Tag: You just can’t take it crossword clue

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16A Field for both Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. : THEOLOGY

Martin Luther wrote his “95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of the Indulgences” in 1517, creating a document that is often seen as setting off the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s main argument was that the Catholic Church’s practice of granting “indulgences”, forgiveness from punishment for sins, was wrong. It was especially wrong when such indulgences were granted in exchange for money.

Martin Luther King, Jr’s father was born Michael King. On a trip to Germany in 1934, Michael came to admire Protestant leader Martin Luther and changed his name to Martin Luther King on his return to the United States. Famously, he passed on his new name to his son, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK).

17A Oscar winner for “The African Queen” : BOGART

Humphrey “Bogie” Bogart’s breakthrough movie was “The Petrified Forest” from 1936, but for me nothing beats “Casablanca”. That said, check out the original “Sabrina” from 1954. It’s a real delight. Bogie was nominated three times for a Best Actor Oscar, but only won once: for “The African Queen”.

“The African Queen” is a 1935 novel by C. S. Forester that was adapted into a very successful 1951 film of the same name starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. The title refers to a steam-powered launch that travels the Ulanga River. The story is set during World War I. At the climax of the tale, the African Queen is used as a makeshift torpedo to sink a German gunboat (spoiler!).

23A Best-selling author who founded Paris’s Théâtre Historique : DUMAS

Alexandre Dumas, père (father) was the famed author of “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo”. Alexandre Dumas, fils (son) was also a noted writer.

27A Game with a board numbered from 1 to 20 : DARTS

It was illegal to play darts in English pubs in the early 1900s because it was considered a game of chance. The law was overturned in 1908 when a pub owner, prosecuted for allowing the game, brought a skilled player into court. The player proved it was a game of skill by throwing three darts into the 20-point segment and then challenged any court official to do the same. When none could, the judge dismissed the case.

31A “The best cheese of its type in the world,” per George Orwell : STILTON

Stilton is a lovely village in Cambridgeshire in England, and is the original home of the delicious blue cheese called Stilton. Paradoxically, cheesemakers in Stilton are not allowed to call their product Stilton any more. Stilton can only be made in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, and not in Cambridgeshire.

“George Orwell” was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, the famous British author of the classics “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and “Animal Farm”.

41A They’re held in bondage : SERFS

A serf was a member of the lowest feudal class, someone attached to land owned by a lord. Even though “serf” comes from the Latin “servus”, meaning “slave”, serfs could not be bought or sold. However, they were not free to leave the land they worked without the lord’s permission

42A Org. whose motto translates to “Through adversity to the stars” : RAF

The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the oldest independent air force in the world (i.e. the first air force to become independent of army or navy forces). The RAF was formed during WWI on 1 April 1918, a composite of two earlier forces, the Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army) and the Royal Naval Air Service. The RAF’s “finest hour” was the Battle of Britain, when the vastly outnumbered British fighters fought off the might of the Luftwaffe, causing Hitler to delay his plan to cross the English Channel. This outcome prompted Winston Churchill to utter the memorable words

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

“Per ardua ad astra” is Latin for “through struggle to the stars”. These words have been the motto of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and its predecessor, the Royal Flying Corps (FFC), since 1912.

43A Neural transmitter : AXON

A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron. The long nerve fiber that conducts signals away from the neuron is known as the axon. The axon is surrounded by a myelin sheath, which acts as an electrical insulator and which increases the rate the impulses pass along the axon.

48A Grand duke of Luxembourg until 2025 : HENRI

Luxembourg is a relatively small country in the middle of Europe that is just 1,000 square miles in area with a population of over half a million. The country is a representative democracy (just like the United Kingdom) and it has a constitutional monarch. As such, Luxembourg is the only remaining sovereign Grand Duchy in the world.

49A It has a light bulb : DAFFODIL

Daffodils are more properly called narcissus plants, and are a whole genus in the Amaryllis family. Ancient Greeks believe that after Narcissus died (while obsessed with his reflection in a pool), his remains were turned into the Narcissus flower, hence the name. Back in Britain and Ireland, the daffodil is most famous as the national flower of Wales. It is also remembered for its appearance in Wordsworth’s poem:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

53A Role for John Travolta on “Welcome Back, Kotter” : VINNIE

Actor, dancer and singer John Travolta got his big break playing student Vinnie Barbarino in the sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter” in the seventies. While still on the TV show, Travolta showed off his dancing skills on two fabulous musical films: “Saturday Night Fever” (1977) and “Grease” (1978). His career then took a bit of a dip, before resurging again with his role in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino blockbuster “Pulp Fiction”.

“Welcome Back, Kotter” is a sitcom from the late seventies. The title character is a teacher at Buchanan High, one Gabe Kotter, who himself had attended the school as a student. Kotter teaches a remedial class of students who call themselves the Sweathogs. In fact, Kotter had himself been a founder of the Sweathogs, when he was a student in the same class. Kotter was played by Gabe Kaplan. One of the prominent students in his class, Vinnie Barbarino, was played by a young John Travolta in a role that launched his film career. In recent years you might have seen Gabe Kaplan as co-host of the popular show “High Stakes Poker” on GSN.

55A Tree nymphs : DRYADS

In Greek mythology, dryads are tree nymphs. The term comes from the Greek “drys” meaning an oak tree, but “dryad” tends to be used for the nymphs of all trees and not just the oak variety.

Down

1D Goes downhill at the Olympics, in a way : BOBSLEDS

Bobsleds are so called because competitors in the sport originally would “bob” in and out of the sled in order to increase its speed.

3D Tubes that go down? : RIGATONI

Rigatoni is a tubular pasta that is relatively short, and with ridges along its length. The name “rigatoni” comes from the Italian “rigato” meaning “ridged, lined”.

4D The first of these was Terrible : TSARS

Tsars ruled Russia from the 16th century to the early 20th century. The first Tsar was Ivan the Terrible, who ruled from 1547 to 1584. The last Tsar was Nicholas II, who ruled from 1894 to 1917.

6D Murderer of Osiris, in myth : SET

In ancient Egypt, Set (also “Seth”) was the god of deserts, storms and foreigners. Set was the brother of Osiris, Isis and Nephthys. In some accounts, Set murdered his brother Osiris, and married his sister Nephthys.

8D You just can’t take it : THE LAST STRAW

The phrase “last straw” is a metaphor that means a small additional burden or annoyance that causes someone to reach a breaking point or a limit. The expression comes from an old proverb “the last straw breaks the camel’s back” that refers to the idea that a camel can carry heavy loads, but if one more straw is added, the weight becomes too much, and the camel collapses.

14D Electronica instruments, informally : SYNTHS

One of the first commercial music synthesizers was invented by Robert Moog, and it was brought to mainstream popularity by Wendy Carlos’s 1968 album “Switched-On Bach”. The album reinterpreted the works of Johann Sebastian Bach using the synthesizer, and became an unlikely hit. It won three Grammy Awards, and is credited by many with launching the electronic music genre.

23D Woodworkers’ grooves : DADOS

In the world of joinery, a dado is a slot cut into a piece of wood across the grain. On the other hand, a groove is a slot cut with the grain.

24D Vicious circle? : CABAL

A cabal is a small group of plotters acting in secret, perhaps scheming against a government or an individual. The use of “cabal” in this way dates back to the mid-1600s. It is suggested that the term gained some popularity, particularly in a sinister sense, during the reign of Charles II in the 1670s. At that time, it was applied as an acronym standing for “Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale”, a group of ministers known for their plots and schemes.

26D Animal known to hold another’s paws while sleeping : OTTER

Sea otters actually hold hands while sleeping on their backs so that they don’t drift apart. When sea otter pups are too small to lock hands, they clamber up onto their mother’s belly and nap there.

33D Surname of a Tolstoy heroine : KARENINA

I have to admit to not having read Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”, but I did see the excellent 1977 British television adaptation starring Nicola Pagett. I also saw the 2012 film adaptation with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard and found that to be far from excellent, awful in fact. I am no Stoppard fan …

35D Acrobat’s display : PDF FILES

Adobe Acrobat is the software used to create .pdf files. Most of us are more familiar with the associated application called Adobe Reader, because that’s what we use to read those .pdf files.

38D Dillydally : DAWDLE

To dillydally is to loiter, delay. The verb “to dally” also means “to linger, dawdle”, and so “dillydally” is simply a duplication of “dally”, one that dates back to the mid-1700s.

45D Female donkey : JENNY

A female donkey/ass is known as a jenny and a male is known as a jack, or sometimes “jackass”. We started using the term “jackass” to mean “fool” in the 1820s.

47D Where the Red Delicious apple originated : IOWA

The Red Delicious apple was developed in an Iowa orchard in 1880. The variety was eventually given the name “Hawkeye”, and then “Stark Delicious”. After the Golden Delicious became established in 1914, the relatively unrelated Stark Delicious apple was renamed to “Red Delicious”.