Day: July 6, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Serving edges : AD INS
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 of that …?

12. General servant : FACTOTUM
A “factotum” is an assistant who has a wide and varied list of responsibilities. “Factotum” is Medieval Latin for “do everything”.

20. Salle de bain fixture : BIDET
“Bidet” is a French word that we imported into English. In French, the word “bidet” originally described a small horse or a pony. What we know as a bidet was so called because one can straddle it like a horse in order to use it.

“Salle de bain” is French for “bathroom”.

23. First U.S. multimillionaire : ASTOR
John Jacob Astor was the father of the famous American Astor dynasty. He was the country’s first multi-millionaire, making his fortune in the trade of fur, real estate and opium. In today’s terms, it has been calculated that by the time of his death he has accumulated a fortune big enough to make him the fourth wealthiest man in American history (in the company of the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Bill Gates, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller).

24. Lawyer who wrote 65-Across : FRANCIS SCOTT KEY
Francis Scott Key is remembered mainly as the man who wrote the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Key was a lawyer and amatuer poet from Georgetown, now a neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

29. Skiing destination Val d’___ : ISERE
Val d’Isère is a noted ski resort in south-eastern France, lying just 3 miles from the Italian border. If you’ve ever watched the British sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous”, Edina and Patsy used to holiday in Val d’Isère whenever they got the chance.

30. Year 24-Across wrote 65-Across : EIGHTEEN FOURTEEN
The lyrics to the US national anthem were written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key as a poem called “Defence of Fort M’Henry”. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted for official use by the US Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1889. The US Congress designated the song as the national anthem in 1931, with an act that was signed into law by President Herbert Hoover.

36. Jan. 1 till now : YTD
Year-to-date (YTD)

37. Crayola color akin to fern : SEA GREEN
In the year 2000 the Crayola company, very cleverly I think, held the “Crayola Color Census 2000” in which people were polled and asked for their favorite Crayola colors. President George W. Bush chose “Blue Bell” and Tiger Woods chose “Wild Strawberry”.

40. What the music to 65-Across was, originally : BRITISH PUB SONG
The lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” were written first as a poem by Francis Scott Key. These words were then set to the tune of a popular British drinking song penned by John Stafford Smith called “The Anacreontic Song”, with the Anacreontic Society being a men’s club in London.

47. Some American Indian homes : ADOBES
The building material known as adobe has been around a long time, and has been used in dry climates all over the world. The original form of the word “adobe” dates back to Middle Egyptian times, about 2000 BC. The original spelling is “dj-b-t”, and translates as mud (sun-dried) brick.

52. Better to a rapper, worse to a patient : ILLER
“Ill” is hip-hop slang, meaning sublime, singularly creative. Not how I use the word …

53. Herbal Essences shampoo company : CLAIROL
“Does she…or doesn’t she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure” was the catchphrase for Miss Clairol Hair Color Bath. Clairol had been around since 1931 selling hair coloring products to salons, and then hit the big time with the introduction of a one-step hair coloring product for use at home. As famous as the product was the “does she … doesn’t she” advertising campaign. Six years after the launch of the campaign, 70% of women in the US were coloring their hair.

57. James Douglas Muir ___ (TV host’s birth name) : LENO
Jay Leno was born James Leno in New Rochelle, New York. Jay’s father was the son of Italian immigrants, and his mother was from Scotland. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and actually dropped out of school on the advice of a high school guidance counsellor. However, years later he went to Emerson college and earned a Bachelor’s degree in speech therapy. Leno also started a comedy club at Emerson in 1973. Today Jay Leno is a car nut and owns about 200 vehicles of various types. You can check them out on his website: www.jaylenosgarage.com.

62. Ancient walkway : STOA
A stoa was a covered walkway in Ancient Greece. A stoa usually consisted of columns lining the side of a building or buildings, with another row of columns defining the other side of the walkway. The columns supported a roof. Often stoae would surround marketplaces in large cities.

63. Four-time N.B.A. All-Star Pau ___ : GASOL
Pau Gasol is a Spanish basketball player who now plays for the Chicago Bulls. Pau’s younger brother is Marc, who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies.

65. This puzzle’s theme, whose first notes are indicated by shaded squares : THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the USA’s national anthem. Famously, the lyrics were taken from a poem by Francis Scott Key called “Defense of Fort M’Henry”. The tune used was called “The Anacreontic Song”, the official song of an 18th-century gentlemen’s club of amateur musicians in London. The tune was written by British composer John Stafford Smith, who was a member of the society. The musicians took the name of their society from the Greek court poet Anacreon, whose works were reputed to celebrate “wine, women and song”.

72. Camus, to Sartre, for many years : AMI
A male friend in France is “un ami”, and a female friend is “une amie”.

Albert Camus was a French author, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Sadly, Camus died in a car accident just two years after he received the prize, at only 46 years of age.

Jean-Paul Sartre was a leading French philosopher, as well as a writer and political activist. Sartre was one of the few people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize and to have then refused to accept it. He was named winner of the prize for Literature in 1964, for his first novel “Nausea”. Before his win, Sartre knew that his name was on the list of nominees so he wrote to the Nobel Institute and asked to be withdrawn from consideration. The letter somehow went unread, so he found himself having to refuse the award after he had been selected.

74. Sports org. founded in 1906 : NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910.

78. Beginner for a while? : ERST-
Erstwhile means “in the past” or “once upon a time”.

79. Star in the Summer Triangle : ALTAIR
Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila (the Eagle). Altair is also one of the three vertices of the Summer Triangle, the others being Deneb and Vega.

81. “I should ___ die with pity, / To see another thus”: Shak. : E’EN
The lines quoted are from William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”. Shakespeare was inspired to write “King Lear” by the legend of “Leir of Britain”, the story of a mythological Celtic king.

82. Country whose national currency is the U.S. dollar : ECUADOR
“Ecuador” is the Spanish word for “equator”, which gives the country its name.

86. “Essays of ___” : ELIA
Charles Lamb published a famous collection of essays simply entitled “Essays of Elia”. Elia was actually a clerk and co-worker of Charles Lamb, whereas Lamb was the author.

88. Performer who gave a memorable rendition of 65-Across in 1991 : WHITNEY HOUSTON
The singer Whitney Houston performed a moving rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the start of Super Bowl XXV in 1991. The audience perhaps received her performance well as the US armed forces were fighting in the Persian Gulf at that time. Such was the reception that Houston released her performance as a single soon after, with profits going to the Gulf War Crisis Fund.

93. Setting of James Clavell’s “Gai-Jin” : YOKOHAMA
Yokohama is the second-most populous city in Japan, and lies very close to the nation’s capital, on Tokyo Bay.

“Gai-Jin” is a novel by James Clavell, the sixth and last title in his famous “Asian Saga” suite. The six books are:

– “King Rat”
– “Tai-Pan”
– “Shōgun”
– “Noble House”
– “Whirlwind”
– “Gai-Jin”

95. G.O.P. org. : RNC
National leadership of the Republican Party is provided by the Republican National Committee (RNC). Only one chairperson of the RNC has been elected to the office of US president, and that is George H. W. Bush.

96. Gator’s tail? : -ADE
Gatorade was developed at the University of Florida by a team of researchers at the request of the school’s football team. And so, Gatorade is named after the Gators football team.

99. Mission that 24-Across was on when he wrote 65-Across : PRISONER EXCHANGE
Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the lyrics to what we now know as “The Star-Spangled Banner” after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British in 1814 during the War of 1812. Key was actually with the British forces at the time, accompanying fellow lawyer John Stuart Skinner in attempt to negotiate the exchange of American prisoners. Key and Skinner dined with British officers on the evening before the attack, and were not allowed to leave as they had seen the strength and position of the British forces. All Key could do then, was witness the bombardment of Fort McHenry on the night of September 13-14 in 1812, and write a poem about what he saw.

107. He prophesied the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem : MICAH
The Book of Micah is one of twelve books in the Bible written by the so called minor prophets. The name “Micah” translates into English from Hebrew as “Who is like God?”

110. N.Y.C. subway inits. : IRT
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the original private operator of the New York Subway when it opened in 1904. The city took over ownership of the system in 1940, but the lines originally operated by the IRT are still known by the IRT moniker.

112. “The Tempest” spirit : ARIEL
Ariel is a spirit, a character who appears in William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and who becomes a servant of the magician Prospero. Ariel was actually viewed as a male character when the play was first staged, and the text of the play supports this assumption. Many believe that the part was originally played by a boy actor, and over time the tendency has been to use female actors, but not exclusively.

William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” tells the story of Prospero, who was removed from the throne of Milan and banished to a deserted island along with his daughter Miranda. Prospero learns sorcery while cast away, and eventually conjures up a tempest that drives those who usurped his throne onto the island’s shores (in particular his own brother, Antonio). On the island, Prospero is eventually successful in revealing Antonio’s lowly nature.

113. Where 24-Across was inspired to write 65-Across : BALTIMORE HARBOR
Fort McHenry sits on a peninsula in the opening to Baltimore Harbor in Maryland. The fort saw action in the War of 1812 as US forces were successful there in defending an attack by the British Navy. Francis Scott Key was watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry when he was inspired to write the words to “The Star Spangled Banner”.

117. It handles lettres : POSTE
In French, letters (lettres) are sent through the post (poste).

119. Best Actor nominee for “Venus,” 2006 : O’TOOLE
Irish actor Peter O’Toole got his big break in movies when he played the title role in the 1962 epic film “Lawrence of Arabia”. But my favorite of O’Toole’s movies is much lighter fare, namely “How to Steal a Million” in which he stars opposite Audrey Hepburn.

121. Inked : TATTOOED
The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”.

122. Symbols of change : DELTAS
Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. We are most familiar with an upper-case delta and its distinctive triangular shape. The letter’s shape has influenced terms such as “deltoid muscle” and “river delta”. The upper-case delta is also used in mathematics and science to indicate a change in value.

123. Gossip : YENTA
Yenta (also “Yente”) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater “yenta” came to mean a busybody.

Down
2. They’re thrown in decathlons : DISCI
The decathlon event is a track and field competition, with the name “decathlon” coming from the Greek “deka” (ten) and “athlos” (contest). The ten events in the men’s decathlon are:

– 100 meters
– Long jump
– Shot put
– High jump
– 400 meters
– 110 meters hurdles
– Discus throw
– Pole vault
– Javelin throw
– 1500 meters

5. Overlapping fugue motifs : STRETTI
“Stretto” is a musical term. In a fugue, stretto is the imitation of a motif in close succession, so closely that the answer to the motif has not been completed.

A fugue is similar to a round in that it is a piece written for two or more voices, with themes that are introduced and taken up by different voices at different pitches. The most famous composer of fugues has to be Bach.

7. “America’s most innovative company” prior to its bankruptcy in 2001 : ENRON
After all the trials following the exposure of fraud at Enron, several of the key players ended up in jail. Andrew Fastow was the Chief Financial Officer. He plea-bargained and received ten years without parole, and became the key witness in the trials of others. Even Fastow’s wife was involved and she was sentenced to one year for helping her husband hide money. Jeffrey Skilling (ex-CEO) was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months. Kenneth Lay (CEO) died in 2006 after he had been found guilty but before he could be sentenced. The accounting firm Arthur Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice for shredding thousands of pertinent documents and deleting emails and files (a decision that the Supreme Court later overturned on a technicality). But still, Arthur Andersen collapsed under the weight of the scandal and 85,000 people lost their jobs (despite only a handful being directly involved with Enron).

9. Sidekick of TV and film : TONTO
On the television version of “The Lone Ranger”, Tonto was played by the actor Jay Silverheels. In the 2013 movie “The Lone Ranger”, Tonto was played by Johnny Depp.

10. Where Michael Jordan played college ball: Abbr. : UNC
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill started enrolling students way back in 1795, making it the oldest public university in the country (the first to enrol students).

Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time. Not only is Jordan a talented sportsman, but he is also very successful in the business world. He is now the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats NBA team.

11. Louvre pyramid designer : PEI
I. M. Pei (full name: Ieoh Ming Pei) is an exceptional American architect who was born in China. Of Pei’s many wonderful works, my favorite is the renovation of the Louvre in Paris, especially the Glass Pyramid in the courtyard.

The Musée du Louvre has the distinction of being the most visited art museum in the whole world. The collection is housed in the magnificent Louvre Palace which used to be the seat of power in France, until 1682 when Louis XIV moved to Versailles.

13. Sagittarius, with “the” : ARCHER
Sagittarius is a constellation of the zodiac, with “sagittarius” being the Latin for “archer”. The constellation is usually represented by a centaur (half-bull, half-man) with a bow.

14. ___-Magnon : CRO
Remains of early man, dating back to 35,000 years ago, were found in Abri de Cro-Magnon in southwest France, giving the name to those early humans. Cro-Magnon remains are the oldest human relics that have been discovered in Europe.

15. New World monkey : TITI
Titis are monkeys found in much of South America. Totis have tails that are a little bit longer than the length of their heads and bodies.

16. Giant Mel and Pirate Ed : OTTS
At 5′ 9″, Mel Ott weighed just 170 lb (I don’t think he took steroids!) and yet he was the first National League player to hit over 500 home runs. Sadly, Ott died in a car accident in New Orleans in 1958 when he was only 49 years old.

Ed Ott is a retired baseball catcher who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the California Angels of the Major Leagues. Ed Ott is no relation to the more famous Mel Ott.

18. Birth places? : UTERI
The Latin “uterus” translates as both “womb” and “belly”. The Latin word was derived from the Greek “hystera” also meaning womb, which gives us the words “hysterectomy”, and “hysterical”.

19. ___ Wolfsheim, gambler in “The Great Gatsby” : MEYER
“The Great Gatsby” is the 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that tells of the prosperous life of Jay Gatsby during the Roaring 20s. Gatsby develops an obsessive love for Daisy Fay Buchanan, a girl he met while serving during WWI, and meets again some years later after he has improved his social standing.

31. MS. managers : EDS
An editor (ed.) might receive a manuscript (MS) with a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE).

32. Initialism in a Beatles title : USSR
By the time the Beatles recorded “Back in the U.S.S.R”, they were having a lot of problems working with each other. The song was recorded in 1968, with the band formally dissolving in 1970. Tensions were so great during the recording of “Back in the U.S.S.R” that Ringo Starr actually stormed out saying that he had quit, and the remaining three Beatles made the record without Ringo. Drums were played mainly by Paul McCartney, but there are also drum tracks on the final cut by both George Harrison and John Lennon. Interesting, huh?

33. Old car company based in Lansing, Mich. : REO
The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom E. Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale and the REO Flying Cloud.

34. Oscar-winning Patricia : NEAL
Patricia Neal won her Best Actress Oscar relatively late in her career, for playing the middle-aged housekeeper in 1963’s “Hud”. A few years’ later she was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate” but turned it down. Famously, Neal had an affair with Gary Cooper who was married at the time. She became pregnant with his child, but he persuaded her to have an abortion. Not long afterwards Neal married British writer Roald Dahl (of “Willy Wonka” fame) and the couple had five children together before divorcing in 1983.

38. Author LeShan : EDA
Eda LeShan wrote “When Your Child Drives You Crazy”, and was host of the PBS television show “How Do Your Children Grow?”

41. Big copier maker : RICOH
Ricoh is a Japanese company that started out in 1936 and by the year 2000 was the biggest manufacturer of copiers in the world. The company is also well known as a supplier of cameras. The most successful of Ricoh’s lines of cameras is the compact model called a Caplio.

42. Penn station? : IVY LEAGUE
The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) was founded in 1740 by by Benjamin Franklin. Penn was the first school in the country to offer both graduate and undergraduate courses.

45. Last: Abbr. : ULT
Ultimate (ult.)

49. Counterpart of Aurora : EOS
In Greek mythology, Eos is the goddess of the dawn who lived at the edge of the ocean. Eos would wake each morning to welcome her brother Helios the sun. The Roman equivalent of Eos is Aurora.

55. Italian province or its capital : ASTI
Asti is a sparkling white wine from the Piedmont region of Italy, and is named for the town of Asti around which the wine is produced. The wine used to be called Asti Spumante, and it had a very bad reputation as a “poor man’s champagne”. The “Spumante” was dropped in a marketing attempt at rebranding associated with a reduction in the amount of residual sugar in the wine.

56. “Come ___?” (Italian greeting) : STA
“Come sta?” is “how are you?” in Italian.

58. Immigrant’s subj. : ESL
English as a Second Language (ESL) is sometimes referred to as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

63. Health supplement co. : GNC
General Nutrition Centers (GNC) is a retailer of health and nutrition supplements based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

64. River of western Germany : SAAR
The Saar is a river that rises on the border between Alsace and Lorraine in France, flows through western Germany and finally enters the Moselle. Historically the Saar river valley was an important source for coal, iron and steel.

67. Some natl. leaders : PMS
The term “prime minister” as we know it, originated in the UK in the 1700s. That said, Cardinal Richelieu used the title prime minister (Premier Ministre) in 1625 France.

68. River isle : AIT
Aits are little islands found in a river. Aits aren’t formed by erosion, but by the deposition of silt over time. As a result, aits often have a long and narrow shape running parallel to the banks as the sediment builds up with the flow of the water. Many of the islands in the River Thames in England have been given the name “Ait”, like Raven’s Ait in Kingston-upon-Thames, and Lot’s Ait in Brentford.

69. Political writer Matt : BAI
Matt Bai is the writer of the “Political Times” column in the “New York Times”.

70. Farm refrain : E-I-E-I-O
There was an American version of the English children’s song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (E-I-E-I-O), that was around in the days of WWI. The first line of the US version goes “Old MacDougal had a farm, in Ohio-i-o”.

71. Farrow of MSNBC : RONAN
Ronan Farrow is a former US government advisor in the Obama administration who now hosts “Ronan Farrow Daily” on MSNBC. Farrow is the son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen. Roman is estranged from his father, ever since Allen started a relationship with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who is now Allen’s wife.

80. Bit of flimflam : LIE
“Flim-flam” is another word for a confidence trick. The term has been in use since the 1500s, would you believe?

84. Peeling potatoes, perhaps : ON KP
KP is a US military slang term, and stands for either “kitchen police” or “kitchen patrol”.

85. Title name in a 2000 Eminem hit : STAN
Rap star Eminem’s real name is Marshall Mathers, a native of Saint Joseph, Missouri. Mathers grew up poor, raised by a single-mom as the family was abandoned by his father when he was 18 months old. Marshall and his mother moved around the country before settling in a suburb of Detroit. He didn’t do well at school, and dropped out at the age of 17. But in the end he made it pretty big …

86. Salad green : ESCAROLE
Escarole is another name for endive, the leaf vegetable. It belongs to the chicory genus, and is in the daisy family.

90. Texter’s qualification : IMO
In my opinion (IMO)

91. “The Hobbit” figure : ORC
Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction and in fantasy games.

J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is the second best-selling novel ever written, with only “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens having sold more copies around the world. Remarkably I think, the third best-selling novel is “The Hobbit”, which was also written by Tolkien.

94. Player in orange and black : ORIOLE
The Baltimore Orioles are one of the eight charter teams of MLB’s American League, so the franchise dates back to 1901. Prior to 1901, the team has roots in the Minor League Milwaukee Brewers, and indeed entered the American League as the Brewers. In 1902 the Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the Browns. The team didn’t fare well in St. Louis, so when it finally relocated to Baltimore in the early fifties the team changed its name completely, to the Baltimore Orioles. The owners so badly wanted a fresh start that they traded 17 old Browns players with the New York Yankees. The trade didn’t help the team’s performance on the field in those early days, but it did help distance the new team from its past.

97. Princess played by Naomi Watts : DIANA
“Diana” is a 2013 biopic about Diana, Princess of Wales and the last two years of her life. The film covers the period from Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles to her death in a car crash in Paris.

Naomi Watts was born in the UK and moved to Australia when she was 14 years of age. It was in Australia that Watts got her break in television and movies. Probably her most acclaimed role was in the 2003 film “21 Grams” with Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro. Watts is best friends with fellow Australian actress Nicole Kidman.

98. Brilliance : ECLAT
“Éclat” can mean a brilliant show of success, or the applause or accolade that one receives. The word derives from the French “éclater” meaning “to splinter, burst out”.

100. Flynn of old film : ERROL
Errol Flynn was born 1909 in Tasmania, Australia where he was raised. In his twenties, Flynn lived in the UK where he pursued his acting career. Around the same time he starred in an Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” and then appeared in a British film “Murder at Monte Carlo”. It was in the latter film that he was noticed by Warner Brothers who brought him to America. Flynn’s non-American heritage shone through even while he was living the American dream in California. He regularly played cricket, along with his friend David Niven, in the Hollywood Cricket Club.

101. Metal worker? : ROBOT
Karel Čapek was a Czech writer noted for his works of science fiction. Čapek’s 1920 play “R.U.R.” is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”. The acronym “R.U.R.”, in the context of the play, stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.

102. Menace named after an African river : EBOLA
The Ebola virus causes a very nasty form of hemorrhagic fever. The name of the virus comes from the site of the first known outbreak, in a mission hospital in the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

103. City whose name was the source of the word “sherry” : XERES
Sherry is a fortified wine made using grapes from around the town of Jerez de la Frontera (formerly “Xerez” or “Xeres”) in the autonomous community of Andalusia in Spain. The word “sherry” is an anglicized form of the name “Jerez”.

104. Jewish month : NISAN
Nisan is the first month in the Hebrew ecclesiastical calendar.

106. Justice Kagan : ELENA
Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States who replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the fourth female US Supreme Court justice (there have been 108 men!). I hear she is a fan of Jane Austen, and used to reread “Pride and Prejudice” once a year. Not a bad thing to do, I’d say …

108. Periodic table abbr. : AT WT
The atomic weight (at. wt.) of an element is the mass of one atom of the element, relative to the mass of an atom of carbon (which is assumed to have an atomic weight of 12).

109. Sunshine cracker : HI-HO
Sunshine Biscuits was an independent producer of cookies and crackers which produced Hi-Ho crackers in competition to the successful Ritz brand. In 1996, Sunshine was absorbed by the Keebler Company and Hi-Ho Crackers was on the list of brands that was discontinued because of the merger.

114. “O Sole ___” : MIO
“‘O sole mio” is a famous Italian song from Naples, written in 1898. The song’s lyrics are usually sung in the original Neapolitan, as opposed to Italian. The title translates from Neapolitan into “My Sun” (and not into “O, My Sun” as one might expect). It’s a love song of course, sung by a young man declaring that there is a sun brighter than that in the sky, the sun that is his lover’s face. Awww …

115. Brick transporter : HOD
A hod is a 3-sided box on the the end of a long handle used for carrying bricks (and sometimes mortar) at a construction site, usually up and down ladders.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Serving edges : AD INS
6. Husband one’s energy, say : REST UP
12. General servant : FACTOTUM
20. Salle de bain fixture : BIDET
21. Enunciate slowly : INTONE
22. Get to : IRRITATE
23. First U.S. multimillionaire : ASTOR
24. Lawyer who wrote 65-Across : FRANCIS SCOTT KEY
26. Land’s end? : -SCAPE
27. Throw up : LOFT
28. Sound of expiration : AHH!
29. Skiing destination Val d’___ : ISERE
30. Year 24-Across wrote 65-Across : EIGHTEEN FOURTEEN
35. Any knight : SIR
36. Jan. 1 till now : YTD
37. Crayola color akin to fern : SEA GREEN
40. What the music to 65-Across was, originally : BRITISH PUB SONG
47. Some American Indian homes : ADOBES
51. As it happens : LIVE
52. Better to a rapper, worse to a patient : ILLER
53. Herbal Essences shampoo company : CLAIROL
54. Standoffish : ICY
55. Fixed things? : ASSETS
57. James Douglas Muir ___ (TV host’s birth name) : LENO
60. Looking up : ROSY
61. Sun: Sp. : SOL
62. Ancient walkway : STOA
63. Four-time N.B.A. All-Star Pau ___ : GASOL
64. Farm female : SOW
65. This puzzle’s theme, whose first notes are indicated by shaded squares : THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
72. Camus, to Sartre, for many years : AMI
73. Blood-related : HEMIC
74. Sports org. founded in 1906 : NCAA
75. Book jacket staple : BIO
76. It’s bound to be turned : PAGE
78. Beginner for a while? : ERST-
79. Star in the Summer Triangle : ALTAIR
81. “I should ___ die with pity, / To see another thus”: Shak. : E’EN
82. Country whose national currency is the U.S. dollar : ECUADOR
85. French evenings : SOIRS
86. “Essays of ___” : ELIA
87. What the curious may do : PEER IN
88. Performer who gave a memorable rendition of 65-Across in 1991 : WHITNEY HOUSTON
93. Setting of James Clavell’s “Gai-Jin” : YOKOHAMA
95. G.O.P. org. : RNC
96. Gator’s tail? : -ADE
99. Mission that 24-Across was on when he wrote 65-Across : PRISONER EXCHANGE
107. He prophesied the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem : MICAH
110. N.Y.C. subway inits. : IRT
111. Cloth for a man of the cloth? : ROBE
112. “The Tempest” spirit : ARIEL
113. Where 24-Across was inspired to write 65-Across : BALTIMORE HARBOR
117. It handles lettres : POSTE
118. Later : IN A WHILE
119. Best Actor nominee for “Venus,” 2006 : O’TOOLE
120. Vanilla : PLAIN
121. Inked : TATTOOED
122. Symbols of change : DELTAS
123. Gossip : YENTA

Down
1. Demean : ABASE
2. They’re thrown in decathlons : DISCI
3. It may have a pet name : ID TAG
4. Greenhorn : NEOPHYTE
5. Overlapping fugue motifs : STRETTI
6. Long arm : RIFLE
7. “America’s most innovative company” prior to its bankruptcy in 2001 : ENRON
8. Locale for this puzzle’s shaded squares : STAFF
9. Sidekick of TV and film : TONTO
10. Where Michael Jordan played college ball: Abbr. : UNC
11. Louvre pyramid designer : PEI
12. Bit of spawn : FISH EGG
13. Sagittarius, with “the” : ARCHER
14. ___-Magnon : CRO
15. New World monkey : TITI
16. Giant Mel and Pirate Ed : OTTS
17. Film units : TAKES
18. Birth places? : UTERI
19. ___ Wolfsheim, gambler in “The Great Gatsby” : MEYER
25. Old Nick : SATAN
31. MS. managers : EDS
32. Initialism in a Beatles title : USSR
33. Old car company based in Lansing, Mich. : REO
34. Oscar-winning Patricia : NEAL
38. Author LeShan : EDA
39. Wrinkle-free, say : NO-IRON
40. Second-rate : B-LIST
41. Big copier maker : RICOH
42. Penn station? : IVY LEAGUE
43. Their, singularly : HIS OR HER
44. Crowd-___ : PLEASER
45. Last: Abbr. : ULT
46. Wanna-___ : BES
48. High level in karate : BROWN BELT
49. Counterpart of Aurora : EOS
50. Winking, maybe : SLY
53. Money in hand : COLD CASH
55. Italian province or its capital : ASTI
56. “Come ___?” (Italian greeting) : STA
57. Tarry : LAG
58. Immigrant’s subj. : ESL
59. “Stay out” : NO ENTRY
63. Health supplement co. : GNC
64. River of western Germany : SAAR
66. Like mascara in the rain : SMEARY
67. Some natl. leaders : PMS
68. River isle : AIT
69. Political writer Matt : BAI
70. Farm refrain : E-I-E-I-O
71. Farrow of MSNBC : RONAN
76. Oomph : PEP
77. See 79-Down : ACE
79. Get an ___ (77-Down) : A ON
80. Bit of flimflam : LIE
83. God: It. : DIO
84. Peeling potatoes, perhaps : ON KP
85. Title name in a 2000 Eminem hit : STAN
86. Salad green : ESCAROLE
88. Sounded like a fan : WHIRRED
89. Speed : HASTE
90. Texter’s qualification : IMO
91. “The Hobbit” figure : ORC
92. Blue : UNHAPPY
94. Player in orange and black : ORIOLE
96. Scope : AMBIT
97. Princess played by Naomi Watts : DIANA
98. Brilliance : ECLAT
100. Flynn of old film : ERROL
101. Metal worker? : ROBOT
102. Menace named after an African river : EBOLA
103. City whose name was the source of the word “sherry” : XERES
104. Jewish month : NISAN
105. “See?” : GET IT?
106. Justice Kagan : ELENA
108. Periodic table abbr. : AT WT
109. Sunshine cracker : HI-HO
114. “O Sole ___” : MIO
115. Brick transporter : HOD
116. Absorbed : ATE

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