Tag: Two priorities of Blondie crossword clue

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Constructed by: Paul Coulter
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Theme: Two Things

Today’s themed clues reference two different individuals who have the same name:

• 17A. Two foes of Rocky : NATASHA AND CREED
• 27A. Two loves of Homer : POETRY AND MARGE
• 43A. Two specialties of Spock : LOGIC AND BABIES
• 54A. Two priorities of Blondie : DAGWOOD AND MUSIC

Bill’s time: 9m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6. Whack : STAB

Take a whack, take a stab, take a guess.

14. Spaghetti Western director Sergio : LEONE

Spaghetti Westerns are cowboy movies that were produced and directed by Italians in the 1960s. Pioneer in the field was filmmaker Sergio Leone. Leone directed the best-known and most successful movies in the genre: “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964), “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966), all of which star Clint Eastwood.

17. Two foes of Rocky : NATASHA AND CREED

Fearless Leader, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale are all characters in the cartoon show “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. Fearless Leader is the dictatorial ruler of Pottsylvania, and Boris and Natasha are two of his minions, two inept government agents.

In the “Rocky” series of films, Rocky Balboa was given the ring name “The Italian Stallion”. Rocky’s first real opponent was Apollo Creed, known in the ring as “The Master of Disaster” and “The Count of Monte Fisto”.

23. Mountain nymph : OREAD

The Oreads were the mountain nymphs that accompanied the goddess Artemis on her hunting expeditions. Each Oread dwelled on a different mountain, for example:

• Daphnis (on Mount Parnassos)
• Echo (on Mount Cithaeron)
• Ida (on Mount Ida)

26. Form of love in Paris? : AIME

“I love you” translates into “te amo” in Spanish, and into “je t’aime” in French.

27. Two loves of Homer : POETRY AND MARGE

Homer was a famous poet of Ancient Greece who is believed to be the author of the two classic epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. However, some scholars believe that Homer did not actually exist, but rather he is the personification of oral tradition that was passed down through the ages.

“The Simpsons” is one of the most successful programs produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. Homer Simpson’s catchphrase is “D’oh!”, which became such a famous exclamation that it has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2001. “D’oh!” can be translated as “I should have thought of that!”

35. Mine entrance : ADIT

An adit is specific type of mine access, a horizontal shaft that extends into the mine. This can be compared with the more traditional vertical shaft that is used for access into most mines. Adits make sense when the ore is located inside a mountain or hill, as opposed to “underground”, as they allow the mine entrances to be on the valley floor.

39. Blunted blade : EPEE

The sword known as an épée has a three-sided blade. The épée is similar to a foil and sabre, both of which are also thrusting weapons. However, the foil and saber have rectangular cross-sections.

43. Two specialties of Spock : LOGIC AND BABIES

Leonard Nimoy played the logical Mr. Spock in the original “Star Trek” television series. Spock has to be the most popular character on the show, and he keeps popping up in “Star Trek” spin offs to this day. Nimoy first worked alongside William Shatner (Captain Kirk) in an episode of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” (I loved that show!), with Nimoy playing a bad guy and Shatner playing an U.N.C.L.E. recruit.

Dr. Benjamin Spock owes his fame to his 1946 best-selling book “Baby and Child Care”. For over fifty years, “Baby and Child Care” sold more books than any other, except for the Bible.

46. “Heartburn” novelist Ephron : NORA

“Heartburn” is a 1983 novel by Nora Ephron that is a fictionalized account of her own marriage to and divorce from investigative journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame. “Heartburn” was adapted into a movie of the same name in 1986, with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson playing the lead roles.

47. San Diego State athlete : AZTEC

The Aztecs are the athletic teams of San Diego State university. The team mascot is the Aztec Warrior.

54. Two priorities of Blondie : DAGWOOD AND MUSIC

“Blondie” was created as a comic strip by Chic Young. It was first published in 1930, and is still being created today (although the strip is now controlled by Chic’s son, Dean). The strip spawned a series of radio programs (1939-1950) and a series of Blondie films (1938-1950). Blondie is married to Dagwood Bumstead. Dagwood slaves away at a construction company run by Julius Dithers, whose wife is called Cora. Another famous character in the strip is Elmo Tuttle, a pesky neighborhood kid who is always bugging Dagwood.

Singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein founded the rock band Blondie in 1974. Blondie’s biggest hits were “Heart of Glass”, “Call Me”, “Rapture” and “The Tide is High”.

61. Milk by-product : WHEY

When milk curdles it separates into two parts, the solid curds and the liquid whey.

62. Oracle : SEER

In Ancient Greece and Rome, an oracle was someone believed inspired by the gods to give wise counsel. The word “oracle” derives from the Latin “orare” meaning “to speak”, which is the same root for our word “orator”.

63. Entourage : POSSE

Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”.

Down

1. It parallels the radius : ULNA

The radius and ulna are bones in the forearm. If you hold the palm of your hand up in front of you, the radius is the bone on the “thumb-side” of the arm, and the ulna is the bone on the “pinkie-side”.

4. Acapulco article : UNA

The Mexican city of Acapulco is on the southwest coast of the country, in the state of Guerrero. The name “Acapulco” translates from the local language into “at the big reeds”.

6. Sterne’s Tristram : SHANDY

Laurence Sterne is best known for his novel “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman”. It is an epic work, that was published in nine volumes over ten years.

8. Gothic novelist Radcliffe : ANN

Ann Radcliffe was an English author famous for her Gothic novels. Radcliffe is credited with pioneering the genre of Gothic fiction, and influenced later writers such as the Marquis de Sade, Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Walter Scott.

9. Important place for good manners : BEDSIDE

We tend to appreciate a good bedside manner in medical professionals.

10. Pupil’s cover : CORNEA

The cornea is the transparent part of the eye in the front, covering the iris and the pupil. Even though the cornea is not part of the lens it acts as a lens, and in fact does most of the work focusing light coming in through the eye. The cornea is in effect a fixed-focus lens passing on light to the variable-focus lens that is inside the eye.

11. Cassini of fashion : OLEG

Oleg Cassini, the French-born American fashion designer, had two big names particularly associated with his designs. In the sixties he produced the state wardrobe for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and he was also the exclusive designer for Hollywood’s Gene Tierney, who was Cassini’s second wife.

19. Feature of many a list : COMMA

Our word “comma” comes into English via Latin from the Greek “komma” meaning “clause in a sentence”.

26. Name at the end of many a “60 Minutes” episode : ANDY

Andy Rooney began his career in newspapers during WWII working for “Stars and Stripes” in London. He had some memorable experiences during the war, including flying on the first American bombing raid over Germany. He was also one of the first American journalists to visit the German concentration camps as they were liberated. He started his segment called “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” on CBS’s “60 Minutes” way back in 1978, and so was on our screens for over 30 years. Rooney passed away in 2011.

27. MLB Network analyst Martinez : PEDRO

Pedro Martinez is a retired baseball pitcher from the Dominican Republic. Martinez won the Cy Young Award three times, and was on the Boston Red Sox team that won the 2004 World Series.

31. Bridge column word : EAST

That would be bridge, the card game.

32. Caesarean section? : GAUL

The Gauls were a Celtic race, with Gaul covering what is now known as France and Belgium. We use the term “Gallic” today, when we refer to something pertaining to France or the French.

36. Clinton transportation secretary Federico : PENA

Federico Peña served as the Secretary of Transportation and as the Secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration.

37. Tony relative : OBIE

The Obies are the “Off-Broadway Theater Awards”. The Obies are presented annually and the recipients are chosen by “The Village Voice” newspaper.

42. NYC dance troupe : ABT

The American Ballet Theatre (ABT) was founded in New York City in 1939. ABT was officially recognized by the US Congress as “America’s National Ballet Company” in 2006.

49. Arch type : OGEE

An ogee is a type of S-curve. Specifically it is a figure consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite directions (like an S) but both ends of the curve end up parallel to each other (which is not necessarily true for an S). An ogee arch is composed of two ogees, with one being the mirror of the other and meeting at the arch’s apex.

54. Margery of nursery rhymes : DAW

“See Saw Margery Daw” is a nursery rhyme that goes:

See Saw Margery Daw,
Jacky shall have a new master;
Jacky shall earn but a penny a day,
Because he can’t work any faster.

57. Tabloid topic : UFO

One might speculate that an unidentified flying object (UFO) is flown by an extraterrestrial (ET).

“Tabloid” is the trademarked name (owned by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co,) for a “small tablet of medicine”, a name that goes back to 1884. The word “tabloid” had entered into general use to mean a compressed form of anything, and by the early 1900s was used in “tabloid journalism”, applied to newspapers that had short, condensed articles and stories printed on smaller sheets of paper.