Category: Matt Skoczen

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Constructed by: Matt Skoczen
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: Making A Dent

Themed answer are common phrases with a “DING” inserted:

• 23A Fraudulent budget increase for cleaning supplies? : BRILLO PADDING (from “Brillo pad”)
• 33A Those waiting for Facebook friend acceptance? : PENDING PALS (from “pen pals”)
• 40A Pre-flight pandemonium? : WILD BOARDING (from “wild boar”)
• 65A Banking at a beach ATM? : FUNDING IN THE SUN (from “fun in the sun”)
• 91A Growing bulb? : BUDDING LIGHT (from “Bud Light”)
• 97A Major curves on a mountain road? : EPIC WINDING (from “epic win”)
• 113A Ocean trip for relationship strengthening? : BONDING VOYAGE (from “bon voyage”)

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

Bill’s time: 17m 00

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7 Honi’s comics dad : HAGAR

“Hägar the Horrible” is a comic strip that was created by the late Dik Browne and is now drawn by his son, Chris Browne. “Hägar the Terrible” (not “Horrible”) was the nickname given to Dik by his sons. The strip’s title character is a red-bearded Viking living on the Norwegian coast during the Middle Ages. Hägar lives with his overbearing wife Helga, his sensitive son Hamlet, his pretty daughter Honi, and his clever dog Snert.

12 Jungian concerns : PSYCHES

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, and the founder of analytical psychology. Jung was very much associated with the analysis of dreams, and also introduced us to the psychological concepts of introversion and extroversion.

19 Ricky Martin’s surname, by birth : MORALES

Ricky Martin’s real name is Enrique Martin Morales. A native of Puerto Rico, Martin first achieved fame with the boy band Menudo before going solo in 1991.

22 Stuffed meat dish : ROULADE

A roulade is made by wrapping a slice of meat around a filling prior to cooking. The name “roulade” comes from the French “rouler” meaning “to roll”.

23 Fraudulent budget increase for cleaning supplies? : BRILLO PADDING (from “Brillo pad”)

Brillo is a soapy, steel wool pad, patented in 1913. The company claims that the name “Brillo” is derived from the Latin word for “bright”.

25 Together : EN MASSE

“En masse” is a French term, one that best translates as “as a group”

28 Role for Ingrid : ILSA

Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund were played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the 1942 movie “Casablanca”. I love the words of one critic describing the chemistry between Bogart and Bergman in this film: “She paints his face with her eyes”. Wow …

31 Lucie’s dad : DESI

Actress and singer Lucie Arnaz is the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Arnaz started acting at an early age, and turned up frequently on her mother’s television show “Here’s Lucy”. Lucie’s most famous appearance on the big screen was opposite Neil Diamond in 1980’s “The Jazz Singer”.

32 Start of a classic dramatic question : ET TU …?

It was Shakespeare who popularized the words “Et tu, Brute?” (meaning “And you, Brutus?”). They appear in his play “Julius Caesar”, although the phrase had been around long before he penned his drama. It’s not known what Julius Caesar actually said in real life (if anything at all) as he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate in Rome.

36 Iain’s negative : NAE

The name “John” translates into Scottish as “Ian” or “Iain”, into Russian as “Ivan”, into Italian as “Giovanni”, into Spanish as “Juan”, into Welsh as “Evan”, and into Irish as “Seán”.

40 Pre-flight pandemonium? : WILD BOARDING (from “wild boar”)

The word “pandemonium” was coined in 1667 by John Milton in his epic poem “Paradise Lost”. It is the name he invented for the capital of Hell, “the High Capital, of Satan and his Peers”.

50 Air issues org. : EPA

The Clean Air Act of 1963 is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

53 “Oy vey!” : AH ME!

“Oy vey” is a Yiddish expression of dismay that translates literally as “oh, pain”. The more usual translation is “woe is me”.

60 H, to Kronos : ETA

Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.

63 Mil. rhyme for “Yahtzee” : ROTC

The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) is a training program for officers based in colleges all around the US. The ROTC program was established in 1862 when as a condition of receiving a land-grant to create colleges, the federal government required that military tactics be part of a new school’s curriculum.

The dice game Yahtzee was introduced in 1956 and is a variant of earlier dice games, especially the game “Yacht” (which even has a similar name). Yahtzee is required entertainment in our house during holidays. The game involves the rolling of five dice, with the intent of getting certain combinations. A lot of those combinations resemble poker hands, such as “three of a kind”, “four of a kind” and “full house”.

69 Shape-fitting game : TETRIS

Tetris is a very addictive video game that was developed in the Soviet Union in 1984. The name Tetris comes from a melding of the prefix “tetra-” (as all the game pieces have four segments) and “tennis” (a favorite sport played by the developer). Since 2005 there have been more than 100 million copies of the game installed on cell phones alone.

72 “The __ Show” : GONG

NBC’s “The Gong Show” was originally broadcast in the seventies and eighties, but it always seems to be showing somewhere on cable TV. I suppose the show was a forerunner of today’s “America’s Got Talent”, in that it was a talent show in which the acts can be cut off in mid-performance by the sounding of a gong (just like the 3 buzzers on “Talent”). Despite all the terrible acts that appeared, some famous names made it after the show e.g. Boxcar Willie, Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) and Andrea McArdle (played “Annie” on Broadway).

74 Deg. of distinction : PHD

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

78 Letters to a lender : IOU

I owe you (IOU)

79 Part of CPA: Abbr. : CERT

Certified public accountant (CPA)

83 Atl.-based network : CNN

CNN (Cable News Network) was launched in 1980 by the Turner Broadcasting System, and was the first television channel in the world to provide news coverage 24 hours a day. CNN headquarters is located in Atlanta.

85 Embrace, as a custom : ESPOUSE

To espouse is to take in marriage. We have used the extended meaning of “to give one’s support to” since the 1600s.

88 Ancient Assyrian capital : NINEVEH

Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in modern-day Iraq. The ruins of the city are located just on the other side of the river from the Iraqi city of Mosul. At one time, Nineveh was the largest city in the world.

Assyria was an ancient kingdom located on the Upper Tigris river in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), named for its capital city of Assur. According to the Bible, of the original Twelve Tribes of Israel, Ten Tribes “disappeared” when the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians in 720 BCE.

91 Growing bulb? : BUDDING LIGHT (from “Bud Light”)

The first light beer was produced by Chicago’s Meister Brau brewery in the sixties. Miller took over Meister Brau, reformulated the light beer using the same process and became the first of the big breweries to come out with a light beer, “Lite Beer from Miller” introduced in 1973. There really wasn’t a serious competitor to Miller Lite until Anheuser-Busch finally came up with a process and a product in 1982 that they called Bud Light.

93 First Black person to host a successful TV variety show : FLIP WILSON

Flip Wilson was a comedian who had his own show on television in the early seventies. Such was his level of success that in 1972, “Time” featured Wilson on the magazine’s cover and dubbed him “TV’s first black superstar”. Wilson’s birth name was Clerow, and he earned the nickname “Flip” while serving the US Air Force, as he was always “flipped out”. He often played a character called Geraldine on his show, who became known for using the expression “What you see is what you get”. Computer scientists adopted Geraldine’s catchphrase to describe a system in which onscreen content is the same as that printed on paper. The computer term is WYSIWYG, an acronym standing for “what you see is what you get”.

101 Record speeds, for short : RPMS

Revolutions per minute (rpm)

103 “__ Smile”: Hall & Oates hit : SARA

“Sara Smile” was the first US Top 10 hit for the duo Hall & Oates.

108 Scott of “Hawaii Five-0” : CAAN

Scott Caan is the actor who plays “Danno” in the remake of the cop show “Hawaii Five-0”. On the big screen, he is perhaps best known for playing Turk, one of the Malloy Brothers. Scott is the son of Hollywood actor James Caan.

The cop show “Hawaii Five-O” originally ran from 1968 until 1980, with Jack Lord and James MacArthur playing detectives Steve McGarrett and “Danno” Williams. The famous theme music was composed by Morton Stevens. The show was rebooted as “Hawaii Five-0”, premiering in 2010, with Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan playing Steve McGarrett and “Danno” Williams. Notice the important difference in the titles of the two versions of the show: the former uses a capital letter O, and the latter the numeral 0. Now that’s trivial …

110 Statehouse official: Abbr. : LT GOV

In the US, a lieutenant governor (lt. gov.) is usually the second-in-command to the governor of a state.

111 At Notre Dame, say : IN PARIS

Notre-Dame de Paris is the spectacular Gothic cathedral that sits on the Île de la Cité, one of the islands in the middle of the River Seine in Paris. Notre-Dame is home to many beautiful and significant artifacts, the most famous of which is the Crown of Thorns supposedly worn by Jesus Christ at his execution, placed in the cathedral in 1239. It’s also home to some magnificent gargoyles on the roof, and you can climb up to the roof and take a very close look at them. Well, you used to be able to, until the tragic fire of 2019.

113 Ocean trip for relationship strengthening? : BONDING VOYAGE (from “bon voyage”)

“Bon voyage” translates literally from French into English as “good journey”.

118 Strand at a chalet, say : ICE IN

“Chalet” is a Swiss-French name for an alpine cottage.

121 One of the Allman Brothers : GREGG

The Allman Brothers Band has to be one of the most unlucky bands in the business. Soon after the group had its big break with the 1971 album “At Fillmore East”, one of the two Allman brothers, Duane, was killed in a motorcycle accident. One year later, bassist Berry Oakley was killed, also in a motorcycle accident. The other brother, Gregg Allman, passed away in his home in 2017.

Down

1 Boast in a 1987 Michael Jackson hit : I’M BAD

The song “Bad” was written and sung by Michael Jackson, and released in 1987. The song is about being tough on the streets, being “bad”.

2 “Chestnuts roasting …” co-writer : TORME

Mel Tormé was a jazz singer, with a quality of voice that earned him the nickname “The Velvet Fog”. Tormé also wrote a few books, and did a lot of acting. He was the co-author of the Christmas classic known as “The Christmas Song”, which starts out with the line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire …”

The Christmas classic known as “The Christmas Song”, which starts out with the line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”, was written in 1944 by Bob Wells and singer Mel Tormé. According to Tormé, the song was actually written on a very hot summer day, with Wells providing the lyrics. Apparently without the intention of writing a song, Wells jotted down four “Christmassy” phrases in an effort to “stay cool by thinking cool”. Those phrases were:

• Chestnuts roasting
• Jack Frost nipping
• Yuletide carols
• Folks dressed up like Eskimos

“The Christmas Song” is now the most-performed Christmas song in the world.

3 Exam no-nos : CRIBS

A crib is plagiarism. It is most commonly the copying of an answer in an examination.

4 Tony winner who portrayed TV’s Barney Miller : HAL LINDEN

“Barney Miller” is a sitcom set in a Greenwich Village, New York police station. All of the action takes place actually within the station house, except for a once-a-year “special” that follows one of the detectives on a stakeout or in their home. The title character is the captain of the precinct, and is played by Hal Linden.

5 Vogue alternative : ELLE

“Elle” magazine was founded in 1945 in France and today has the highest circulation of any fashion magazine in the world. “Elle” is the French word for “she”. “Elle” is published monthly worldwide, although you can pick up a weekly edition if you live in France.

6 __ gratias : DEO

The phrase “Deo gratias”, meaning “Thanks be to God”, is heard repeatedly during the Latin Mass in the Roman Catholic faith.

9 Chicken, in a Cantonese dish : GAI

Moo goo gai pan is the American version of a traditional Cantonese dish. In Cantonese, “moo goo” means “button mushroom”, “gai” is “chicken” and “pan” is “slices”.

10 Wilson of Heart : ANN

Heart is a rock band from Seattle, Washington, founded in the seventies and still going strong. The band has had a changing lineup, except for sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson.

11 Saskatchewan capital : REGINA

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan (Sask.) takes its name from the Saskatchewan River. The river in turn takes its name from the Cree name, which translates as “swift flowing river”. The capital of Saskatchewan is Regina, although the biggest city in the province is Saskatoon.

12 What a chair does : PRESIDES

To preside is to exercise direction or control, to perhaps occupy a position such as chairman or president. The term “to preside” ultimately comes from the Latin “pre-” (before) and “sedere” (to sit).

13 Spoken sounds : SONANTS

In phonetics, a letter or syllable that is “sonant” is voiced, whereas an “assonant” (also “asonant”) letter is not voiced.

16 “__ mañana” : HASTA

“Hasta mañana” translates from Spanish as “See you tomorrow”, and literally “Until tomorrow”.

17 Car that didn’t go far : EDSEL

The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel Ford, son of Henry. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced. When the Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel on 4 September 1957, Ford proclaimed the day to be “E Day”.

29 Pres. or CEO : LDR

Leader (ldr.)

32 Fed. anti-discrimination org. : EEOC

“Equal Employment Opportunity” (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.

33 __ Palace: castle on the Portuguese Riviera : PENA

The Pena Palace is a castle in Portugal that overlooks the nation’s capital, Lisbon. It is a spectacular building, and sports bright facades painted red and yellow. The castle was designated a UNESCO World Heritage sight in 1995, and is listed as one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal.

34 Word with white or cream : EGG …

“Albumen” is the technical name for egg white.

Egg cream is a beverage, and one that I only know from crosswords. It is remarkable, I think, in that it contains neither egg nor cream! The drink supposedly dates back to the late 1800s and was invented in Brooklyn. It is a fountain drink, made up from chocolate syrup, milk and seltzer (soda).

35 “America’s __ Talent” : GOT

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” is part of a global franchise based in the UK. The original show is called “Britain’s Got Talent”, and the whole franchise is owned by Simon Cowell. The first host of “America’s Got Talent” was Regis Philbin (2006), followed by Jerry Springer, Nick Cannon, Tyra Banks and Terry Crews.

37 Legal gp. : ABA

American Bar Association (ABA)

42 Patti Tavatanakit was its Rookie of the Year for 2021: Abbr. : LPGA

Patty Tavatanakit is a professional golfer from Bangkok, Thailand who plays on the LPGA Tour.

43 Jazz pianist __ Jamal : AHMAD

Ahmad Jamal is an American jazz pianist who often played with Miles Davis.

45 Quarterback Rodgers : AARON

Aaron Rodgers signed with the Green Bay Packers as quarterback in 2005. Aaron has a younger brother Jordan who played football with the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

47 One-named body-image advocate : EMME

Emme is the highest-paid plus-size model in the world. Emme was born Melissa Miller in New York City, and was raised in Saudi Arabia.

48 Sesame __ : SEED

The sesame is a flowering plant that is cultivated mainly for its edible seeds. The seeds are a source of oil, and in fact the sesame is the oldest known oilseed crop.

51 Bulb measure : WATT

James Watt was a Scottish inventor. He figured prominently in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, largely due to the improvements he made to the fledgling steam engine. The SI unit of power is called the watt, and was named in his honor.

Here’s a lightbulb riddle:

Question: How many mystery authors does it take to change a light bulb?Answer: Two! One to screw it almost all the way in, and the other to give it a surprising twist at the end.

59 Wintry strains : FLUS

Influenza (the “flu”) is an ailment that is caused by a virus. The virus is readily inactivated by the use of soap, so washing hands and surfaces is especially helpful in containing flu outbreaks, and other virus pandemics …

61 California’s San __ Obispo : LUIS

The city of San Luis Obispo is one of the oldest communities in California. The name “San Luis Obispo” translates as “Saint Louis, the Bishop of Toulouse”. In 1990, San Luis Obispo was the first municipality in the world to ban smoking in all indoor public areas.

62 Part of MIT: Abbr. : INST

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was founded in 1861 and first offered classes in 1865, in the Mercantile building in Boston. Today’s magnificent campus on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge opened in 1916.

65 “The most striking figure in Starkfield,” in a Wharton classic : FROME

“Ethan Frome” is a novel by New York and Massachusetts author Edith Wharton, first published in 1911. Wharton started “Ethan Frome” as a composition in French that she wrote while studying the language in Paris. The novel was adapted into a 1993 film of the same name starring Liam Neeson in the title role, opposite Patricia Arquette.

66 Twelve, half the time : NOON

Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

67 African antelope : GNU

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

69 Alpine lake : TARN

A tarn is a mountain lake that has been formed by glacial excavation.

70 Weena’s race, in a Wells classic : ELOI

In the 1895 novella by H. G. Wells called “The Time Machine”, there are two races that the hero encounters in his travels into the future. The Eloi are the “beautiful people” who live on the planet’s surface. The Morlocks are a domineering race living underground who use the Eloi as food.

71 IRS agent : T-MAN

A T-man is a law-enforcement agent of the US Treasury (“T” stands for “Treasury”).

76 Something specific, informally : DEET

“Deets” is slang for “details”.

79 Heels : CADS

Our word “cad”, meaning “person lacking in finer feelings”, is a shortening of the word “cadet”. “Cad” was first used for a servant, and then students at British universities used “cad” as a term for a boy from the local town. “Cad” took on its current meaning in the 1830s.

83 Special occasion service : CHINA SET

The ceramic known as “porcelain” can be referred to as “china” or “fine china”, as porcelain was developed in China.

84 Sofia’s home: Abbr. : BULG

Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. Natives pronounce the name “Sofia” with the emphasis on the “o”, while the rest of us tend to stress the “i”. Bulgarians do agree with us though when it comes to the girl’s name “Sofia”, then they stress the “i” like we do!

86 Some NCOs : SGTS

A non-commissioned officer (NCO) might be a sergeant (sgt.) or a corporal (cpl.).

87 Arafat’s gp., once : PLO

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964. The PLO’s early stated goal was the liberation of Palestine, with Palestine defined as the geographic entity that existed under the terms of the British Mandate granted by the League of Nations back in 1923. The PLO was granted observer status (i.e. no voting rights) at the United Nations in 1974.

Yasser (also “Yasir”) Arafat was born in Cairo in 1929, the son of two Palestinians and the second-youngest of seven children. Arafat was beaten by his father as a child and so did not have a good relationship with him. Arafat did not attend his father’s funeral, nor did he visit his grave. The beatings were apparently administered because the young Arafat was repeatedly attending religious services in the Jewish quarter of Cairo. Arafat’s explanation was that he wanted to “study the mentality” of the Jewish people.

89 Group for ex-GIs : VFW

The Veterans of Foreign Wars organization (VFW) is the largest association of US combat veterans in the US.

94 Kissing at the bar, briefly : PDA

Public display of affection (PDA)

95 Hit the jackpot : WIN BIG

The term “jackpot” dates back to the 1800s and comes from the game of poker. In some variants there are progressive antes. This means that players have to ante up, add to the “pot”, when no player has a pair of “jacks” or better. They build a “jackpot”.

97 Protestant denom. : EPISC

The Episcopal Church in the US is a branch of the Anglican Communion, and so is associated with the Church of England. The Episcopal Church is descended from the Church of England’s presence in the American colonies, prior to the American Revolution. The American Anglicans split with the mother church, largely because the clergy of the Church of England are required to swear allegiance to the British monarch. Members of the Episcopal Church are known as Episcopalians. “Episcopal” is an adjective and “Episcopalian” is a noun.

99 Geek Squad member, for short : IT PRO

Best Buy is a retailer specializing in the supply of consumer electronics. Best Buy services include the famous “Geek Squad”, a band of technical experts that will help solve your computer and other consumer electronic problems.

102 Parts of gigs : MEGS

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

105 Where to find words for words : ROGET

Peter Mark Roget was an English lexicographer. Roget was an avid maker of lists, apparently using the routine of list-making to combat depression, a condition he endured for most of his life. He published his famous thesaurus in 1852, with revisions and expansions being made years later by his son, and then in turn by his grandson.

106 Label giant : AVERY

Avery Dennison Corporation was founded as Kum Kleen Products in 1935, by R. Stanton Avery. Kum Kleen Products were the first manufacturers of self-adhesive labels.

112 Pop’s Carly __ Jepsen : RAE

Carly Rae Jepsen is a singer/songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. Jepsen got her start on TV’s “Canadian Idol” when she placed third in the show’s fifth season.

114 Text-scanning tech. : OCR

Optical character recognition (OCR) is the conversion of scanned typewritten text into digital text. Basically, OCR is the conversion of an image into a text document.

115 Called before : 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.