Andrea Carla Michaels created puzzles for TV Guide and Games magazine in the 1980s. Her crosswords have been appearing in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times since 2000. Her puzzle today includes these theme answers:
Cloak-and-dagger spy: SECRETAGENT
Spaghetti-in-a-can icon: CHEFBOYARDEE
Typically yellow tangy fruit: BANANAPEPPER
Accessory metaphor for an accomplishment: NOTCHONONESBELT
"'I Can't Help Myself' Motown group is THEFOURTOPS. "Top" can precede the first word of each of the above four answers.
Italian immigrant Hector Boiardi had been head chef at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. In 1924, he and his wife Helen opened their own restaurant, Il Giardino d'Italia in Cleveland. It was so successful that he and his brothers Paul and Mario decided to launch their own brand of canned pasta products. The Chef Boyardee Company was founded in 1928 in Milton, Pennsylvania. They spelled the name phonetically to make it easier for Americans to pronounce.
A notch is a small V-shaped cut or incision. A notch can be in a belt. A notch can not be on a belt. The expression "a notch in someone's belt" comes from the supposed practice of gunslingers in the Old West carving a notch in their belt every time they shot and killed someone. Did gunslingers really do that? Probably not. It would ruin the belt.
"Spanish eight" is OCHO, which is not used in English. "Land in la mer" is ILE, which is not used in English. "Water, in Cannes" is EAU, which is not used in English. "You, in French" is TOI, which is not used in English.
The Four Tops, originally the Four Aims, formed in 1954 in Detroit. Their hits include Bernadette, Baby I Need Your Lovin', Reach Out I'll Be There, It's The Same Old Song, When She Was My Girl, Standing In The Shadows Of Love and Ain't No Woman Like The One I've Got. You may be familiar with the expression, "I slept like a top." One morning a friend said that to me. I said, "You slept like a top? That's nice." He replied, "Not really. I was spinning all night."
