Day: December 25, 2011

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
1. Arthur Honegger’s “A Christmas ___” : CANTATA
“A Christmas Cantata” is a work by Arthur Honegger that he completed in 1953, his last composition.

13. “Scrooged” actor Robert : MITCHUM
Robert Mitchum was perhaps most famous for the roles he played in film noir movies early in his career. What is less known is that Mitchum was an accomplished singer and composer. He recorded a number of records, mainly in a country music style. He also co-wrote and composed an oratorio that was performed at the Hollywood Bowl. Go, Robert!

“Scrooged” is a 1988 movie, an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novella “A Christmas Carol”. I’m afraid I don’t like this movie, and much prefer the definitive (in my humble opinion) film version from 1951 starring Alistair Sim.

23. Noted bride of 1969 : YOKO ONO
Yoko Ono was born into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Her father moved around the world for work and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.

28. Kid’s block : LEGO
Lego is manufactured by Lego Group, a privately held company headquartered in Billund, Denmark. The company was founded by a carpenter called Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1934 and the now-famous plastic interlocking blocks were introduced in 1949. They were originally sold under the name “Automatic Binding Bricks” but I think today’s “Lego” is easier to remember! The name “Lego” comes from the Danish term “leg godt” meaning “play well”.

30. Cozy footwear : MOC
“Moc” is short for “moccasin” shoe.

The moccasin is a traditional form of footwear worn by many Native American tribes.

33. Japanese stringed instrument : KOTO
The koto is a traditional stringed instrument, the national musical instrument of Japan.

34. Journalist Joseph : ALSOP
Joseph Alsop was a journalist and columnist working in the thirties through the seventies. Through his mother, Alsop was a distant relative of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and James Monroe.

44. Fencing position : SIXTE
“Sixte” is the sixth of the eight basic positions from which an attack can be made in fencing.

50. Storage units : BYTES
In the world of computers, a “bit” is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of bits (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, so a gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes.

51. Piccadilly movers : TRAM CARS
Piccadilly is a major thoroughfare in London, in the city of Westminster. Among the famous buildings along the street is the Ritz Hotel.

55. Roman “olive” : OLEA
Oleum (plural: olea) is the Latin word for “oil”. The term oleum is used for a whole host of pharmaceutical oils, extracted from both plant and animal sources.

58. “Unto us ___ is given” : A SON
“Unto us a son is given”, are words from Handel’s “Messiah”, actually from the book of Isaiah: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

59. Salt flats locale : UTAH
The largest salt pan located near the Great Salt Lake is the famous Bonneville Salt Flats. There is an area in the Flats called the Bonneville Speedway that is devoted to motor sports and is noted as a venue for numerous land speed records.

71. Actress Andie : MACDOWELL
Andie MacDowell is an American actress who seems to turn up in quite a few British productions set in that part of the world. Most famously she was the love interest in the fabulous film “Four Weddings and a Funeral” starring opposite Hugh Grant. I also enjoyed another of her movies, “Groundhog Day”, a fun tale.

74. Pola of the silents : NEGRI
Pola Negri was a Polish actress, the first star to be invited from Europe to develop a career in Hollywood. Most of her success came in the silent era, but she was able to make the transition to the talkies. Her off-screen life attracted the attention of the gossip columnists who rejoiced in her affairs with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino.

82. Score after deuce : AD IN
In tennis, if the score reaches “deuce” (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the “advantage”. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. If the one of the players is calling out the score then if he/she has the advantage then that player announces “ad in” or more formally “advantage in”. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all that …?

84. “Hairspray” role : EDNA
In the musical “Hairspray”, Edna Turnblad is one of the main characters. “Hairspray” was originally a John Waters movie, from 1988. In that film Edna was played by Divine, a famous drag queen who featured in many Waters films. In the stage musical that opened in 2002, the original Broadway cast featured Harvey Fierstein as Edan. The 2007 movie adaptation of the musical had John Travolta in the role.

86. Young business partner? : ERNST
Ernst & Young is one of the Big Four accountancy firms, alongside Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ernst & Young is headquartered in London.

90. Bay Area airport, in shorthand : SFO
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is the maintenance hub for United Airlines and is the principal base for Virgin America.

95. Mozart’s birthplace: Abbr. : AUS
Mozart was born in Salzburg in Austria, on 27 January 1756.

96. “Miracle on 34th Street,” e.g. : MOVIE
“Miracle on 34th Street” is a classic Christmas film from 1947 starring Maureen O’Hara, John Payne and a very young Natalie Wood. If I might ruin the end of the story for you, Santa Claus does exist ‘cause the US Post Office says so …

99. Medium skill : ESP
Extra Sensory Perception (ESP).

101. Cold war fighter : MIG
The Russian fighter jets that we know as “MiGs” are so called because they were designed by the Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau, and MiG is an acronym for “Mikoyan-and-Gurevich” in Russian.

102. 2001 film in which 91-/100-Across is a character : SHREK
Before “Shrek” was a successful movie franchise and Broadway musical, it was a children’s picture book called “Shrek!” authored and illustrated by William Steig. The title “Shrek!” came from the German/Yiddish word Schreck, meaning “fear” or “terror”.

111. Chess champ Mikhail : TAL
Mikhail Tal was truly a chess legend. He holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competition chess. And the second longest winning streak, well, that was by Tal as well.

112. “Honey in the Horn” trumpeter : HIRT
Al Hirt was a trumpeter and bandleader. His most famous recording was “Java” and the album “Honey in the Horn”.

116. Beta preceder : PHI
Phi is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet.

Phi Beta Kappa was the first collegiate Greek fraternity in the US, founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary. The initials Phi Beta Kappa stand for “philosophia biou kybernētēs”, which translates into “philosophy is the guide of life”.

123. Wall St. deal : LBO
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is a transaction in which an investor acquires a controlling volume of stock in a company, but buys that stock with borrowed funds (hence “leveraged”). Often the assets of the acquired company are used as collateral for the borrowed money. There is a special form of LBO known as a management buyout in which the company’s own management team purchases the controlling interest.

126. Singer Mitchell : JONI
Joni Mitchell is a Canadian singer and songwriter from Fort McLeod in Alberta. She is perhaps best known for her recordings “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Woodstock”.

128. Bronx and Central Park attractions : ZOOS
The Bronx Zoo is the largest metropolitan zoo in the country, and is built right on the Bronx River.

The Central Park Zoo is in Central Park in New York City. Founded in the 1860s, it was the first official zoo to open in the city.

132. Prepare, as eggnog : STIR
A noggin was the name of a small cup back in the 1600s that later lent its name to a small drink (and eventually to “eggnog”).

133. Partridge’s preferred tree : PEAR
The fabulous Christmas Carol called “The Twelve Days of Christmas” dates back at least to 1780 when it was first published in England, and may be French in origin. The concept of twelve days of Christmas comes from the tradition that the three kings came to visit the Christ Child twelve days after he was born. This same tradition is the origin of the title to Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”.

136. Fictional planet in “Flash Gordon” : MONGO
“Flash Gordon” was originally a comic strip, first published in 1934 and drawn by Alex Raymond. It was created to compete with the already successful strip called “Buck Rogers”.

140. Drive-thru sandwich order : MCRIB
The McDonald’s McRib sandwich is based on a pork patty. There isn’t any pork rib in the patty though. It is primarily made up of pork shoulder meat, reconstituted with tripe, heart and stomach tissue. Enjoy …

141. Crudités platter centerpiece : CHEESE DIP
Crudités are a French appetizer made up of sliced and whole raw vegetables that are dipped into a sauce. The French word “crudité” simply means a raw vegetable, and derives from the Latin word “crudus” meaning “raw”.

146. Org. in Tom Clancy novels : CIA
I love the Tom Clancy series of novels, most of which feature Jack Ryan as the main character, but I felt that with each successive title my interest faded a little. I was hooked with “The Hunt for Red October” published in 1984, and dutifully worked my through all Clancy’s subsequent novels, before giving up halfway through the 1998 “Rainbow Six”.

153. Pacino and Bundy : ALS
Al Pacino seems to be best known for playing characters on either side of the law. His big break in movies came when he played Michael Corleone in “The Godfather”, a role that grew for him as the series of films progressed. But his Oscar winning role was that of a blind, ex-military officer in “Scent of a Woman”.

Al Bundy is a lead character in the television sitcom “Married with Children”. He is played by Ed O’Neill, an actor who is currently making it big playing Jay Pritchett on the very entertaining show called “Modern Family”.

154. Eponymic town of Cambridgeshire : STILTON
Stilton is a lovely village in Cambridgeshire, the original home of the delicious blue cheese called Stilton.

155. Mediterranean capital : TRIPOLI
Tripoli is a capital city of Libya, and sits on the Mediterranean Coast. The city was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC when it was called Oea.

156. Skip across the water’s surface : DAP
“To dap” is to skip or bounce across the surface of the water. Dapping is also the name given to the fishing technique of letting a baited hook fall gently onto the water’s surface.

157. Certain pass: Abbr. : TKT
Ticket (tkt.).

159. Guinness suffix : -EST
“The Guinness Book of World Records” holds some records of its own. It is the best-selling, copyrighted series of books of all time, and is one of the books most often stolen from public libraries! The book was first published in 1954 by two twins, Norris and Ross McWhirter. The McWhirter twins found themselves with a smash hit, and eventually became very famous in Britain on a TV show based on world records.

Down
3. “Drat!” : NERTS
“Nerts” is a slang term, a corruption of “nuts!” and has the same meaning.

5. Nabokov novel : ADA
“Ada” is a 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The story takes place in the 1800s on Antiterra, an Earth-like planet that has a history similar to ours but with interesting differences. For example, there is a United States, but the country covers all of North and South America. What we call eastern Canada is a French-speaking province called “Canady”, and western Canada is a Russian-speaking province called “Estody”. The plot-line is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.

6. Rock’s Jethro ___ : TULL
Jethro Tull is a rock band from the UK, formed in 1967 and still going strong today.

8. Year in San Juan : ANO
San Juan is the capital city of Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1521 by the Spanish, who called it “Cuidad de Puerto Rico” (Rich Port City).

9. “The Little Mermaid” fellow : GRIMSBY
“The Little Mermaid” is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. The story has been adapted many times since it was first published in 1837. And of course there is the famous statue of the Little Mermaid that sits on a rock in Copenhagen harbour.

10. Cafeteria variety : AUTOMAT
An automat is a fast food restaurant that was popular in the first half of the 20th century. The original automat was established in Berlin, but the concept took off in the US. However, our modern fast food restaurants virtually wiped out automats starting in the fifties.

11. Mineral in healing crystals : ZINCITE
Zincite is the mineral form of zinc oxide.

12. Rocker Brian : ENO
Brian Eno started out his musical career with Roxy Music. However, his most oft-played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “start-up jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system is booting up.

13. Video game island : MYST
In the days when I played the occasional video game, the best of the bunch was undoubtedly “Myst”. It is a game full of puzzles with the player wandering through a beautifully designed interactive world.

14. W.W. II battleship : IOWA
The USS Iowa that saw action in WWII was the fourth ship to be so called by the US Navy. Among her many missions, the Iowa carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Casablanca in 1943 for one of the famed war summits with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin.

15. Ref’s decision : TKO
In boxing, a knockout (KO) is when one of the fighters can’t get up from the canvas within a specified time, usually 10 seconds. This can be due to fatigue, injury, or the participant may be truly “knocked out”. A referee, fighter, or doctor may also decide to stop a fight without a physical knockout, especially if there is concern about a fighter’s safety. In this case, the bout is said to end with a technical knockout (TKO).

19. Vintage records : MONOS
Monophonic sound (“mono”) is sound reproduced using just one audio channel, which is usually played out of just one speaker. Stereophonic sound is reproduced using two audio channels, with the sound from each channels played out of two different speakers. The pair of stereo speakers are usually positioned apart from each other so that sound appears to come from between the two. Quadraphonic sound (4.0 surround sound) uses four audio channels with the sound played back through four speakers often positioned at the corners of the room in which one is listening.

22. Popeye’s ___’ Pea : SWEE
Originally Popeye used the nickname “swee’pea” to address his girlfriend, Olive Oyl. Then along comes a baby, found on Popeye’s doorstep. Popeye adopts the little guy and raises him, calling him “Swee’Pea”.

35. ___-12 : PAC
Pac-12 an abbreviation for the Pacific-12 Conference, a college athletic conference in the western US. The Pac-12 has won more NCAA National Team Championships than any other conference.

38. “___ Misérables” : LES
The 1980 musical “Les Miserables” is an adaptation of the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The show opened in London in 1985, and is the longest running musical in the history of London’s West End. My wife and I saw “Les Miz” in the Queen’s Theatre in London quite a few years ago, but were only able to get tickets for seats in the very back row. The theater seating is very steep, so the back row of the balcony is extremely high over the stage. One of the big events in the storyline is the building of a street barricade over which the rebels fight. At the height we were seated we could see the stagehands behind the barricade, sitting around drinking Coke, even having a cigarette. On cue they would get up and catch a dropped rifle, or an actor that had been shot. It was pretty comical. I didn’t really enjoy the show that much, to be honest. Some great songs, but the storyline just didn’t seem to hang together for me.

39. ’70s TV production co. : MTM
MTM Enterprises was a television production company founded in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore originally to produce the “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. The company subsequently produced the likes of “The Bob Newhart Show”, “Rhoda”, “WKRP in Cincinnati”, “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere”. That’s a lot of great television.

41. Mao contemporary : CHIANG
Chang Kai-Shek was the leader of the Nationalist Movement in China right through to the end of WWII. The Nationalists lost out in a Civil War to the Communists backed by the Soviet Union after war, and Chiang Kai-Shek and his government were forced to flee to Taiwan. He claimed rule over China from Taiwan until his death in 1975.

42. “Santa Baby” singer : KITT
Eartha Kitt sure did have a unique voice and singing style. Her rendition of “Santa Baby” has to be one of the most distinctive and memorable recordings in the popular repertoire. Some of you will no doubt remember Kitt playing Cat Woman in the final series of the TV show “Batman”.

45. Camaro ___-Z : IROC
The IROC-Z is a model of Camaro, introduced in 1978. The IROC-Z takes its name from the famous stock car race, the International Race of Champions.

48. Butter alternative : OLEO
Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

49. Actor Foxx : REDD
Redd Foxx was the stage name of John Elroy Sanford, best known for starring in “Sanford and Son”. “Sanford and Son” was an American version of a celebrated hit BBC sitcom that I grew up with in Ireland, called “Steptoe and Son”.

58. Deaf talk: Abbr. : ASL
It’s really quite unfortunate that American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are very different, and someone who has learned to sign in one cannot understand someone signing in the other.

64. Public health agcy. : CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

67. Composer Max : REGER
Max Reger was a German composer and conductor. One of his students was George Szell, the famous Hungarian-born American composer who worked with the Cleveland Orchestra for so many years.

72. Hawaiian porch : LANAI
Named after the Hawaiian island, a lanai is a type of veranda.

78. Star of “Gunsmoke”? : BADGE
James Arness played the role of Matt Dillon, Marshall of Dodge City, on “Gunsmoke” for twenty years. If you count the occasions when he reprised the role for specials, he actually performed as Matt Dillon over five decades. And, did you know that Peter Graves, the actor who played Jim Phelps on “Mission: Impossible”, his real name was Peter Arness? He and James were brothers.

80. Get an ___ effort : E FOR
Apparently “E for Effort” was a WWII campaign in the US to help boost productivity in factories.

81. De ___ (anew) : NOVO
“De novo” is Latin for “anew”, just as we use it in English.

88. Winter bird feeder food : SUET
Suet is a very popular ingredient in food provided for bird feeders.

Fat, when extracted from the carcass of an animal, is called “suet”. Untreated suet decomposes at room temperature quite easily so it has to be “rendered” or purified to make it stable. Rendered fat from pigs is what we call “lard”. Rendered beef or mutton fat is known as “tallow”.

94. ___ B’rith : B’NAI
B’nai B’rith is a Jewish service organization founded in New York City in 1843. “B’nai B’rith” is Hebrew for “Sons of the Covenant”.

97. Cousin ___ : ITT
In the television sitcom “The Addams Family”, the family had a frequent visitor called Cousin Itt. Itt is a short man with long hair that runs from his head to the floor. Cousin Itt was played by Italian actor Felix Silla.

102. Tunisian seaport : SFAX
Sfax is a seaport in Tunisia on the Mediterranean coast and is the second largest city in the country, the largest being Tunis, the capital.

105. 16th-century monarch credited with presenting 91-/100-Acrosses to guests : ELIZABETH
The first documented use of gingerbread shaped in the form of human figures was in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. She used to have figures made to represent her important guests.

107. Sr.’s test : GRE
Passing the Graduate Record Examination is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

112. “John Adams” airer : HBO
John Adams was the second President of the United States. I must admit that I learned much of what I know about President Adams in the excellent, excellent HBO series “John Adams”. Having said that, I also visited his home in Quincy, Massachusetts not too long ago. He was clearly a great man, with a great intellect …

116. Slumber party togs : PJS
“Toggery” is another word for clothing, sometimes shortened to “togs”. For example, back in Ireland we routinely call a bathing suit “swimming togs”. The term “toggery” comes from the Latin “toga”.

Our word “pajamas” comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. In the British Isles the spelling is “pyjamas”.

123. Small boat danger : LEE TIDE
A leeward tide (sometime lee tide) is one that runs in the same direction that the wind is blowing. A windward tide, on the other hand, runs in the opposite direction to the wind. I think that the main danger with a lee tide is when a boat is at anchor. If the tide and wind are acting in concert then the anchor is more likely to slip.

133. Chem. class measures : PHS
As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

135. Capital of Belarus : MINSK
Minsk is the capital of Belarus, formerly known as the Belorussion Soviet Socialist Republic.

139. Iraq’s Aziz : TARIQ
Tariq Aziz is the former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, serving under Saddam Hussein. He surrendered to US forces in 2003 and is in prison right now in Baghdad.

142. Table d’___ : HOTE
Menu items that are “à la carte” are priced and ordered separately, as opposed to “table d’hôte” which is a fixed price menu with limited choice.

143. Nile deity : ISIS
Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, and the mother of Horus. The Egyptian pharaohs were supposedly incarnations of Horus.

148. Maven : WIZ
I’ve always loved the word “maven”, another word for an expert. Maven comes into English from the Yiddish “meyvn”, someone who understands (at least I think that’s right).

150. Brit’s oath : GOR
When I was a kid in London, a pretty common expression of surprise was “gor blimey”, a euphemism for “God blind me”.

152. Masseur employer : SPA
The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as Spa is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Arthur Honegger’s “A Christmas ___” : CANTATA
8. Staring intently : AGAZE
13. “Scrooged” actor Robert : MITCHUM
20. Add a musical track to, e.g. : OVERDUB
21. Destroyed : IN RUINS
23. Noted bride of 1969 : YOKO ONO
24. Model for an art class, say : BARE ALL
25. “Stop stalling!” : DO IT NOW
26. Approach like an eagle : SWOOP IN
27. Baptism, e.g. : RITE
28. Kid’s block : LEGO
30. Cozy footwear : MOC
31. “I could ___ horse!” : EAT A
33. Japanese stringed instrument : KOTO
34. Journalist Joseph : ALSOP
36. Clearly happy : ALL SMILES
39. Goes for the gold? : MINES
40. Spice organizers : RACKS
43. Lose intensity : ABATE
44. Fencing position : SIXTE
47. Crunchy snack bit : CORN CHIP
50. Storage units : BYTES
51. Piccadilly movers : TRAM CARS
55. Roman “olive” : OLEA
56. “Make ___!” : IT SO
58. “Unto us ___ is given” : A SON
59. Salt flats locale : UTAH
60. Carnivore’s love : RED MEAT
62. Components : FACTORS
68. Getaway planner? : CAPTIVE
70. Newfangled : MODERN
71. Actress Andie : MACDOWELL
73. Like some lines : DOTTED
74. Pola of the silents : NEGRI
76. Decoration on a 91-/100-Across : ICING
77. Mistreat : ABUSE
79. Predispositions : BENTS
82. Score after deuce : AD IN
84. “Hairspray” role : EDNA
86. Young business partner? : ERNST
90. Bay Area airport, in shorthand : SFO
91. With 100-Across, image revealed by connecting the circled letters alphabetically : GINGERBREAD
95. Mozart’s birthplace: Abbr. : AUS
96. “Miracle on 34th Street,” e.g. : MOVIE
99. Medium skill : ESP
100. See 91-Across : MAN
101. Cold war fighter : MIG
102. 2001 film in which 91-/100-Across is a character : SHREK
104. Horsed around? : TROTTED
106. Shake up : AGITATE
109. Special ___ : EFFECTS
111. Chess champ Mikhail : TAL
112. “Honey in the Horn” trumpeter : HIRT
113. “___ framed!” : I WAS
115. Some toy batteries : AAS
116. Beta preceder : PHI
119. Tone quality, in music : TIMBRE
121. Stuck : IN A FIX
123. Wall St. deal : LBO
126. Singer Mitchell : JONI
128. Bronx and Central Park attractions : ZOOS
129. ___ good turn : DO A
132. Prepare, as eggnog : STIR
133. Partridge’s preferred tree : PEAR
134. Navigational aid : STAR MAP
136. Fictional planet in “Flash Gordon” : MONGO
138. “Incidentally …” : BY THE BY
140. Drive-thru sandwich order : MCRIB
141. Crudités platter centerpiece : CHEESE DIP
145. Delicious : TASTY
146. Org. in Tom Clancy novels : CIA
147. Maternity ward figures : NEW MOMS
149. Coffee order : NO SUGAR
151. Stipulations : IFS
153. Pacino and Bundy : ALS
154. Eponymic town of Cambridgeshire : STILTON
155. Mediterranean capital : TRIPOLI
156. Skip across the water’s surface : DAP
157. Certain pass: Abbr. : TKT
158. Radio abbr. : KHZ
159. Guinness suffix : -EST
160. 1-Down’s warning : SSS
161. Mandatory coll. course : REQ
162. Capt.’s guess : ETA

Down
1. Hooded menace : COBRA
2. Benefit : AVAIL
3. “Drat!” : NERTS
4. 91-/100-Across, often : TREE ORNAMENT
5. Nabokov novel : ADA
6. Rock’s Jethro ___ : TULL
7. Proficient : ABLE
8. Year in San Juan : ANO
9. “The Little Mermaid” fellow : GRIMSBY
10. Cafeteria variety : AUTOMAT
11. Mineral in healing crystals : ZINCITE
12. Rocker Brian : ENO
13. Video game island : MYST
14. W.W. II battleship : IOWA
15. Ref’s decision : TKO
16. Aid for making a 91-/100-Across : COOKIE CUTTER
17. Cyclist’s offer : HOP ON
18. Merge : UNITE
19. Vintage records : MONOS
21. Fan’s fixation : IDOL
22. Popeye’s ___’ Pea : SWEE
29. Fun-house sounds : GASPS
32. Elves, to Santa: Abbr. : ASSTS
35. ___-12 : PAC
37. Part of many a science course : LAB
38. “___ Misérables” : LES
39. ’70s TV production co. : MTM
41. Mao contemporary : CHIANG
42. “Santa Baby” singer : KITT
45. Camaro ___-Z : IROC
46. Paradise : XANADU
47. Bulbous plant part : CORM
48. Butter alternative : OLEO
49. Actor Foxx : REDD
52. Bickering : AT IT
53. High praise : RAVE
54. Storage unit : SHED
57. Friend ___ friend : OF A
58. Deaf talk: Abbr. : ASL
61. You are: Sp. : ERES
63. Serving well? : ACING
64. Public health agcy. : CDC
65. French pronoun : TOI
66. Have : OWN
67. Composer Max : REGER
69. Sit still? : POSE
71. Calf-length dresses : MIDIS
72. Hawaiian porch : LANAI
75. Stormed : RAGED
78. Star of “Gunsmoke”? : BADGE
79. Cellar, in classifieds : BSMT
80. Get an ___ effort : E FOR
81. De ___ (anew) : NOVO
83. How Santa’s reindeer are harnessed : IN PAIRS
85. Slights, say : DEMEANS
87. Buster? : NARC
88. Winter bird feeder food : SUET
89. Terse reproofs : TSKS
92. Radiate : EMIT
93. Mob turncoat : RAT
94. ___ B’rith : B’NAI
97. Cousin ___ : ITT
98. Californie, e.g. : ETAT
102. Tunisian seaport : SFAX
103. Males : HES
105. 16th-century monarch credited with presenting 91-/100-Acrosses to guests : ELIZABETH
107. Sr.’s test : GRE
108. Light head? : TWI-
110. “The 91-/100-Across,” for one : FAIRY TALE
112. “John Adams” airer : HBO
114. Plopped down on Santa’s lap, e.g. : SAT
116. Slumber party togs : PJS
117. Relaxer for Santa : HOT MILK
118. Recovering after injury, say : IN A CAST
120. Swab : MOP
122. White lie : FIB
123. Small boat danger : LEE TIDE
124. Some pudginess : BABY FAT
125. Arm extension? : -ORY
127. Sale item abbr. : IRR
129. Fails to : DOESN’T
130. Carry-___ : ONS
131. Spies, e.g. : AGENTS
133. Chem. class measures : PHS
135. Capital of Belarus : MINSK
136. Boss’s notes : MEMOS
137. Bouquets : ODORS
139. Iraq’s Aziz : TARIQ
141. Roman 950 : CML
142. Table d’___ : HOTE
143. Nile deity : ISIS
144. Baby boxer, e.g. : PUP
146. Bopper : CAT
148. Maven : WIZ
150. Brit’s oath : GOR
152. Masseur employer : SPA
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