Tag: Long building project in a cliché crossword clue

Constructed by: Grant Thackray
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: The Inside Story

Each themed answer is constructed by inserting the title of one film into the title of another. Clever!

• 70A Small screen superimposed on a large screen … or a hint to this puzzle’s shaded squares : PICTURE-IN-PICTURE

• 24A Who has trouble reaching a windshield to place a ticket? [1989, 1982] : THE LITTLE METER MAID (“ET” in “The Little Mermaid”)
• 42A Talk show host Johnny’s children? [2015, 2006] : MINI-CARSONS (“Cars” in “Minions”)
• 52A Traitor who gets on one’s nerves? [2006, 2002] : BOTHERING RAT (“The Ring” in “Borat”)
• 95A Prepares for guests who don’t like their coffee black? [2017, 1996] : GETS CREAM OUT (“Scream” in “Get Out”)
• 102A Initiated global conflicts? [1977, 2012] : STARTED WARS (“Ted” in “Star Wars”)
• 123A Selection of billfolds for medical professionals? [2016, 2008] : DOCTORS’ WALLET RANGE (“WALL-E” in “Doctor Strange”)
• 17D Good manners in kindergarten drawing? [1997, 2004] : CRAYON TACT (“Ray” in “Contact”)
• 77D Smaller piece of cookware? [1953, 2017] : PETITER PAN (“It” in “Peter Pan”)

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 23m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Something that might be packed with juice, informally : PB AND J

Peanut butter and jelly (PB&J or PBJ)

12 Home of Velázquez’s “Las Meninas” : PRADO

“Las Meninas” is a painting by Diego Velázquez, the name of which translates to “The Maids of Honor”. “Las Meninas” is the most famous painting owned by the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

17 Forerunners of MP3s : CDS

MP3 is an audio coding format, the most common format used for music stored on digital audio players. MP3 files are compressed and “lossy”, meaning that some audio information is lost when the file is generated. For this reason, MP3 files are about 1/11 of the size of the equivalent music files found on CD.

21 1958 #1 hit in a foreign language : VOLARE

The song we know as “Volare” doesn’t actually have that name. It’s real name is “Nel blu dipinto di blu” (translating as “In the Blue Painted Blue”). The Italian lyrics tell of how the singer feels like he is flying when he is with his lover (“volare” is the Italian for “to fly”). The original version has a prelude, which helps put the “blue” and the “flying” in perspective … “I think that a dream like that will never return; I painted my hands and my face blue, then was suddenly swept up by the wind and started to fly in the infinite sky.”

22 Concern for a samurai : HONOR

Samurai were noble military officers in medieval and early-modern Japan who served particular clans and lords. Originally known as “bushi” in Japanese, the term “samurai” was introduced in the early part of the 18th century.

24 Who has trouble reaching a windshield to place a ticket? [1989, 1982] : THE LITTLE METER MAID (“ET” in “The Little Mermaid”)

1982’s classic science fiction movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” was directed by Steven Spielberg. The idea behind the film came from Spielberg himself, and the character E.T. was based on an imaginary friend that he conjured up as a child after his parents divorced in 1960.

In the 1989 Disney animated film “The Little Mermaid”, the title character is given the name “Ariel”. In the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen that dates back to 1836, the Little Mermaid is given no name at all. There is a famous statue of the unnamed Little Mermaid sitting in Copenhagen Harbor, in Andersen’s homeland of Denmark.

27 Who once boasted “I’m so mean, I make medicine sick!” : ALI

After Muhammad Ali passed away in June 2016, there was a large prayer service and funeral procession in his hometown of Louisville. The pallbearers included actor Will Smith and boxer Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Eulogies were delivered by Ali’s wife Lonnie, Billy Crystal, Bryant Gumbel and former President Bill Clinton.

28 Enthusiastic Spanish cry : ARRIBA!

“Arriba” is Spanish for “above”. Speedy Gonzales used to yell out “Arriba!” a lot, meaning “get up!”.

29 Lao-___ : TSE

Lao Tse (also “Lao-Tzu”) was a central figure in the development of the religion/philosophy of Taoism. Tradition holds that Lao-Tzu wrote the “Tao Te Ching”, a classical Chinese text that is fundamental to the philosophy of Taoism.

33 Former Wisconsin senator Feingold : RUSS

Russ Feingold is a former US Senator for the state of Wisconsin. A Democrat, Feingold is perhaps best known for his work with Republican Senator John McCain that resulted in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, usually called the McCain-Feingold Act.

36 Bill ___, “Oliver Twist” thief : SIKES

Bill Sikes is the nasty criminal associate of Fagin in the Charles Dicken’s novel “Oliver Twist”.

“Oliver Twist” is a novel by Charles Dickens. It is a popular tale for adaptation to the big screen. There were two silent film versions, in 1909 and 1922, and the first talkie version was released in 1933, with many to follow. The latest “Oliver” for the big screen was a 2005 Roman Polanski production.

38 Shout at a pool : MARCO!

Marco Polo is a game of tag that is played in a swimming pool. ‘

42 Talk show host Johnny’s children? [2015, 2006] : MINI-CARSONS (“Cars” in “Minions”)

“Cars” is a 2006 animated feature from Pixar. The great cast of voice actors includes Paul Newman in his last movie role before he passed away in 2008.

“Despicable Me” is a 2010 animated comedy film. The main voice actor in the movie is the very funny Steve Carell. “Despicable Me” is a Universal Pictures production, although all of the animation was done in France. The 2010 film was followed by a sequel “Despicable Me 2” released in 2013, with a prequel/spin-off film called “Minions” released in 2015.

49 Flavorer of much black candy : ANISE

The essential oil in the anise plant is anethole. Anethole has a licorice-like flavor, and is used extensively in cooking and to flavor several distilled alcoholic drinks.

50 Vietnamese New Year : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

52 Traitor who gets on one’s nerves? [2006, 2002] : BOTHERING RAT (“The Ring” in “Borat”)

“The Ring” is a 2002 horror film that is a remake of the Japanese movie “Ring”, which in turn is an adaptation of the novel “Ring” by Koji Suzuki.

The full name of the 2006 “mockumentary” is “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”. Borat is played by a British comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen. Not my cup of tea …

55 Noir weapon : GAT

“Gat” is a slang term for a gun that is derived from “Gatling gun”, the precursor to the modern machine gun. The Gatling gun was invented by Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861. Apparently he was inspired to invent it so that one man could do as much damage as a hundred, thereby reducing the size of armies and diminishing the suffering caused by war. Go figure …

56 Catches flies : SHAGS

That would be baseball.

59 The planets, before 2006 : NONET

Pluto was discovered in 1930, and was welcomed as the ninth planet in our solar system. Pluto is relatively small in size, just one fifth of the mass of our own moon. In the seventies, astronomers began to discover more large objects in the solar system, including Eris, a “scattered disc object” at the outer reaches. Given that Eris is actually bigger than Pluto, and other objects really aren’t that much smaller, Pluto’s status as a planet was drawn into question. In 2006 there was a scientific definition for a “planet” agreed for the first time, resulting in Pluto being relegated to the status of “dwarf planet”, along with Eris.

61 Item that may accompany chopsticks and a ramen bowl : SAKE CUP

We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.

63 Baghdad’s ___ City : SADR

Sadr City is a suburb of Baghdad that has oft been in the news in recent years. Sadr City is named after the deceased Shia leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.

66 Long building project, in a cliché : ROME

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

69 Montezuma’s foe : CORTES

Hernán Cortés (also “Hernando Cortez”) led the expedition from Spain to Mexico that eventually led to the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Montezuma I and Montezuma II were Aztec emperors. Montezuma II was the ninth Aztec emperor and ruled from 1502 until 1520. He was the leader of the Aztec Empire when the Spanish first made contact and started the conquest of Mexico. Montezuma II was killed in a battle with the Spanish, although the details of his demise are not clear.

79 Med. plans : HMOS

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

80 “___ first you don’t succeed …” : IF AT

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

84 Cheetah mascot of Cheetos : CHESTER

Cheetos snacks were developed by the same guy who created Fritos, hence the similarity in name. On the market since 1948, up until the turn of the century the name was written as “Chee-tos”. Oh, and Cheetos contain pork enzymes, so vegetarians beware!

95 Prepares for guests who don’t like their coffee black? [2017, 1996] : GETS CREAM OUT (“Scream” in “Get Out”)

I don’t do horror films, so I haven’t seen any of the “Scream” movies …

“Get Out” is a 2017 horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele.

97 Lead-in to Pen : EPI-

EpiPen is a brand of epinephrine auto-injector. An EpiPen delivers a measured dose of epinephrine, which is a common treatment for an extreme allergic reaction.

98 Seat in the classic photograph “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” : I-BEAM

“Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” is an iconic 1932 photograph showing eleven ironworkers eating their lunches while sitting on a girder suspended 840 feet about the streets of New York City. The photo was staged as part of a campaign to promote skyscraper that was under construction, namely 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

102 Initiated global conflicts? [1977, 2012] : STARTED WARS (“Ted” in “Star Wars”)

“Ted” is a 2012 movie written, directed, produced and starring Seth MacFarlane. In the story, MacFarlane voices a somewhat irreverent teddy bear who is the best friend of a character played by Mark Wahlberg. The audiences liked the film, and “Ted 2” followed in 2015.

“Star Wars” is the highest-grossing film media franchise of all time, and the second highest-grossing media franchise in general. The highest-grossing media franchise? That would be “Pokémon”.

111 Singer Sumac : YMA

Yma Sumac was a Peruvian soprano. Sumac had a notable vocal range of five octaves.

115 Sister of Moses : MIRIAM

According to the Bible, Miriam was the sister of Moses and Aaron. It was Miriam who hid baby Moses in a basket at the side of the river to avoid being killed as a newborn Hebrew boy.

122 Unexplained ability : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

123 Selection of billfolds for medical professionals? [2016, 2008] : DOCTORS’ WALLET RANGE (“WALL-E” in “Doctor Strange”)

“WALL-E” is a very cute Pixar movie that was released in 2008. The hero of the piece is a robot named WALL-E, who loves his “Hello Dolly”, and who also falls in love with a robot named EVE.

“Doctor Strange” is a 2016 superhero film starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role.

127 Chicken ___ king : A LA

A dish prepared “a la king” (usually chicken or turkey), is food prepared in a cream sauce, with mushrooms, pimentos, green peppers and sherry.

129 Ticker lines? : AORTAS

The aorta originates in the heart and extends down into the abdomen. It is the largest artery in the body.

131 “Dragons’ ___” (British equivalent to “Shark Tank”) : DEN

“Shark Tank” is a reality television show that features aspiring entrepreneurs making pitches to potential investors (the “sharks”) as they try to grow their businesses. The show is a Mark Burnett production and is based in a British series called “Dragons’ Den”.

Down

1 Its name means “three strings,” but it can have up to 21 : SITAR

The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. It is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

2 ___ jacket : NEHRU

A Nehru jacket is very like a regular suit jacket, except that the collar buttons at the neck. It was originally created in the 1940s in India, and then marketed as the Nehru jacket in the west in the sixties. The name Nehru was lifted from Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India from 1947 to 1964.

5 Chicago paper, informally : TRIB

“The Chicago Tribune” was first published in 1847. The most famous edition of “The Trib” was probably in 1948 when the headline was “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN”, on the occasion of that year’s presidential election. When it turned out Truman had actually won, the victor picked up the paper with the erroneous headline and posed for photographs with it … a famous, famous photo, that must have stuck in the craw of the editor at the time.

6 Beetle Bailey’s rank: Abbr. : PVT

Sgt. Snorkel (“Sarge”) is Beetle Bailey’s nemesis in the cartoon strip that bears the latter’s name. Snorkel has a dog called Otto that he dresses up to look just like himself. Otto started off as a regular dog, but artist Mort Walker decide to draw him more like his owner, and soon Otto became a big hit.

10 “Black-ish” father : DRE

“Black-ish” is a sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross that premiered in 2014. The show is noted for tackling tough issues such as racism, police brutality, attitudes toward the LGBT community, and the 2016 US presidential election.

11 “Boatercycle” : JET SKI

“Jet Ski” is actually a brand name owned by Kawasaki Heavy Industries of Japan. The generic term, not often used, is “personal watercraft”. Most people use the term “Jet Ski” generically, although “WaveRunner” is also popular. But that’s another brand name, one owned by Yamaha.

14 Santa ___ winds : ANA

The Santa Ana winds are the very dry air currents that sweep offshore late in the year in Southern California. Because these air currents are so dry, they are noted for their influence over forest fires in the area, especially in the heat of the fall. The winds arise from a buildup of air pressure in the Great Basin that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Under the right conditions, that air spills over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and basically “falls” down the side of the Sierra range, heading for the ocean. As the air falls it becomes drier and heats up so that relative humidity can fall to below 10% by the time it hits the coast.

16 Carnivora and Rodentia : ORDERS

Biological classification is a method used to group organisms by biological type. The method uses a hierarchy of nested classes, with an organism being classified with reference to evolutionary traits. The major taxonomic ranks used are:

• Life
• Domain
• Kingdom
• Phylum (plural “phyla”)
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus (plural “genera”)
• Species

17 Good manners in kindergarten drawing? [1997, 2004] : CRAYON TACT (“Ray” in “Contact”)

Ray Charles came up with his stage name by dropping the family name from his real moniker “Ray Charles Robinson”. His life was a wild ride, and was well-represented in the excellent 2004 biopic called “Ray” starring Jamie Foxx in the title role. Ray Charles was married twice and fathered 12 children with nine different women. As I said, a wild ride …

Carl Sagan was a brilliant astrophysicist, and a great communicator. Sagan was famous for presenting obscure concepts about the cosmos in such a way that we mere mortals could appreciate. He also wrote the novel “Contact” that was adapted into a fascinating 1997 film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.

26 Justice Kagan : ELENA

Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States from 2009 until 2010, when she replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. Kagan also served as the first female dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009.

35 Most bohemian : ARTIEST

The region known as Bohemia covers most of the Czech Republic. Centuries ago, it was wrongly believed that gypsies came from Bohemia, giving rise to the term “Bohemian” meaning a “gypsy of society”

40 Actor Bremner of “Wonder Woman” : EWEN

Scottish actor Ewen Bremner played the character “Spud” Murphy in the 1996 film “Trainspotting”.

41 Mona Lisa, for one : SIGNORA

Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece that we know in English as the “Mona Lisa” is called “La Gioconda” in Italian, the language of the artist. It’s also known as “La Joconde” by the Government of France which owns the painting and displays it in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The title comes from the name of the subject, almost certainly Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Giocondo was a wealthy silk merchant in Florence who commissioned the painting for the couple’s new home to celebrate the birth of their second son.

43 Org. based in Langley, Va. : CIA

The CIA headquarters is located in Langley, Virginia in a complex called the George Bush Center for Intelligence. The facility was named for former Director of the CIA and US President George H. W. Bush.

44 “That reminds me …” is one : SEGUE

A segue is a transition from one topic to the next. “Segue” is an Italian word that literally means “now follows”. It was first used in musical scores directing the performer to play into the next movement without a break.

51 Recipe amts. : TSPS

Teaspoon (tsp.)

56 Hershey toffee bar : SKOR

Skor is a candy bar produced by Hershey’s. “Skor” is Swedish for “shoes”, and the candy bar’s wrapping features a crown that is identical to that found in the Swedish national emblem. What shoes have to do with candy, I don’t know …

62 Prefix with puncture : ACU-

Acupressure and acupuncture are related alternative medical techniques. Both aim to clear blockages in the flow of life energy through the body’s meridians. The treatment is given by stimulating “acupoints’ in the body, by applying pressure in the case of acupressure, and by applying needles in the case of acupuncture.

65 Young seal : PUP

Male seals are called bulls, females are cows, and babies are pups.

67 Popular brunch options : MIMOSAS

Where I come from, the cocktail known in North America as a mimosa is called a buck’s fizz, with the latter named for Buck’s Club in London where it was introduced in 1921. The mimosa came along a few years later, apparently first being served in the Paris Ritz. If you want to make a mimosa, it’s a 50-50 mix of champagne and orange juice, and it is very tasty …

72 “Weekend Update” co-anchor beginning in 2014 : CHE

Michael Che is a standup comedian from New York City. Che had worked as a writer for “Saturday Night Live” (SNL), and then started to appear in front of SNL cameras in September 2014. One of his roles was co-anchor for the “Weekend Update” segment of the show.

75 Fictional company behind earthquake pills and dehydrated boulders : ACME

The Acme Corporation is a fictional company used mainly by Looney Tunes, and within the Looney Tunes empire it is appears mostly in “Road Runner” cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is always receiving a new piece of gear from Acme designed to finally capture the Road Runner, but the equipment always leads to his downfall.

77 Smaller piece of cookware? [1953, 2017] : PETITER PAN (“It” in “Peter Pan”)

“It” is a 2017 horror film that is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel of the same name.

“Peter Pan” is a 1953 animated feature by Walt Disney that is based on the J. M. Barrie play “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up”.

82 Contents of the Rio Grande : AGUA

The Rio Grande (Spanish for “big river”) is a waterway that forms part of the border between Mexico and the United States. Although we call the river the Rio Grande on this side of the border, in Mexico it is called the Río Bravo or Río Bravo del Norte (Spanish for “furious river of the north”).

90 Where to be among Hmong : LAOS

The Hmong people are an ethnic group from the mountains of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

98 Agenda topper : ITEM ONE

“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.

114 Borscht base : BEETS

Borscht is a beetroot soup that originated in Ukraine. Borscht can be served both hot and cold.

115 Drink at Valhalla : MEAD

Mead is a lovely drink that’s made from fermented honey and water.

In Norse mythology, Valhalla (“hall of the slain”) is a gigantic hall in the world of Asgard. Asgard and Valhalla are ruled by the god Odin, the chief Norse god.

116 Catalina, e.g. : ISLE

Catalina Island off the coast of California is more correctly referred to as Santa Catalina Island. Santa Catalina is one of the Channel Islands of California, and is located in Los Angeles County. Santa Catalina has been a major tourist destination since the early 1920s when William Wrigley, Jr. of chewing gum fame invested millions of dollars to develop needed infrastructure to attract visitors. Wrigley owned the Chicago Cubs at the time, and so he made the Chicago Cubs use the island for spring training, as part of a publicity campaign. The Cubs trained there until 1951.

117 Flight part before a landing : STEP

A “landing” is the area at the top and bottom of a staircase. Apparently, we called the steps between the landings a “flight” of stairs, because one flies between landings! Can that be true?

119 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.

Cumulus (plural “cumuli”) clouds are low-level clouds that look very “puffy”, with clearly defined edges and flat bases. “Cumulus” is Latin for “heap, pile”.

124 Nurse’s training, for short : CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has for decades involved the simultaneous compression of the chest to pump blood using the heart, and artificial respiration by blowing air into the lungs. Nowadays emergency services are placing more emphasis on heart compressions, and less on artificial respiration.