Tag: Over yonder crossword clue

Bill’s time: 10m 31s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Molecule that stores energy in the body, in brief : ATP

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a chemical used in the body to transfer energy for cell-to-cell. One of the main uses of ATP is to shorten muscles, so that they can do work.

15A City on the Nile … or a punny end to the joke “When a tight-knit group of cygnets votes, they vote ___” : ASWAN

The Egyptian city of Aswan lies in the south of the country, on the River Nile. It is famous for its stone quarries, going back to ancient times. The most celebrated granite rock from the area is called syenite. Stone from Aswan was shipped northwards along the Nile and used in the construction of the pyramids. From ancient times right up to 1970, the annual flooding of the Nile was a significant event in Egypt. The flooding allowed the deposition of fertile silt far beyond the banks of the river, helping the region’s agriculture. However, the flooding was unpredictable. So the Aswan Dam was built in the sixties and from 1970 the flooding was brought under control.

16A Do a collie’s work : HERD

The collie isn’t actually a breed of dog, but rather a group of herding dogs that originated in Scotland and Northern England. An obvious (and wonderful) example would be the border collie. Many dogs classed as collies don’t have the word “collie” in the name of the breed, for example the old English sheepdog and the Shetland sheepdog.

17A [“I’ll take ‘Tennis’ for $200, Ken”] It means nothing : WHAT IS LOVE?

In sports like tennis, the score of zero is designated as “love”. Some people believe that this usage originates from the French “l’oeuf” (meaning “the egg”). The idea is that the written character “0” looks like an egg.

23A [“Let’s go with ‘Nickname’s the Same’ for $400”] Bruce Springsteen, Lance Armstrong and Melissa McCarthy in a 2016 comedy : WHO’S THE BOSS?

“Who’s the Boss?” is a sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992. The title refers to the fact that the character known as Angela was the boss, and the character called Tony (played by Tony Danza) was the stay at home homemaker. Back in the eighties that arrangement of male and female roles was a big deal (said the stay-at-home crossword blogger …).

28A Honda luxury brand : ACURA

Acura is a luxury vehicle brand produced by the Japanese automaker Honda. Acura was the first Japanese luxury car brand to be introduced to the US, in 1986. The Acura Legend and Acura Integra were the first two models released.

36A Muscle-and-bone doc : ORTHO

Orthopedics (orth.) is the branch of surgery that deals with the musculoskeletal system. The term “orthopedics” was coined in 1741 by French physician Nicolas Andry. Actually, Andry used the French term “Orthopédie” for the title of a book. The term comes from the Greek “orthos” meaning “straight” and “paidon” meaning “child”.

39A [“Give me ‘The Academy’ for $600”] This was only the second animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, after “Beauty and the Beast” : WHAT’S “UP”?

“Up” was the tenth movie released by Pixar studios, and features the wonderful animation that we have come to expect from Pixar. The film earned itself two Academy Awards. The main voice actor is Ed Asner, whose animated persona as Carl Fredricksen was created to resemble Spencer Tracy, as Tracy appeared in his last film, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.

41A [“How about ‘Sports and Comedy’ for $800”] He was on first base, per Abbott and Costello : WHO’S WHO?

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello made up the comedy duo Abbott and Costello who were immensely popular in the forties and fifties. Even when I was growing up in Ireland and knew nothing about baseball, I was rolling around the floor listening to Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s on First?” comedy routine. Can you name all the players?

First Base: Who
Second Base: What
Third Base: I Don’t Know
Left field: Why
Centerfield: Because
Pitcher: Tomorrow
Catcher: Today
Shortstop: I Don’t Care/I Don’t Give a Darn

43A The Supreme Court justices, collectively : NONET

The US Constitution doesn’t specify the size of the Supreme Court, but authorizes the Congress to determine the number of justices. The court started with six justices in 1789, and the size of the bench grew with the size of the country and the number of judicial circuits. There were as many as ten justices, from 1863 to 1866. There have been nine justices since 1869.

44A Charlie’s Angels, e.g. : TRIO

When the TV show “Charlie’s Angels” first aired in the mid-seventies, it was a little unusual in that it featured three women playing private detectives, a role usually reserved for men. The name first chosen for the show was “The Alley Cats”, then “Harry’s Angels”, before finally settling on “Charlie’s Angels”.

46A Swanky : POSH

No one really knows the etymology of the word “posh”. The popular myth that “posh” is actually an acronym standing for “port out, starboard home” is completely untrue, and is a story that can actually be traced back to the 1968 movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. The myth is that wealthy British passengers traveling to and from India would book cabins on the port side for the outward journey and the starboard side for the home journey. This trick was supposedly designed to keep their cabins out of the direct sunlight.

49A Gas brand with a torch in its logo : AMOCO

“Amoco” is an abbreviation for “American Oil Company”, an oil company that merged with BP in 1998. Amoco was the first oil company to introduce gasoline tanker trucks and drive-through filling stations. I wonder if they know what they were starting …?

51A Savanna prey : GNU

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch word meaning “wild beast”.

A savanna (also “savannah”) is a grassland. If there are any trees in a savanna, by definition they are small and widely spaced so that light can get to the grasses allowing them to grow unhindered.

53A [“I’ll try ‘Painted Ladies” for $1,000″] This piece by Impressionist Mary Cassatt shows two women enjoying a drink : WHAT’S THE TEA?

Mary Cassatt was an American painter from Pennsylvania who moved to France at the young age of 22 years, in 1866. By which time she was already studying to become a professional artist. Cassatt became friends with Edgar Degas, who invited her to exhibit with the group called “the Impressionists”, who were garnering a great deal of attention at the time. Cassatt’s reputation as a great artist is perhaps built on an extensive series of paintings of mothers with a child.

58A Kelly of morning TV : RIPA

When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting gig. Ripa has acted as spokeswoman for several brands over the years, including Electrolux and Rykä.

61A Key ring? : ATOLL

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring that encloses a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically, an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside inside the circling coral reef.

62A At risk … or where one might hear the clue-and-answer pairs at 17-, 23-, 39-, 41- and 53-Across? : IN JEOPARDY

The TV show “Jeopardy!” first went on the air in 1964, and is another successful Merv Griffin creation. But, it took the introduction of Alex Trebek as host in order to bring the show into the big time. Trebek was host from 1984 until his sad passing in 2020.

66A “Thus with a kiss ___” (Romeo’s final words) : I DIE

In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, the last words uttered by Romeo are:

O true apothecary!
They drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

Juliet’s last words are:

Yea, noise? then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.

67A Sea inlet surrounded by steep cliffs : FJORD

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, and both are formed as sea levels rise. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

70A Hasbro word game that comes with a 60-second hourglass : TABOO

Taboo is a guessing game that was introduced by Parker Brothers in 1989. Players must encourage their teammates to guess a word on a card, without using that word or related words defined on the card. It’s a fun game that’s played regularly around here …

71A Go like a geyser : SPEW

The Great Geysir in Iceland is the first known geyser to have been discovered and documented. The name “Geysir” comes from the Icelandic and Old Norse word “geysa” meaning “to gush”. It is the Great Geysir that gives us our English word “geyser”.

Down

1D Hebrew leader? : ALEPH

Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and beth is the second.

2D Booster for a dragster : TURBO

A turbocharger is a device that is designed to extract more power out of an internal combustion engine. It does so by increasing the pressure of the air entering the intake. The pressure increase comes from the use of a compressor that is powered, cleverly enough, by the engine’s own exhaust gases.

Back in the 18th century, “drag” was slang for a wagon or buggy, as it was “dragged” along by a horse or horses. In the 1930s, the underworld adopted “drag” as slang for an automobile. This sense of the word was imported into automobile racing in the 1940s, giving the name to “drag racing”. A drag race is basically a competition between two cars to determine which can accelerate faster from a standstill.

4D Prominent feature of a hippopotamus or crocodile : JAW

The name “hippopotamus” comes from the Greek for “river horse”. Hippos are the third-largest land mammals, after elephants and rhinos. The closest living relatives to hippos don’t even live on land. They are the whales and porpoises of the oceans.

Crocodiles and alligators do indeed bear a resemblance to each other, although they belong to distinct biological families. One of the main ways used to distinguish them is by their teeth and jaws. Both the upper and lower sets of teeth of a crocodile are visible when its mouth is closed, whereas only the upper teeth of an alligator are visible with the mouth shut.

8D ___ Palmas, capital of the Canaries : LAS

The Spanish province of Las Palmas comprises about half of the islands of Gran Canaria, and several other small islands, located off the northwest coast of Africa. Gran Canaria is perhaps better known as the “Canary Islands” in English. The province takes its name from Las Palmas, the capital city of Gran Canaria island.

9D Cuba o Puerto Rico : ISLA

In Spanish, examples of “islas” (islands) are “Puerto Rico y Cuba” (Puerto Rico and Cuba).

11D Sanctuary : HAVEN

A sanctuary is a sacred or holy place, with “sanctuary” coming from the Latin “sanctus” meaning “holy”. Some Christian traditions use the term “sanctuary” to describe the area in a church that houses the main altar. Some medieval Church law granted immunity to fugitives and debtors who took refuge in some churches, and so “sanctuary” took on the meaning “immunity from punishment”.

12D TV show that has existed since before online media, despite what its name suggests : E! NEWS

E! Entertainment Television started out in 1987 as Movietime, and hired on-air hosts such as Greg Kinnear and Paula Abdul. It was renamed in 1990 to E! Entertainment Television, underscoring the focus on Hollywood gossip and the like.

13D “Man and Superman” playwright : SHAW

“Man and Superman” is a 1903 play by George Bernard Shaw. The storyline uses the “Don Juan” theme. The character named John Tanner, representing Don Juan in the play, claims that he is a descendent of Don Juan.

20D Like easy-to-get meds, in brief : OTC

Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs don’t need a prescription (Rx).

24D Peacock competitor : HULU

Hulu is a video-on-demand service. Although competing directly with Netflix and Amazon Prime, Hulu’s primary focus is the streaming of television shows rather than movies.

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has had a number of different logos in its history, including the famous peacock with which we are familiar today. The first peacock logo was introduced in the early days of color television and was designed to illustrate how wonderful color television would be, so go buy one! (NBC was owned by RCA, and so had a vested interest in sales of color television sets).

30D Horatian work of ca. 18 B.C. : ARS POETICA

The full name of Horace’s work is “Ars Poetica, Epistula ad Pisones” (The Art of Poetry, Letters to the Pisos). The work describes the technical aspects of poetry in ancient Rome, and the term “ars poetica” has come to mean the poetry of that period.

37D Dept. that oversees the F.D.A. : HHS

The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) was split in 1979, into the Department of Education (ED) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its roots in the Division of Chemistry (later “Bureau of Chemistry”) that was part of the US Department of Agriculture. President Theodore Roosevelt gave responsibility for examination of food and drugs to the Bureau of Chemistry with the signing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Bureau’s name was changed to the Food, Drug and Insecticide Organization in 1927, and to the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.

40D Gumbo, for one : STEW

Gumbo is a type of stew or soup that originated in Louisiana. The primary ingredient can be meat or fish, but to be true gumbo it must include the “holy trinity” of vegetables, namely celery, bell peppers and onion. Okra used to be a requirement but this is no longer the case. Okra gave the dish its name as the vernacular word for the African vegetable is “okingumbo”, from the Bantu language spoken by many of the slaves brought to America.

42D Terrifying sound for a field mouse : HOOT

Much of an owl’s diet consists of small mammals. As a result, humans have used owls for centuries to control rodent populations, usually by placing a nest box for owls on a property. Despite the fact that owls and humans live together in relative harmony, owls have been known to attack humans from time to time. Celebrated English bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye when attacked by a tawny owl that he was trying to photograph. Hosking wrote a 1970 autobiography with the wry title “An Eye for a Bird”.

50D When repeated, a dance : CHA

The cha-cha-cha (often simplified to “cha-cha”) is a Latin dance with origins in Cuba, where it was introduced by composer Enrique Jorrin in 1953.

51D Dirty money : GRIFT

Grift is money made dishonestly, especially as the result of a swindle. The term is perhaps an alteration of the word “graft”, which can have a similar meaning.

52D Symbol of stealth : NINJA

The ninjas were around in Japan at the time of the samurai, but were a very different type of warrior. The ninjas were covert operatives, specializing in the use of stealth to accomplish their missions. As they were a secretive cadre they took on a mystical reputation with the public, who believed they had the ability to become invisible or perhaps walk on water. We now use the term “ninja” figuratively, to describe anyone highly-skilled in a specific field.

54D Emiratis, e.g. : ARABS

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates (states) in the Middle East. Included in the seven are Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with the city of Abu Dhabi being the UAE capital and cultural center.

57D Trebek who once hosted this puzzle’s theme : ALEX

Alex Trebek was the host of “Jeopardy!” from the launch of the syndicated version of the game show in 1984 until his passing in 2020. Trebek missed just one episode during that time, when he and host of “Wheel of Fortune” Pat Sajak swapped roles in 1997 as an April Fool’s joke. In 2014, Trebek picked up the Guinness World Record for hosting the most episodes of a game show.

59D Nestlé chocolate bar : AERO

I must admit to having a weakness for Aero chocolate bars. Aero was introduced by Rowntree’s in the North of England in 1935. The “aero” name is a reference to the chocolate’s “bubbly” texture.

63D Lead-in to meter : ODO-

An odometer measures distance traveled. “Odometer comes from the Greek “hodos” meaning “path” and “metron” meaning “measure”.

64D Grammy-winning Dr. ___ : DRE

“Dr. Dre” is the stage name of rapper Andre Romelle Young. He is known for his own singing career as well as for producing records and starting the careers of others such as Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

65D Poison source in Agatha Christie’s “A Pocket Full of Rye” : YEW

The family of trees and shrubs known as yews propagate by producing a seed surrounded by soft, sweet and brightly colored aril. Birds eat the fruit and then disperse the seed in their droppings. The birds leave the seed undamaged, and so are unharmed by the potent poisons taxane and taxol that are found within the seed. The seeds are highly toxic to humans.

“A Pocket Full of Rye” is a Miss Marple mystery by Agatha Christie. The title is a line from the nursery rhyme called “Sing a Song of Sixpence”.