Monday Puzzle #18 or "The Bird Bird Bird, the Bird is the Word"

Yay! My Barnes and Noble package arrived this evening. The Tuesday puzzles (which I can’t even think about now), Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and An Iceland Fisherman by Pierre Loti.

Puzzle #18 – was unable to complete it. The clues I didn’t answer were:

39 across, “Derisive laugh.” I thought it might be HAH, and it was. But, I’m often wrong on those types of clues – and the two h’s on the ends weren’t helping me with the other clues.

42 across, “Hollywood’s Ken or Lena.” OLIN. Had everything but the i. And, I have no idea who Ken or Lena Olin are. Oh, ok. So Ken Olin played Michael on Thirtysomething. Lena Olin I don’t recognize. She is a Swedish actress, but has worked in American television and film.

32 down, “L.B.J.’s veep.” HHH. I don’t know who is VP was and the initials do not help. Hubert Horatio Humphrey. My favorite information from the Wikipedia page about him is, “Humphrey spent his last weeks calling old political acquaintances…one call was to Richard Nixon, his former foe in the 1968 presidential election in which Humphrey invited Nixon to his upcoming funeral; Nixon accepted…Living in the hospital, Humphrey went from room to room, cheering up other patients with a joke and listening to them.”

39 down, “Get a move on, quaintly.” HIE. Like in “hie-ho?” But, that’s “hi-ho” – right? MW tells me that hie means, “to go quickly; hasten.” Never heard the word. (Oh boy – just so you know how my mind works – I am now singing “The Bird is the Word” in Peter Griffin’s voice in my head.)

Things I got but don’t really know:

10 across, “’Picnic’ Pulitzer winner William.” INGE. Well, as it turns out, in college I worked on one of his plays, “Bus Stop.” I did lights or props or something. Inge killed himself in 1973 – carbon monoxide poisoning – he was 60. He was depressed and thought he would never write well again.

21 across, “U.N. working conditions agency.” ILO. Stands for International Labour Organization.

23 across, “Guinness suffix.” I could only think of the beer. The answer is EST. I thought maybe it was related to some old marketing campaign for the beer (imagining the big toucan saying “It’s the Greatest” or something like that). Not until I Googled Guinness and the whole book of records thing came up did I finally get it. I’m telling you, I’m not the quickEST.

10 down, “Director Berman.” Now, I totally know this is Ingmar. Famous European (Swiss or Norwegian?) director that used weird camera angles or something. But, not sure if I can name a single film. I know I’ve seen at least one of his films. WikiP confirms he was Swedish. Also says “His influential body of work often dealt with themes such as bleakness and despair, as well as comedy and hope, in his cinematic explorations of the human condition.”

Interestingly, Lena Olin’s father (Stig Olin) appeared in some Berman films.

43 across, “Spy novelist John.” I got le Carre, but wouldn’t be able to name one of his books. Now I know he’s the author of many famous books – “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, “The Little Drummer Girl,” “The Constant Gardener,” (I saw the movie).

49 down, “Bigwigs.” NABOBS. MW tells me nabob is a Hindi word. The second definition is “a person of great wealth or prominence.”

60 across, “Rhoda’s TV mom.” IDA. I liked Rhoda on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I don’t know if I ever watched Rhoda the spinoff.

61 down, “10th anniversary metal.” TIN. This is good to know as my 10 year anniversary is in a couple of weeks.

This puzzle had two tried and true clues & answers:

18 across, “Bread spreads.” OLEOS. However, I’m not so sure about the plural form being proper. But, I looked it up and it is a noun. I guess I was thinking of it as a brand. Or, would you say “margarines?” I guess.

And, 44 across, “Shooting marble.” IMMIE. The problem is – as in Puzzle #9 – the answer to this clue was TAW. My Google research tells me that the shooting marble is usually called the taw, boss, or shooter. An immie is another name for an agate, or a fake agate. I’m sure I’ll have to do a lot more research on marbles to find out that an immie can be a shooter, but I don’t want to.

Ok, I admit to feeling a bit discouraged. I can’t possibly learn all of this stuff. Sigh. I need good ol' HHH right now.