabo” is sometimes referred to as the “Fort Lauderdale of Mexico”.

25D Pressed sandwich : PANINI

In Italy, a sandwich made from sliced bread is called a “tramezzino”, while sandwiches made from non-sliced breads are called “panini” (singular “panino”). We’ve imported the plural term “panini” into English, to describe a single pressed and toasted sandwich.

26D Part of a reindeer’s rack : ANTLER

The antlers on a deer come to points. The higher the number of points, the more prized the head of the deer as a trophy, so I am told …

29D “___ Beach: The Real Orange County” (MTV reality show of the mid-aughts) : LAGUNA

Laguna Beach is a seaside resort city in Orange County in southern California. The city takes its name from nearby Laguna Canyon, and was originally known as Lagonas.

32D Word before printer or pointer : LASER

The key features of a laser printer (or copier) are that it uses plain paper and produces quality text at high speed. Laser printers work by projecting a laser image of the printed page onto a rotating drum that is coated with photoconductors (material that becomes conductive when exposed to light). The areas of the drum exposed to the laser carry a different charge than the unexposed areas. Dry ink (toner) sticks to the exposed areas due to electrostatic charge. The toner is then transferred to paper by contact and is fused into the paper by the application of heat. So, that explains why paper coming out of a laser printer is warm, and the ink is sometimes powdery.

42D “Deadpool” actor Reynolds : RYAN

Ryan Reynolds is an actor from Vancouver who is best known these days for playing the title character in the “Deadpool” superhero films. Named “People” magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2010, Ryan has had some high-profile relationships. He was engaged to singer Alanis Morissette for a couple of years, married to actress Scarlett Johansson (again for a couple of years), and is now married to actress Blake Lively whom he met on the set of “Green Lantern”.

“Deadpool” is a 2016 superhero film, the eighth of the “X-Men” series of movies. The title character is played by Ryan Reynolds. Deadpool constantly breaks the fourth wall in the movie, often to crack a joke. That characteristic is a carry-over from the comics, in which Deadpool often addresses asides to the reader.

49D Best Picture winner found hiding in “and the Oscar goes to …” : ARGO

“Argo” is a 2012 movie that is based on the true story of the rescue of six diplomats hiding out during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The film was directed by and stars Ben Affleck and is produced by Grant Heslov and George Clooney, the same pair who produced the excellent “Good Night, and Good Luck”. I highly recommend “Argo”, although I found the scenes of religious fervor to be very frightening …

50D “Heads, I win. Tails, you ___!” (sneaky coin flip agreement) : LOSE

The two sides of a coin are known as the “obverse” and the “reverse”. The obverse is commonly referred to as “heads”, as it often depicts someone’s head. The reverse is commonly called “tails”, as it is the opposite of “heads”.

52D Hawaiian storytelling dance : HULA

The hula is a native dance of Hawaii that uses arm movements to relate a story. The hula can be performed while sitting (a noho dance) or while standing (a hula kū).

54D Title for Helen Mirren and Emma Thompson : DAME

Helen Mirren, one of my favorite English actresses, has played several different queens on film and television. She played Queen Elizabeth II in 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)

Emma Thompson is one of my favorite English actresses, and someone who has appeared in many of my favorite films. She probably first came to attention in the US when she won an Oscar for her role in “Howards End”, which she followed up with “Remains of the Day” and “In the Name of the Father”. Perhaps my favorite production of hers is her own adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility”, which won her Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress. Emma Thompson went to Cambridge University and was good friends with a host of successful British actors and entertainers, including her ex-boyfriend Hugh Laurie who is famous in the US for playing the title role in television’s “House”.

56D Acorn-bearing tree : OAK

These days, we don’t usually consider acorns (the fruit of the oak tree) as a foodstuff. But in days past, many cultures around the world have used acorns as food. Usually, bitter tannins that occur in acorns need to be leached out in water. Acorn meal can be a substitute for grain flour, which can then be used to make bread. Acorns have also been used as a substitute for coffee, especially when coffee was rationed. Notably, acorn coffee was brewed up by Confederates during the American Civil War, and by Germans during World War II.