Tag: Film without much wardrobe informally crossword clue

Bill’s time: 10m 26s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Purchase of ice cream or cream ale : PINT

A cream ale is an American beer that is similar to a pale lager, even though it truly is a top-fermented ale.

5A Cognac label letters : VSOP

Brandy is a spirit distilled from wine. The term “brandy” ultimately comes from the Dutch “gebrande wijn” meaning “burnt wine”. The length of this aging of the spirit defines the various grades of brandy:

• VS: Very Special … at least 2 years storage
• VSOP: Very Special (or Superior) Old Pale … at least 4 years storage
• XO: Extra Old … at least 10 years

Cognac is a famous variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac in the very west of France. To be called “Cognac”, the brandy must be distilled twice in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in very specific French oak barrels.

14A Goddess depicted with cow’s horns : ISIS

Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children. She was the personification of the pharaoh’s power. The name “Isis” translates as “throne”, and she is usually depicted with a headdress shaped like a throne.

16A Film without much wardrobe, informally : PORNO

The word “pornography” comes from the Greek “pornographos” meaning “writing of prostitutes”.

20A Left in : STETTED

“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.

22A Ingredient in a zombie : RUM

A zombie is an unusually strong cocktail, with a deceptively mild taste. It was invented in the late thirties by Donn Beach, owner of the Don the Beachcomber restaurant in Hollywood. Apparently Beach created the drink for a friend who consumed three of them right before taking a flight from L.A. to San Francisco. When he returned, he complained that the drinks had “turned him into a zombie” for the trip, giving the drink its name. If you dare, one recipe is:

• 1 part white rum
• 1 part golden rum
• 1 part dark rum
• 1 part apricot brandy
• 1 part papaya juice
• 1/2 part 151-proof rum
• 1 dash of grenadine

26A Org. that watches television : FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been around since 1934, when it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.

38A Flabbergasted feeling : AWE

Apparently, there was a 1772 magazine article that described “flabbergasted” as a word that was in vogue at the time. That article also stated that the origin of the term was uncertain. Someone who is flabbergasted is utterly astonished. Like me, most of the time …

49A Activist who was Time’s 1963 Man of the Year, familiarly : MLK

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was only 35 years old when he won the Nobel Peace Prize, making him the youngest person to be so honored up to that time. King was given the award for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination using non-violent means. The following year he was awarded the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish Community.

“Time” magazine started naming a “Man of the Year” in 1927, only changing the concept to “Person of the Year” in 1999. Prior to 1999, the magazine did recognize four females as “Woman of the Year”: Wallis Simpson (1936), Soong May-ling a.k.a. Madame Chiang Kai-shek (1937), Queen Elizabeth II (1952) and Corazon Aquino (1986). “Time” named Albert Einstein as Person of the Century in 1999, with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi as runners-up.

51A Seth of Apple TV’s “Platonic” : ROGEN

Seth Rogen is a Canadian comedian who got a lot of credit for his supporting role in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”. That led to him being cast as the lead in the 2007 film “Knocked Up”. Rogen also co-directed and co-starred in “The Interview”, a movie that created a huge ruckus in the North Korean regime.

53A Rescue squad pro : EMT

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

54A Country whose seven-letter name can be spelled using only one-point Scrabble tiles : ESTONIA

Estonia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and is located in Northern Europe on the Baltic Sea due south of Finland. Estonia has been overrun and ruled by various empires over the centuries. The country did enjoy a few years of freedom at the beginning of the 20th century after a war of independence against the Russian Empire. However, Estonia was occupied again during WWII, first by the Russians and then by the Germans, and then reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. Estonia has flourished as an independent country again since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

61A Lead-in to -drome : AERO-

An aerodrome is a facility where aircraft take off and land. It could be a small airstrip, a large commercial airport or even a military airbase. The term “aerodrome” is used quite often in the UK, but rarely here in the US.

64A ___ Mix : MEOW

We might know Meow Mix cat food because of its advertising jingle that was meowed out by a cat, with subtitles below.

Down

1D Tools requiring two people : PIT SAWS

A whipsaw (also “pit saw”) is a two-man saw that was originally designed for use in a saw pit. A large log would be placed on top of the pit. The “pit-man” would work under the log, and the “top-man” above it. The sawing action was in the vertical, with the blade cutting on the downstroke.

5D Sotto ___ : VOCE

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

6D Sporting flats, say : SHOD

Flats are shoes that are not high-heeled.

7D Omega, in physics : OHM

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.

9D Early ancestor : APE-MAN

The term “missing link” is usually applied to the concept that there existed some form of animal that is a hybrid between apes and humans. The idea that there was some “ape-man” or “missing lilnk” is discounted these days by the scientific community, who now favor the theory of evolution.

11D With 42-Down, they tell you when to stop and go … as seen in this puzzle’s theme : TRAFFIC …
42D See 11-Down : … SIGNALS

The first traffic lights date back to 1868 when they were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London. They resembled the signals already in use for trains, with semaphore arms and red and green gas lamps for nighttime use. That first system was operated manually, by a policeman at the base. Sadly, one police officer was killed just one year after the light’s installation, when the gas system exploded.

13D Trig ratio : COSEC

The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio: a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are cosecant, secant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent.

25D Buffet table item : URN

Our word “buffet” comes from the French “bufet” meaning “bench, sideboard”. So, a buffet is a meal served from a “bufet”.

28D ___ de plume : NOM

“Nom de plume” translates from French simply as “pen name”.

34D Mal de ___ : MER

Here are some French terms for some unpleasant conditions:

• Mal de tête (headache)
• Mal de mer (seasickness)
• Mal de pays (homesickness)

36D Channel with the longtime slogan “We Know Drama” : TNT

“TNT” stands for Turner Network Television. The TNT cable channel made a big splash in the eighties when it started to broadcast old MGM movies that had been “colorized”, not something that was a big hit with the public. In recent years, the TNT programming lineup is touted with the tagline “We Know Drama”.

44D The New York Islanders in the early 1980s, e.g. : DYNASTY

The New York Islanders are an NHL team, one of three such franchises in the New York City area (along with the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers). When the team was founded in 1972, it was designated as a “Long Island franchise”, and it was expected to be named the Long Island Ducks, but “New York Islanders” it was to be.

46D Early pop music’s ___ Brothers : EVERLY

The Everly Brothers were noted for their steel guitar sound, and their great use of harmony. Their harmony onstage wasn’t reflected off the stage though. In 1973 the brothers decided to pursue separate careers and scheduled a farewell performance attended by many fans, family and stalwarts from the music industry. Don Everly came on stage too drunk to perform, and eventually brother Phil just stormed off into the wings, smashing his guitar as he left. The boys didn’t talk to each other for ten years after that incident. Phil Everly passed away in January 2014.

48D Pestering type : NOODGE

“To noodge” is a slang verb meaning “to nag”. It comes into English from the Yiddish word “nudyen” meaning “to bore, be tedious”.

49D Minor snafu : MIX-UP

“SNAFU” is an acronym standing for “situation normal: all fouled up” (well, that’s the polite version!). As one might perhaps imagine, the term developed in the US Army, during WWII.

54D Mark’s successor : EURO

One of the currencies replaced by the euro was Germany’s Deutsche Mark (known as “deutschmark” in English).

58D French word between two surnames : NEE

“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”. The term “née” is mainly used in English when referring to a married woman’s birth name, assuming that she has adopted her husband’s name, e.g. Michelle Obama née Robinson, Melania Trump née Knavs, and Jill Biden née Jacobs.