Tag: Following the leader too closely say crossword clue

Bill’s time: 14m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Rod ___, 1977 A.L. M.V.P. with the Twins : CAREW

Rod Carew is a former Major League Baseball player from Panama. Actually, Carew is a “Zonian”, meaning that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a political entity that existed for decades from 1903.

17A Geological period : EPOCH

Geologic time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

• supereon
• eon (also “aeon”)
• era
• period
• epoch
• age

28A Youngest congressional appointees : SENATE PAGES

US Senate Pages are 16- and 17-year-old high-school juniors who get to watch the political action up close in Washington, while doing the “gofer” jobs needed by the Senators and permanent staff. There are 30 Pages during the school year, 16 appointed by the majority party, and 14 by the minority. The list of former Senate Pages includes Amy Carter (daughter of the President), and Chris Dodd (who became a Senator).

35A “Dog Day Afternoon” director : LUMET

As a movie director, Sidney Lumet had a great string of celebrated films to his name including “12 Angry Men”, “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Network” and “The Verdict”. Although nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for each of these films, he never won an individual Oscar. However, the Academy gave Lumet the recognition he deserved in 2005 by presenting him with an Honorary Award.

“Dog Day Afternoon” is a crime film released in 1975. The movie was inspired by a real life incident, a robbery at a bank in Brooklyn, New York by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. Al Pacino and John Cazale played the robbers in the film, with the names changed to Sonny Wortzik and Sal Naturile.

54A Saturate : IMBUE

To imbue is to pervade, to soak in. “Imbue” has the same etymological roots as our word “imbibe”.

Down

3D Like a person who might prefer platonic relationships : AROMANTIC

Someone described as aromantic (“aro”, for short) experiences little or no romantic attraction. The opposite of aromanticism is alloromanticism.

The Greek philosopher Plato wrote a philosophical treatise on the nature of love called “Symposium”. “Symposium” is the source of the contemporary phrase “Platonic love”.

6D Ijeoma ___, “Be a Revolution” author : OLUO

Author Ijeoma Oluo is known for her writings about racism, misogyny, and social justice. Three of her more famous titles are:

1. “The Badass Feminist Coloring Book” (2015)
2. “So You Want to Talk about Race” (2018)
3. “Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America”

8D 90° from norte : ESTE

The cardinal directions in Spanish are “norte” (north), “este” (east), “sur” (south) and “oeste” (west).

24D One might necessitate an override : VETO

The verb “veto” comes directly from Latin and means “I forbid”. The term was used by tribunes of ancient Rome to indicate that they opposed measures passed by the Senate.

25D Helen Mirren and Emma Thompson, for two : DAMES

Helen Mirren, one of my favorite English actresses, has played several different queens on film and television. She played Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 film “The Queen”, the title role in the TV drama “Elizabeth I”, and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of the title character in the 1994 film “The Madness of King George”. Mirren won the “Triple Crown of Acting” for playing:

• Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen” (winning Best Actress Oscar)
• Queen Elizabeth II in “The Audience” (winning Best Actress in a Play Tony)
• Detective Jane Tennison in “Prime Suspect” (winning Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy)

Emma Thompson is one of my favorite English actresses, and someone who has appeared in many of my favorite films. She probably first came to attention in the US when she won an Oscar for her role in “Howards End”, which she followed up with “Remains of the Day” and “In the Name of the Father”. Perhaps my favorite production of hers is her own adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility”, which won her an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and and Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Thompson went to Cambridge University and was good friends with a host of successful British actors and entertainers, including her ex-boyfriend Hugh Laurie who is famous in the US for playing the title role in television’s “House”.

26D Storytelling device that revises previously established facts, informally : RETCON

Authors will often use a device called “retroactive continuity” (retcon) to add new information to facts that have already been established in the narrative.

43D Big name in late night : KIMMEL

Jimmy Kimmel is the host of the late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Kimmel also co-hosted “The Man Show” and my personal favorite, “Win Ben Stein’s Money”. Kimmel appeared on the PBS show “Finding Your Roots” in 2020, when he discovered that he was a cousin of Martha Stewart!

44D Mell Lazarus comic strip that ran for 46 years : MOMMA

Mell Lazarus is known as the creator of two long-running comic strips. “Miss Peach” ran from 1957 to 2002, and “Momma” first appeared in 1970 and ceased publication in 2016, following the cartoonist’s death. Lazarus started his career as an apprentice to famed cartoonist Al Capp.

48D Connecticut town that lent its name to a tick-borne disease : LYME

Old Lyme is a town in Connecticut that is named for the English town of Lyme Regis. The towns of Old Lyme and its neighbor Lyme gave their name to Lyme disease, as a number of cases of the disease were identified there in 1975.

49D Nobody, say : PEON

A peon is a lowly worker who has no real control over his/her working conditions. The word “peon” comes into English from Spanish, in which language it has the same meaning.

50D Squad for 14-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, to fans : MAVS

Dirk Nowitzki is a former NBA player from Northern Bavaria in Germany. Nowitzki has scored more points in the NBA than any other foreign-born player in the league’s history. He also turned out for the German national team, for which he was the captain. Indeed, Nowitzki was named German Sports Personality of the Year in 2011.