“The Peacemakers” by Matt Gaffney – 9:40
Hi, it’s Jeffrey with your weekly Daily Beast puzzle and last week’s contest results.
This week, Matt celebrates “The Peacemakers” with a group of Nobel Peace Prize Winners. No trickery in the theme answers, just a trivia contest.
Theme Answers:
1A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner honored on Mon.] – MLK. Monday is Martin Luthor King Day in the USA. He was award the Prize in 1964.
23A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner, 2009] – BARACK OBAMA
28A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner, 1978] – MENACHEM BEGIN
34A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner, 2007] – AL GORE
42A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner, 1962] – LINUS PAULING
63A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner, 1961] – DAG HAMMARSKJOLD. Just type random letters on the second row of your keyboard here.
87A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner, 1979] – MOTHER TERESA
100A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner, 1993] – NELSON MANDELA
110A. [Nobel Peace Prize winner, 1984] – DESMOND TUTU. I was getting worried about the 80s.
Anti-theme answer:
62A. [Non-Nobel Peace Prize winner, amazingly] – GANDHI. The list of non-Nobel Prize winners is much longer than the list of Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Other stuff:
21A. [Country singer McCann] – LILA. To date, a non-Nobel Peace Prize winner. Despite singing at Disney World.
25A. [“Young Frankenstein” role] – IGOR
31A. [Musician whose last name is Chrysomallis] – YANNI. That explains the going-only-by-his-first-name part. Another non-Nobel Peace Prize winner, despite performing at Disney World.
49A. [Sacha Baron Cohen character] – ALI G. Also a non-Nobel Peace Prize winner. Me until two seconds ago: Who is Alig?
61A. [Catherine of “A Mighty Wind”] – O’HARA. Born in Toronto. Amazingly, also a non-Nobel Peace Prize winner.
76A. [Photographer Arbus] – DIANE. New to me. Perhaps she photographed some Nobel Peace prize winners.
84A. [The urge to merge] – SEX DRIVE. Clue of the week. Also needed to create future Nobel Peace prize winners.
96A. [Smiths song “MEAT is Murder“]
108A. [One of the minor prophets] – AMOS. Do you think he lied on his resume and called himself a major prophet?
3D. [KIRI Te Kanawa (noted soprano)]. No doubt a favourite of many Nobel Peace Prize winners. Here she covers Susan Boyle :)
5D. [Boy band named for a Florida city] – O-TOWN. I hope it’s Orlando.
15D. [Key LARGO, Fla.]. Bertie Higgins deserves to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner for promoting marital peace through attempted cheating on your mate.
19D. [Killing one is bad luck] – LADYBUG. Also ruins any chance of becoming a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
36D. [Pinata part] – TILDE. Not in AcrossLite, it appears.
46D. [“And my machine, she’s A DUD” (Springsteen lyric)]. May still become a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
68D. [He beat Arthur to win the 1972 U.S. Open] – ILIE Nastase. Forget how it is spelled? Think I LIE.
78D. [Buddy Holly or Sam Houston] – TEXAN. Was his real name Buddy Dallas?
91D. [“Give Peace a Chance” singer] – LENNON. I bet he was nominated to become a Nobel Peace Prize winner at some point. Original song title was Give Chemistry a Chance.
102D. [Jay walking over O’Brien] – LENO. I’m on Team Alan Thicke.
Contest results:
Last week, I had the following contest:
There are 12 video links above. Ten of them relate to Elvis. Two relate to something else. You can win something seen in one of those videos if you tell me:
1) The two odd videos
2) What they relate to
3) What the prize is
Answers:
1) The two odd videos were: “Old King Creole” was actually Centerfield by John Fogerty; Elvis’s middle name linked to a video entitled “Montreal Expos 1969-2004”.
2) Several people answered baseball. That’s true, but more precisely, they relate to a Montreal Expos Centerfielder. Namely, Andre Dawson, who, as I noted at the beginning of the post, was just elected to the baseball hall of fame.
3) The prize is John Fogerty. No, actually, it is a Montreal Expos cap, similar to one seen early in the second video.
The randomly selected winner chosen from the correct entries is Howard Barkin! Howard will be given his prize in February at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Thanks to all that played.
This was fun. Maybe I’ll do another contest next time my wife makes me clean out the closets. (Don’t worry, Howard, the cap is like new).
I cannot find the beast puzzle on their website. I will have to keep looking.
Bruce: I’ve added the link on the puzzle title. In general, you can find it by clicking on the “Today’s Puzzles” link above and follow the Daily Beast link from there to find the puzzle.
Now that I know it has been released, I found it. It used to be linked under the entertainment tab of blogs, but this week it isn’t. Also the crossword link at the top doesn’t have the latest one yet. The beast is trying to hide Matt’s great puzzles from us. DAMN YOU BEAST!!! I will have to check out the puzzle and return to read your writeup Crosscan. Thanks in advance.
orlando! that didn’t occur to me. i was wondering, “i wonder … is it ocala or opa-locka?” how sick is that?
this is the fastest i’ve ever done a 21×21 on paper, edging out the 12/6/09 newsday. i’m sure you were all dying to know that.
A sub 10 minutes time (in AL) for a 21×21 is very rare for me as well.
I knew the O-Town reference. Must be how I was able to beat you by 3 seconds :)
Fun puzzle, and it was a fast one, agreed. The answers which were a bit unusual or had tricky spellings revealed themselves nicely and fairly through the crossings. Fine work, Matt. (And thanks again, Crosscan.)
Crosscan, you’re going to be one disappointed dude when Dawson goes into the Hall wearing a Cubs cap …