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Constructed by: Howard Neuthaler

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Read Between the Lines

Themed answers are all spoken LINES:

• 17A Starting line? : I BETTER GET GOING
• 24A Punch line? : TICKETS, PLEASE!
• 43A Pickup line? : WELCOME ABOARD!
• 56A Trip line? : ADVENTURE AWAITS!

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

Bill’s time: 9m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Language in the same family as Hindi : URDU

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

10A Spots for STEM classes : LABS

The acronym “STEM” stands for the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. An alternative acronym with a similar meaning is MINT, standing for mathematics, information sciences, natural sciences and technology.

21A Island country whose capital is St. George’s : GRENADA

St. George’s is the capital of the Caribbean nation Grenada. The city was founded by the French in 1650 and originally named Fort Royal. It was renamed in 1763 to honor the patron saint of England after the British took control.

23A “Get Out” writer/director Jordan : PEELE

Jordan Peele is a former cast member of the sketch comedy show “Mad TV”. Peele created his own sketch comedy show “Key & Peele” with fellow-Mad TV alum Keegan-Michael Key. Peele started hosting and producing the revival of “The Twilight Zone” in 2019.

“Get Out” is a 2017 horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele. I don’t do horror, but I do hear that this one is well made …

29A Hoppy beers, briefly : IPAS

India pale ale (IPA)

31A Ivan the Terrible and Feodor the Bellringer : TSARS

The Grand Prince of Moscow, and first Tsar of Russia, Ivan IV became known as “Ivan the Terrible”. The name “Terrible” is a translation from Russian, and perhaps creates the wrong impression about the man. The Russian word is “Grozny”, which is more akin to “strict” and “powerful” rather than “cruel” or “abominable”.

Tsar Feodor I of Russia was the son of his predecessor, Ivan the Terrible. He was known as Feodor the Blessed, as well as Feodor the Bellringer. The latter nickname arose because he spent much of his reign traveling to churches across the country to personally ring the bells for divine service.

34A Scand. land : NOR

Strictly speaking, Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe that covers the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The broader region that includes Finland and Iceland is referred to locally as “the Nordic countries”.

38A Poseidon’s realm : SEA

Poseidon was the god of the sea in Greek mythology as well as the Earthshaker, the god responsible for earthquakes.

39A “Hello” singer : ADELE

“Hello” is a 2015 song by English singer Adele that won her three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance. It was the first song to sell over one million digital copies in a single week in the US.

42A Shade in four-color printing : CYAN

Four-color printing uses four different color inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The black ink is also known as the “key”. The first letter of the colors (with black being ”key”) give the more common name for four-color printing, namely CMYK.

48A B.A. Baracus player : MR T

“The A-Team” is an action television series that originally ran in the eighties. The title characters were a group of ex-US special forces personnel turned mercenaries. Star of the show was Hollywood actor George Peppard (as “Hannibal” Smith), ably assisted by Mr. T (as “B.A.” Baracus) and Robert Vaughn (as Hunt Stockwell).

49A Spine-stretching yoga move : CAT POSE

The yoga pose called bidalasana is also referred to as the cat pose. The practitioner usually kneels on all fours, and arches the back. The counterpose, with the back lowered, is the cow pose.

58A Wood used to make some woodwinds : PEAR

Pearwood was the primary choice for Baroque-era recorders and flutes long before the denser African blackwood became the modern orchestral standard.

60A James of “The Godfather” : CAAN

James Caan was an actor from the Bronx, New York City. He was noted for his appearances in some very big movies such as “The Godfather”, “Misery”, “A Bridge Too Far”, “Rollerball” and more recently “Elf”. Caan was quite the sportsman. He played golf with an 8 handicap, and was a 6-Dan Black Belt Master of Gosoku Karate.

62A Hammer parts : PEENS

The peen of a hammer is on the head, and is the side of the head that is opposite the striking surface. Often the peen is in the shape of a hemisphere (as in a ball-peen hammer). More often than not, the peen is replaced with a claw, primarily for removing nails.

63A “Bonanza” brother : HOSS

Dan Blocker was the actor who played Eric “Hoss” Cartwright in the Western TV series “Bonanza”. Hoss was the “slow” character on the show. Paradoxically, Dan Blocker was the most-educated member of the cast, having earned a master’s degree in the dramatic arts. Blocker passed away while “Bonanza” was still running. He was undergoing relatively routine gallbladder surgery and developed a pulmonary embolism which killed him. “Bonanza” ran for just one more season after Blocker passed away.

Down

1D Former eBay rival : UBID

uBid.com was an online auction site headquartered in Chicago, Illinois that was launched in 1997. It specialized in liquidating excess inventory for tech giants like Sony and Dell. At the peak of the dot-com bubble, its stock skyrocketed from a $15 IPO to over $180 in just one year.

uBid launched in 1997 as a powerhouse auction site that specialized in liquidating excess inventory for tech giants like Sony and Dell. At the peak of the dot-com bubble, its stock famously skyrocketed from a $15 IPO to over $180 in just one year. A decade later, the company ended up in chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the Ubid.com website is no more.

7D Big Blue of the NFL, for short : NYG

The New York Giants (NYG) football team plays home games in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a stadium shared with the New York Jets (NYJ). The Giants are the only team remaining from a group of five that joined the league in 1925. For many years, the Giants shared team names with the New York Giants MLB team, before the baseball franchise moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season.

8D Former NPR host Robert : SIEGEL

Robert Siegel’s distinctive voice was heard for 31 years co-hosting NPR’s afternoon news show “All Things Considered”, until his retirement in 2018. He joined the network in 1976 and played a pivotal role in its early growth, even opening NPR’s first overseas bureau in London. I was a big fan …

11D Forbidden City locale : ASIA

“Forbidden City” is the name given to Beijing’s imperial palace complex in which resided emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The initial construction lasted 14 years, starting in 1406. It served as the political center of Chinese government until 1912, when the last Emperor of China abdicated. It has been a public museum since 1925, and is the world’s largest royal palace complex that is still standing.

12D Big __ National Park : BEND

Big Bend National Park is located within the Chihuahuan Desert, and lies on the US side of the border with Mexico in West Texas. It is named for a “big bend” in the Rio Grande/Río Bravo river that defines that part of the border. The park was founded as the Texas Canyons State Park in 1933, and renamed Big Bend State Park a few months later. Texas gave the land to the federal government in 1944, creating Big Bend National Park.

13D Genesis creator : SEGA

Genesis is a video game console sold in the US by the Japanese company Sega. Genesis is sold as Mega Drive in the rest of the world, as Sega couldn’t get the rights to the Mega Drive name in the US.

19D Affogato scoop : GELATO

An affogato is a classic Italian dessert comprising a scoop of vanilla gelato submerged in a shot of hot espresso. Aptly enough, the name “affogato” translates as “drowned”.

23D Some EMT gear : PPE

Personal protective equipment (PPE)

24D Rock legend Turner : TINA

“Tina Turner” was the stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties, splitting her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

26D Hall of Famer Rod with 3,053 career hits : 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.

27D Chicago hoops squad : SKY

The Chicago Sky is a WNBA basketball team that plays home games at Wintrust Arena, located in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago. The Sky was founded in 2006, and the team’s mascot is Skye the Lioness, a tribute to the iconic bronze lion statues that guard the entrance of the Art Institute of Chicago.

32D __ admiral : REAR

The rank of rear admiral is usually the lowest of the admiral ranks. The term originated with the Royal Navy. In days gone by, an admiral would head up the activities of a naval squadron from the central vessel. He (and they were always male back then) would be assisted by a vice admiral who acted from the lead vessel. There would also be a lower-ranking admiral to command the ships at the rear of the squadron, and this was the “rear” admiral.

33D Zen garden rake target : SAND

Japanese Zen gardens are inspired by the meditation gardens of Zen Buddhist temples. They have no water in them, but often there is gravel and sand that is raked in patterns designed to create the impression of water in waves and ripples.

35D Country great Willie : NELSON

Country singer, actor and activist Willie Nelson was born during the Great Depression in Abbott, Texas. He wrote his first song at the age of seven and joined his first band at the age of ten, and he is still going strong. Nelson has a ranch in Texas but now spends most of his time in Maui, where he lives in a largely self-sustaining community alongside neighbors such as Kris Kristofferson, Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson.

36D Feta source : EWE

Feta is a Greek cheese made from sheep’s milk, or a mixture of sheep and goat’s milk. The cheese is salted and cured in a brine solution for several months before it is eaten.

40D Ten lords in a Christmas carol, e.g. : LEAPERS

The fabulous Christmas carol called “The Twelve Days of Christmas” dates back at least to 1780 when it was first published in England, though it may be French in origin. The concept of twelve days of Christmas comes from the tradition that the three kings came to visit the Christ Child twelve days after he was born. This same tradition is the origin of the title to Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”.

41D “I’m an open book” sesh : AMA

Ask me anything (AMA)

44D Total, as numbers in a ledger : CAST UP

A ledger is an account book. The term ”ledger” comes from the Middle English “leggen” meaning “to lay”. The original ledger was a large book “laid” in one particular place permanently, an example being a breviary in a church.

46D Concoct : BREW

To decoct is to extract the flavor of a liquid by boiling down and increasing the concentration. A related term is “to concoct”, meaning “to boil together”. We use the verb “to concoct” in a figurative sense to mean to contrive, devise.

50D Arabian port : ADEN

Aden is a seaport in Yemen that is located on the Gulf of Aden by the eastern approach to the Red Sea. Aden has a long history of British rule, from 1839 until a very messy withdrawal in 1967. A native of Aden is known as an Adeni. Some believe that Cain and Abel are buried in the city.

52D Common houseplant : FERN

Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

54D Waze guesses, for short : ETAS

Waze is a navigation app that is similar to Google Maps and Apple Maps. Waze was developed in Israel, and was acquired by Google in 2013.

57D Word on a Paris map : RUE

“Street” translates into French as “rue” and Italian as “via”.