Tag: Damn fine crossword clue

Bill’s time: 14m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9A Longtime airer of “The Young and the Restless” : CBS

“The Young and the Restless” is a soap opera that has been on the air since 1973. It is a sister show to the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful”, and so the two series share some actors and characters.

16A Woodard with multiple Emmys : ALFRE

Alfre Woodard is an actress from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the 1983 film “Cross Creek”. Off the stage and screen, Woodard is very active in the Democratic Party.

17A Author and illustrator of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” : ERIC CARLE

Eric Carle was a very successful children’s author and book illustrator, with over 100 million of his books sold around the world. Carle’s most famous title is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, and it alone has sold 30 million copies.

27A Load from the dock : STEEVE

A stevedore, or longshoreman, is someone employed in the loading and unloading of ships at a port. The word “stevedore” comes from the Spanish “estibador”, meaning “one who loads cargo”, with the verb “to steeve” meaning to load cargo in a hold. The word “longshoreman” is simply from a man who works “alongshore”.

28A University of California campus site : DAVIS

The University of California, Davis (UCD) is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. I have a particular affection for UCD for a couple of reasons. My younger son is a graduate of Davis and, in a sense, so am I. I graduated from the other UCD: University College Dublin in Ireland …

29A Locals call it Mongibello (“the mountain of mountains”) : ETNA

Mount Etna on the island of Sicily is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy, and indeed the largest of all active volcanoes in Europe. Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-gauge railway, and two ski resorts. It is sometimes referred to as “Mongibello” in Italian, and as “Mungibeddu” (sometimes “Muncibeddu”) in Sicilian. The English name “Etna” comes from the Greek “aitho” meaning “I burn”.

30A O. Henry’s “The Gift of the ___” : MAGI

O. Henry’s short story called “The Gift of the Magi” was first published in 1905. It tells of a relatively poor, newly-married couple who want to buy each other a gift for Christmas. The wife’s pride and joy is her long brown hair, while the husband’s most treasured possession is his grandfather’s gold pocket watch. The wife sells her hair to buy her gift, and the husband sells his watch to buy his gift for his spouse. The wife is given a set of combs, hair accessories that are useless now that her hair is short. The husband gets a platinum fob chain for the watch that he no longer owns.

31A Braided rope made of rawhide : RIATA

A riata is a lariat or a lasso. “Riata” comes from “reata”, the Spanish word for “lasso”.

36A They’re taken off for boudoir photos : LENS CAPS

A boudoir is a woman’s private bedroom, or her private room adjoining the bedroom. The etymology of “boudoir” is pretty sexist, I think, as the term comes from the French verb “bouder” meaning “to pout, sulk”. A boudoir is a place for women to go sulk and pout … yikes!

39A Greek dish made with an abundance of spinach : SPANAKOPITA

Spanakopita is a savory pastry from Greece. The term “spanakopita” translates from Greek as “spinach pie”. The pie’s filling includes feta cheese, onions and egg, along with the spinach.

42A La ___ Tar Pits : BREA

The La Brea Tar Pits, in Hancock Park in Los Angeles, represent one of the world’s richest fossil sites from the Ice Age. Natural asphalt has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years, trapping countless animals, from mammoths and saber-toothed cats to insects and plants, providing an unparalleled record of prehistoric life. The site continues to be an active paleontological excavation.

48A Pawn-capturing move : EN PASSANT

“En passant” is a French term that means “in passing”, and describes a special pawn capture in chess. To make an en passant capture, the capturing pawn moves to the square that the enemy pawn passed over, as if the enemy pawn had only moved one square. The enemy pawn is removed from the board. The en passant rule ensures that a pawn cannot use its two-square move to safely skip past an enemy pawn.

52A Capone’s foe : NESS

Eliot Ness was the Treasury agent charged with the task of bringing down the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. When Ness took on the job in 1930, Chicago law-enforcement agents were renowned for being corrupt, for being on the take. Ness handpicked 50 prohibition agents who he thought he could rely on, later reducing the group to a cadre of 15 and ultimately just 11 trusted men. That group of 11 earned the nickname “The Untouchables”, the agents who couldn’t be bought.

Chicago gangster Al Capone was eventually jailed for tax evasion. He was given a record 11-year sentence in federal prison, of which he served 8 years. He left prison suffering from dementia caused by late-stage syphilis. Capone suffered through 7-8 sickly years before passing away in 1947.

Down

5D Investment bond in W.W. II : SERIES E

Series E Savings Bonds were introduced in 1941, just before the start of WWII, as “defense bonds”. After the attack on Pearl Harbor they became known as “war bonds”. The first Series E bond was sold to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

8D Forbes competitor : INC

“Forbes” is a business magazine that has been published since 1917, when it was founded by B. C. Forbes and Walter Drey. The full name of the original publication was “Forbes: Devoted to Doers and Doings”. “Forbes” is noted for publishing lists of the biggest and richest in the world of business. In 2014, “Forbes” listed the 2000 largest public companies in the world and showed for the first time that the three biggest companies are based in China.

13D Napkins, to Brits : SERVIETTES

Our word “napkin” dates back to the 1300s, when it had the same meaning as today. The term comes from the old French word “nape” meaning “tablecloth” and the Middle English suffix “-kin” meaning “little”. So, a napkin is a little tablecloth.

15D Repeated greeting in the Key & Peele sketch “Obama Meet & Greet” : DAP

The dap is a form of handshake, and often a complicated and showy routine of fist bumps, slaps and shakes. Some say that “dap” is an acronym standing for “Dignity And Pride”.

The Comedy Central sketch show “Key & Peele” stars comics Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. The duo also wrote an action comedy film called “Keanu” that was released in 2016. The title character is a cat belonging to the boss of a drug cartel. Haven’t seen it …

19D Court name : SERENA

Serena Williams is the younger of the two Williams sisters playing professional tennis. Serena has won more prize money in her career than any other female athlete.

26D Founder of Argentina’s first female-led political party, familiarly : EVITA PERON

Eva Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón who was in office from 1946 to 1955. The Argentine First Lady was known affectionately by the people as “Evita”, the Spanish language diminutive of “Eva”. “Evita” is also the title of a tremendously successful musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice that is based on the life of Eva Perón.

30D Tower with daily calls to prayer : MINARET

A minaret is an architectural feature of Islamic mosques, a tall tower with an onion-shaped crown that is used for the call to prayer. The world’s oldest minaret is part of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, having been completed in 836 CE. The term “minaret” comes from the Arabic for “lighthouse”.

34D Perfect example : EPITOME

The more common meaning of “epitome” is “perfect example of a group, quality, type”. An epitome is also an abstract or summary of a book or article.

46D For a medium, it’s easy! : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)