Constructed by: Randolph Ross
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Attachments
Themed clues are “attached” nouns that point to common phrases that start with synonyms of “attached”:
- 20A WILDERAYBURN : SPLICED GENES (Gene Wilder & Gene Rayburn)
- 22A HACIENDADOBE : ATTACHED HOUSES (hacienda & adobe)
- 43A MILITIARMY : COMBINED FORCES (militia & army)
- 48A UTAHAWAII : UNITED STATES (Utah & Hawaii)
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
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Bill’s time: 9m 09s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
7 Deg. for an animator : BFA
The degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is primarily designed for students intent on pursuing a career in the visual or performing arts.
10 Salad veggie : CUKE
Apparently scientists have shown that the inside of a cucumber (“cuke” for short) growing in a field can be up to twenty degrees cooler than the surrounding air. That’s something that was believed by farmers as early as the 1730s, at which time the phrase “cool as a cucumber” was coined.
14 Cite as evidence : ADDUCE
“To adduce” is to cite as an example or as a means of proof.
15 Web browser entry : URL
An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
16 Where “Star Trek” and “Mission: Impossible” originated : ON TV
The original “Star Trek” TV show opened each episode with a speech from Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner:
Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
The “Mission: Impossible” TV show featured the following line close to the start of each episode:
As always, should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
And then the tape self-destructed. Great stuff …
20 WILDERAYBURN : SPLICED GENES (Gene Wilder & Gene Rayburn)
Gene Wilder was an actor noted for his comedic roles. Wilder had a successful collaboration with Mel Brooks on three great films: “The Producers”, “Blazing Saddles” and my favorite, “Young Frankenstein”. For a while, Wilder dated his “Young Frankenstein” co-star Teri Garr, but he was married most famously to “Saturday Night Live” star Gilda Radner.
“Match Game” is a television game show that had many incarnations. The original run was from 1962 until 1969, and it came back in varying formats several times after that. The best-known host of the show was Gene Rayburn. The most recent is Alec Baldwin, starting in 2016.
Recombinant DNA is DNA made under laboratory conditions. The recombination technique (sometimes referred to as “gene splicing”) brings together genetic material from multiple sources. The sources of that genetic material might be from a different part of the same gene, or even from the gene of a different organism. The end result is a new, man-made, genetic combination.
27 “Days of Our Lives” role for more than four decades : MARLENA
Deidre Hall is the actress who played Dr. Marlena Evans on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives” since 1976.
32 She is “wonder”-ful on screen : GAL GADOT
Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress and former Miss Israel. She plays Gisele Yashar in the “Fast & Furious” film franchise, and then began portraying Wonder Woman in superhero movies.
33 Wrapped up, in Paris : FINI
“Fini” is French for “finished”.
36 French bean : TETE
The English word “head” translates into French as “tête”, and into German as “Kopf”.
39 Netanyahu’s predecessor : PERES
Shimon Peres was an Israeli statesman who was born in Poland, in a township that is now part of Belarus. Peres served as President of the State of Israel from 2007 to 2014. Born Szymon Perski, Peres was the oldest head of state in the world while he served as president of Israel. While serving as foreign minister, he represented Israel in the secret negotiations that led to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. For that work, Peres was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
41 Co. that once had a lightning bolt in its logo : RCA
During WWI, the US government actively discouraged the loss of certain technologies to other countries, including allies. The developing wireless technologies were considered to be particularly important by the army and navy. The government prevented the General Electric Company from selling equipment to the British Marconi Company, and instead facilitated the purchase by GE of the American Marconi subsidiary. This purchase led to GE forming the Radio Corporation of America that we know today as RCA.
50 The Beatles and the Monkees : QUARTETS
The Beatles went through quite an evolution of names and band members. The evolution of band names was the Blackjacks, the Quarrymen, Johnny & the Moondogs, Beatals, the Silver Beetles, the Silver Beatles and finally the Beatles.
The Monkees pop group was assembled in 1966 specifically for a planned television series called “The Monkees”. The show aired from 1966 to 1968, and the band continued to perform in concerts until 1970. 20 years after the band was formed, there was a revival in interest for both the show and the band’s music, so the Monkees got together for several reunion tours. The lead singer of the group was Englishman Davy Jones, who passed away in February 2012.
53 Rowdy concertgoer, maybe : MOSHER
Moshing (also “slam dancing”) is the pushing and shoving that takes place in the audience at a concert (usually a punk or heavy metal concert). The area directly in front of the stage is known as the mosh pit. When a performer does a “stage dive”, it is into (or I suppose “onto”) the mosh pit. It doesn’t sound like fun to me. Injuries are commonplace in the mosh pit, and deaths are not unknown.
57 Socialist Eugene who ran for president five times : DEBS
Eugene V. Debs was an American union leader who ran as a candidate for US President in 5 elections from 1900 through 1920. Debs was a dedicated socialist and ran as a member of the Social Democratic Party, and later the Socialist Party of America.
58 K’ung Fu-___ (Confucius) : TSE
The sayings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (anglicized from “K’ung Fu-Tse”) are collected in a work called “The Analects” or “Linyu”. It wasn’t Confucius who wrote down his thoughts though, but rather his pupils, some 40 or so years after his death in 479 BC.
59 Big name in small planes : CESSNA
The Cessna Aircraft manufacturing company was founded in 1911 by Clyde Cessna, a farmer from Kansas. Cessna is headquartered in Wichita and today has over 8,000 employees.
Down
2 Parkinson’s treatment : L-DOPA
The name of the drug L-3,4-DihydrOxyPhenylAlanine can be shortened, thankfully, to L-DOPA. Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson won a Nobel Prize for showing that L-DOPA could be used to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s Syndrome.
4 Biblical measure : CUBIT
The ancient unit of length called a cubit was chosen as the length of the forearm. In some cultures a cubit was divided into 7 palms, the width of the hand excluding the thumb.
5 The ends of the earth : ICE CAPS
The polar ice cap at the north of our planet is floating pack ice in the Arctic Ocean. The southern polar ice cap is an ice sheet that covers the landmass known as Antarctica. About 70% of all the freshwater on Earth is held in the southern polar ice cap.
9 Co-star of Bob Denver on “Gilligan’s Island” : ALAN HALE
Alan Hale, Jr. was an actor most famous for playing the Skipper on the sixties sitcom “Gilligan’s Island”. That said, I well remember watching Hale playing the title role in the children’s Western series “Casey Jones”.
The iconic sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” ran for only three seasons, although that added up to a total of 98 episodes. The show is about a small band of castaways who are trying to escape their island and return to Hawaii. The last episode originally aired in 1967. The castaways did eventually get off the island in a 1978 TV movie called “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island”, but ended up back on the island at the end of the film.
10 Place to get a passport : CONSULATE
As a result of a League of Nations conference in 1920, passports are usually written in French and one other language. French was specified back then as it was deemed the language of diplomacy. US passports use French and English, given that English is the nation’s de facto national language. Spanish was added as a language for US passports in the late nineties in recognition of Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico.
11 El Diario article : UNO
“El Diario” is a common name for a newspaper in Spanish-speaking countries. The name translates into English as “The Daily”.
12 Gold standards: Abbr. : KTS
A karat (also “carat”, the spelling outside of North America) is a measure of the purity of gold alloys, with 24-karat representing pure gold.
13 “Killing ___” (acclaimed BBC America series) : EVE
“Killing Eve” is a spy thriller series about an MI5 agent on the trail of a female assassin. The agent is played by Canadian actress Sandra Oh, and the assassin by English actress Jodie Comer. The storyline comes from a series of novellas titles “Codename Villanelle” by British author Luke Jennings.
19 Physicist Ohm : GEORG
The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.
21 Positions in the A.L. but not the N.L. : DHS
Baseball’s American League (AL) allows a designated hitter (DH) in each team’s lineup, whereas the National League (NL) does not.
23 Exodus commemoration : SEDER
The Passover Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday, celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. One of the traditions at the meal is that the youngest child at the table asks “The Four Questions”, all relating to why this night is different from all other nights in the year:
- Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread or matzoh, but on this night we eat only matzoh?
- Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs, but on this night we eat only bitter herbs?
- Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip our herbs even once, but on this night we dip them twice?
- Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we eat in a reclining position?
The Book of Exodus is the second book in the Bible, and deals with Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. The name “Exodus” comes from the Greek “exodos” meaning “departure”.
25 Stuffs : SATES
“Sate” is a variant of the older word “satiate”. Both terms can mean either to satisfy an appetite fully, or to eat to excess.
28 Company associated with quacks? : AFLAC
In 1999, Aflac (American Family Life Assurance Company) was huge in the world of insurance but it wasn’t a household name, so a New York advertising agency was given the task of making the Aflac brand more memorable. One of the agency’s art directors, while walking around Central Park one lunchtime, heard a duck quacking and in his mind linked it with “Aflac”, and that duck has been “Aflacking” ever since …
29 1980s Pontiac sports car : FIERO
General Motors produced the two-seater Pontiac Fiero sports car from 1984 to 1988. “Fiero” means “proud” in Italian and “wild, fierce, ferocious” in Spanish.
31 Elvis had big ones : SIDEBURNS
Ambrose Burnside was a Union Army general during the Civil War, and a successful businessman. When the National Rifle Association was formed in 1871, Burnside was chosen as the organization’s first president. Burnside was also noted for the very lush growth of hair on his face and the distinctive style in which he cut it. We now know that style of cut as “sideburns”, a term derived from the Burnside name. When sideburns connect with the mustache, they might be termed “mutton chops”, a reference to their similarity in shape to the cut of meat.
34 Like the worst dad joke : CORNIEST
I tell dad jokes all the time, just to annoy the kids …
- I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down!
- If you see a robbery at an Apple Store does that make you an iWitness?
- A termite walks into a bar and asks, “Is the bar tender here?”
- Two guys walk into a bar, the third one ducks.
- What’s the best part about living in Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.
41 Outdated postal abbr. : RFD
Rural Free Delivery (RFD) was started in the US in 1891. Prior to RFD, rural Americans had to travel to the nearest post office to pick up their mail.
44 Italy’s Villa ___ : D’ESTE
The Villa d’Este is a beautiful Renaissance villa situated close to Tivoli near Rome, Italy. It was built by Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, the son of Alfonso I d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia.
49 Mlle. : France :: ___ : Spain : SRTA
“Señorita” (Srta.) is Spanish, and “Mademoiselle” (Mlle.) is French, for “Miss”.
50 Logical conclusion : QED
The initialism “QED” is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. QED stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.
52 P.D. alert : APB
An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.
Read on, or …
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Not having so much as a ripple : PLACID
7 Deg. for an animator : BFA
10 Salad veggie : CUKE
14 Cite as evidence : ADDUCE
15 Web browser entry : URL
16 Where “Star Trek” and “Mission: Impossible” originated : ON TV
17 “Sure thing!” : YOU BET!
18 Identify, as a problem : DIAGNOSE
20 WILDERAYBURN : SPLICED GENES (Gene Wilder & Gene Rayburn)
22 HACIENDADOBE : ATTACHED HOUSES (hacienda & adobe)
26 N.B.A. stat: Abbr. : PTS
27 “Days of Our Lives” role for more than four decades : MARLENA
28 Something that’s kicked up or raised : A FUSS
32 She is “wonder”-ful on screen : GAL GADOT
33 Wrapped up, in Paris : FINI
34 Grimalkin : CRONE
36 French bean : TETE
37 Highway speedster : LEAD FOOT
39 Netanyahu’s predecessor : PERES
40 Old debts : ARREARS
41 Co. that once had a lightning bolt in its logo : RCA
43 MILITIARMY : COMBINED FORCES (militia & army)
48 UTAHAWAII : UNITED STATES (Utah & Hawaii)
50 The Beatles and the Monkees : QUARTETS
53 Rowdy concertgoer, maybe : MOSHER
54 Locker room shower? : ESPN
55 Band performance : SET
56 Enthused about something : INTO IT
57 Socialist Eugene who ran for president five times : DEBS
58 K’ung Fu-___ (Confucius) : TSE
59 Big name in small planes : CESSNA
Down
1 Is worthwhile : PAYS
2 Parkinson’s treatment : L-DOPA
3 Ticket category : ADULT
4 Biblical measure : CUBIT
5 The ends of the earth : ICE CAPS
6 Pick up : DETECT
7 Move a little bit : BUDGE
8 Thomas with the 2005 best seller “The World Is Flat” : FRIEDMAN
9 Co-star of Bob Denver on “Gilligan’s Island” : ALAN HALE
10 Place to get a passport : CONSULATE
11 El Diario article : UNO
12 Gold standards: Abbr. : KTS
13 “Killing ___” (acclaimed BBC America series) : EVE
19 Physicist Ohm : GEORG
21 Positions in the A.L. but not the N.L. : DHS
23 Exodus commemoration : SEDER
24 Cybermemo : E-NOTE
25 Stuffs : SATES
28 Company associated with quacks? : AFLAC
29 1980s Pontiac sports car : FIERO
30 Deprive of heat? : UNARM
31 Elvis had big ones : SIDEBURNS
32 Contracted : GOT
34 Like the worst dad joke : CORNIEST
35 Floral cake decorations : ROSETTES
38 Pass out : FAINT
39 Beginning of a series : PART ONE
41 Outdated postal abbr. : RFD
42 “Far out, man!” : COSMIC
44 Italy’s Villa ___ : D’ESTE
45 Play groups : CASTS
46 Community spirit : ETHOS
47 Greet and seat : SEE IN
49 Mlle. : France :: ___ : Spain : SRTA
50 Logical conclusion : QED
51 “It’s no ___” : USE
52 P.D. alert : APB
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