Tag: Ancient creepy-crawlies crossword clue

Bill’s time: 11m 31s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10A A double might get you some, for short : RBIS

That would be baseball.

16A Actress Chaplin : OONA

Oona Chaplin is an actress from Madrid in Spain. Chaplin is getting a lot of airtime these days as she plays Talisa Maegyr on HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. Oona is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and is named for her maternal grandmother Oona O’Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

17A Ancient creepy-crawlies : TRILOBITES

Trilobites were marine arthropods (invertebrates with an exoskeleton) that existed across most oceans from about 500 until 250 million years ago. Because of their exoskeletons, and because of their large population size, trilobite fossils are found relatively often. And some trilobites were quite large, measuring over 18 inches in length and weighing almost ten pounds.

18A It “smiles on the frowning night,” in “Romeo and Juliet” : MORN

William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is all about the love between the two title characters, which is forbidden as the pair come from two families who are sworn enemies. Early in the play, Romeo (a Montague) sneaks into a masquerade ball being held by the Capulets in the hope of meeting a Capulet girl named Rosaline. Instead, he meets and falls for Juliet, also a Capulet. Tragedy ensues …

19A ___ milk : OAT

Oat milk is one of the alternatives to cow’s milk, and is lactose free. I’m a huge fan …

20A ___ Seymour, third wife of King Henry VIII : JANE

Jane Seymour was the third wife of Henry VIII, and queen of England from 1536 until her death the following year. She attracted the interest of the king while he was still married to Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. The pair were married just one day after Anne’s execution, having been found guilty of adultery, incest and treason. Seymour became pregnant, and gave birth to the future King Edward VI. However, she never recovered from the strain of a long birth that lasted three days and two nights. She was dead within two weeks. Seymour was the only one of Henry’s six wives to receive a queen’s funeral, and was the only wife who was buried alongside him in Windsor Castle.

24A “Moulin Rouge” co-star, 1952 : GABOR

Zsa Zsa Gabor was a Hungarian-American actress, born in Budapest as Sári Gábor (the older sister of the actress Eva). Zsa Zsa Gabor was married a whopping nine times, including a 5-year stint with Conrad Hilton and another 5 years with the actor George Sanders. One of Gabor’s famous quips was that she was always a good housekeeper, as after every divorce she kept the house!

“Moulin Rouge” is a 1952 film that tells the story of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Directed by John Huston, the movie stars José Ferrer as the artist and Jane Avril as a can-can dancer who becomes a subject for some of his artworks.

31A In tandem : JOINED

Back in the mid- to late-1700s, a tandem was a horse-drawn carriage, one with the two horses harnessed one behind the other. A century later, we applied the term “tandem” to a bicycle with two seats, and the two riders one behind the other.

34A Biker role in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” : EDDIE

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has to have the most devout cult-following of any movie ever made. Famously, fans attending a midnight show of the film will dress up in outrageous costumes used in the film, and bring props with them. The props bear little relation to the storyline, but a tradition of using certain props in a particular way has been established. For example, at one point a character proposes a toast, and the audience throws toast around the theater. Go figure …

36A Pull-up target, for short : LAT

The muscles known as the “lats” are the “latissimi dorsi”, and are the broadest muscles in the back. “Latissimus” is Latin for “broadest”, and “dorsum” is Latin for “back”.

39A Nutmeg-flavored quaff, informally : NOG

It’s not really clear where the term “nog” (as in “eggnog”) comes from although it might derive from the word “noggin”, which was originally a small wooden cup that was long associated with alcoholic drinks.

The fruit of the nutmeg tree yields two very different spices. What we call “nutmeg” comes from the seed of the tree. “Mace” is the dried covering of the seed.

“Quaff” is both a verb and a noun. One “quaffs” (takes a hearty drink) of a “quaff” (a hearty drink).

43A The “A” in STEAM : ARTS

The acronym “STEM” stands for the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. An alternative acronym with a similar meaning is MINT, standing for mathematics, information sciences, natural sciences and technology. The acronym STEAM adds (liberal) arts to the STEM curriculum.

44A “I, personally, wouldn’t boast about that” : WEIRD FLEX, BUT OK

“Weird flex, but OK” is Internet slang. “To flex” (as in “flex one’s muscles”) means “to boast”, and the phrase is used in response to someone boasting about something odd. It’s a bit of a put down, telling the boaster, “that’s not appropriate”.

48A Figs. on a 4-point scale : GPAS

Grade point average (GPA)

49A Tennis star Stephens who won the 2017 U.S. Open : SLOANE

Sloane Stephens is an American tennis player and former US Open champion. Stephens has a great sporting pedigree. Her mother is regarded as the greatest swimmer in the history of Boston University, and her father was a Pro Bowl player for the New England Patriots.

52A A.L. East team, on scoreboards : BOS

The Boston Red Sox are one of the most successful Major League Baseball teams and so command a large attendance, but only when on the road. The relatively small capacity of Boston’s Fenway Park, the team’s home since 1912, has dictated that every game the Red Sox have played there has been a sell-out from May of 2003 to April 2013. I had the pleasure of touring Fenway Park some years ago. It’s quite a place …

55A Car whose name means “listen” in Latin : AUDI

The Audi name has an interesting history. The Horch company was founded by August Horch in 1909. Early in the life of the new company, Horch was forced out of his own business. He set up a new enterprise and continued to use his own name as a brand. The old company sued him for using the Horch name so a meeting was held to choose something new. Horch’s young son was studying Latin in the room where the meeting was taking place. He pointed out that “horch” was German for “hear” and he suggested “Audi” as a replacement, the Latin for “listen”.

56A Ordered clubs, for example : ROYAL FLUSH

The poker hand called a royal flush is the highest-ranking hand possible. It consists of a run of 10, jack, queen, king and ace, with all in the same suit.

62A Editor’s marking : STET

“Stet” is a Latin word meaning “let it stand”. In editorial work, the typesetter is instructed to disregard any change previously marked by writing the word “stet” and then underscoring that change with a line of dots or dashes.

63A According to experiments, they can’t “sleep” in space : YO-YOS

A basic yo-yo trick is to make it “go to sleep”. The idea is to get the yo-yo spinning at the bottom of the extended string, then give it a little jerk so that the yo-yo jumps up the string into the hand.

Down

1D Lead-in to stratus or cumulus : ALTO-

Stratus (plural “strati”) clouds are very common, and as they are wider than they are tall and flat along the bottom, we might just see them as haze in a featureless sky above us. Stratus clouds are basically the same as fog, but some distance above the ground. Indeed, many stratus clouds are formed when morning fog lifts into the air as the ground heats up.

Altocumulus clouds are globular clouds seen in layers at medium altitudes. The name comes from the Latin “altus” meaning “high”, and “cumulus” meaning “heaped”.

2D ___ mater (brain protector) : DURA

The three membranes that envelop the brain and spinal cord are referred to as the meninges. From the inside to the outside, these membranes are known as:

• the pia mater (“tender mother” in Latin)
• the arachnoid mater (“spider-like mother”)
• the dura mater (“tough mother”)

5D Memorial Coliseum athlete : TROJAN

The USC Trojans football team plays its home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum is a very historic venue, having hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984. It is slated to do so again in 2028, which will make it the first stadium in the world to have hosted the Summer Games three times.

8D Fin : ABE

The US five-dollar bill is often called an “Abe”, as President Abraham Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a “fin”, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.

9D Develop over time : GESTATE

The normal gestation period for humans is 280 days, a little over 9 months. The gestation period can be a little shorter, or longer. Back in 1945, a pregnancy was confirmed at 375 days, which is just over 12 months.

27D A little of this, a little of that : HODGEPODGE

“Hochepot” is an Old French word for stew or soup, and this gave rise to an Anglo-French legal term for a collection of property that was gathered prior to being divided up. This became our “hodgepodge” in the early 1400s.

29D Lower than, on a score : SOTTO

“Sotto voce” literally means “under the voice” in Italian, and describes the deliberate lowering of one’s voice for emphasis.

35D Zac of “The Iron Claw” : EFRON

Zac Efron is an actor from San Luis Obispo, California. Apparently, Efron is a heartthrob to “tweenyboppers”. His big break came with the hit Disney movie “High School Musical”.

“The Iron Claw” is a biographical sports drama film that tells the tragic story of the Von Erich wrestling family, Fritz Von Erich and his six sons. The firstborn son died aged 6 in an accidental drowning. The other five sons followed their father’s career, and became professional wrestlers. Four of the five wrestlers also predeceased their father, one dying from enteritis, and three commiting suicide.

38D Pulitzer-winning graphic novel by Art Spiegelman : MAUS

“Maus” is a graphic novel published in 1991, although it appeared in serial form from 1980 to 1991. Written and drawn by cartoonist Art Spiegelman, “Maus” became the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer, doing so in 1992.

50D Author Jorge ___ Borges : LUIS

Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer and poet from Buenos Aires. By the time Borges was in his early thirties, he was published many times. However, he had not achieved sufficient success to support himself as a writer, and so started a career as a public lecturer. Around this time, Borges garnered more attention through his speaking, but also started to lose his sight. He was to become completely blind in his late fifties. It has been suggested that this progressive blindness gave him a particularly unique writing style, one that was to bring him a lot of celebrity and respect. One of Borges’ more famous quotations is, “I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library”.

53D Word in an Italian veal dish : OSSO

“Osso” is the Italian word for bone, as in the name of the dish “osso buco” (bone with a hole), which features braised veal shanks.

54D “___ the Man” (2006 film inspired by “Twelfth Night”) : SHE’S

“She’s the Man” is a 2006 romantic comedy that is based on the Shakespearean play “Twelfth Night”. The central character in the movie is a teenage girl named Viola who goes to her brother’s school disguised as a boy, in order to play soccer.

William Shakespeare wrote his comedy “Twelfth Night” as a Christmas entertainment (Twelfth Night being the end of the Christmas season). The play’s protagonist is a young woman named Viola. The plot calls for Viola to dress as a eunuch named Cesario who goes into the service of Duke Orsino. Orsino has Cesario go to Duchess Olivia to express his love for her. But Olivia falls for Cesario, Cesario (Viola) falls for Orsino, and hilarity ensues …

58D John : LOO

It has been suggested that the British term “loo”, meaning “toilet”, comes from “Waterloo” (water closet … water-loo), but no one seems to know for sure. Another suggestion is that the term comes from the card game of “lanterloo”, in which the pot was called the loo!

The use of “john” as a slang term for a toilet is peculiar to North America. “John” probably comes from the older slang term of “jack” or “jakes” that had been around since the 16th century. In Ireland, in less polite moments, we still refer to a toilet as “the jacks”.