4/6/25 - Course Correction 🚧

🏁 Solve –> Course Correction by Kareem Ayas

11A | Onetime Volvo competitor

SAAB

Saab – an acronym for Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (Swedish Aeroplane Corporation) – was formed in 1937 as part of a national imperative in Sweden to build up the country's air force with WWII looming on the not-so-distant horizon.

After the war, the company began manufacturing automobiles, with its first model – the Saab 92 – rolling off production lines in 1947. Over the following decades, the brand developed a cult following (particularly in the U.S.), but never achieved widespread popularity due in part to its vehicles' high price points.

Saab ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2011 after previously being owned by General Motors and Dutch carmaker Spyker.

👉 BONUS BIT: The initial run of Saab 92s were all painted "bottle green" on account of Sweden's armed forces having purchased large quantities of the color with the intention of using it as camouflage, but ultimately finding it insufficient for that purpose.

25A | Light, short-sleeved, collared garment

CAMP SHIRT

Even if you aren't familiar with the name, you've likely seen or even worn a camp shirt, as the popular style – with its less formal, flat "camp" collar – is commonly used for bowling shirts and aloha (aka "Hawaiian") shirts.

57A | Bit of curling equipment

STONE

The sport of curling is kind of like shuffleboard on ice, with two teams competing to amass the most points by sliding a molded piece of round granite (the "stone") toward a painted target while two people with brooms sweep the surface in front of its path in an attempt to influence the object's speed, rotation, and trajectory.

According to regulations, a curling stone is required to weigh between 38 and 44 pounds (including the handle), as well as be at most 36" (91 cm) in circumference and at least 4.5" (11.4 cm) in height.

⚠️ FYI: The granite used to make all curling stones used in Olympic competition is sourced from Ailsa Craig, an uninhabited island and bird sanctuary in Scotland.

99A | Number with 18 zeros

QUINTILLION 

Combining quintus (Latin for "fifth") with the suffix of "million," a quintillion is a figure equivalent to one million raised to the fifth power. In this etymological sense, you would expect the number to be a 1 followed by 30 zeroes

And, indeed, this corresponds to its historical usage in England based on the "long scale" for christening large numbers. However, the scientific community chooses to use the "short scale," which determines the numbers to be named based on a factor of one thousand, rather than one million (as the long scale does).

Thus, beginning in the 1970s, Brits had to come to terms (pun intended) with calling the number 1 followed by 18 zeros a "quintillion" as opposed to a "trillion."

106A | Colorado's ___ Park

ESTES

Situated at the base of the Rocky Mountains, the town of Estes Park is named after a gold miner who settled in the valley with his wife and 13 children in 1859.

Aside from its natural splendor, Estes Park's most famous attraction is the Stanley Hotel, which was opened in 1909 by F.O. Stanley (the inventor of the steam-powered car who credited his recovery from tuberculosis to the region's fresh air).

The resort once accommodated Stephen King and is believed to be the inspiration for the fictional Overlook Hotel in his 1977 horror masterpiece The Shining. It also served as the filming location for the 1994 Jim Carrey comedy Dumb and Dumber.

👉 BONUS BIT: Before turning attention to automobile innovations, Freelan Oscar Stanley and his twin brother Francis Edgar first found success with the Stanley Dry Plate Company, a business that produced photographic plates and was eventually bought by their main rival, Eastman Kodak, in 1905.

121A | Language from which we get "cashmere"

SANSKRIT

The word "cashmere" is an Anglicization of Kashmir, a region in northern India bounded by the Himalayan mountains that is home to the goats from which the extremely fine – and therefore, luxuriously soft – wool fibers used to make cashmere clothing are obtained.

⚠️ FYI: China is currently the world's largest producer of raw cashmere, accounting for approximately 60% of the supply. Mongolia ranks a distant second.

123A | Nursery rhyme name that's said twice in a row

MARY

Although the earliest versions of the poem (dating back to the 1740s) identify its subject as "Mistress Mary," modern iterations run as such:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

As with most classic children's rhymes, there is believed to be a deeper meaning hidden beneath its seemingly innocuous surface, but no definitive interpretation has emerged.

Competing theories posit that the "Mary" in question could refer to either:

• Jesus's mother (Virgin Mary) and the rise of Catholicism
• Mary Tudor ("Bloody" Mary I of England) and her persecution of Protestants
• Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots) and her husband's infidelity [For this one, you'd have to interpret "cockle" – an edible mollusk –as punning on "cuckold."]

8D | ___ Chisholm, first Black woman elected to Congress

SHIRLEY

Shirley Chisholm represented New York's 12th Congressional district (covering a portion of Brooklyn) from 1969 to 1983.

During that time, she co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus and in 1972 launched a presidential campaign, becoming the first Black candidate to seek the nomination of a major U.S. political party.

50D | "Wayne's World" or "MacGruber," informally

SNL SKIT

To date, nine Saturday Night Live sketches have made the jump from small screen to big screen, starting with 1980's The Blues Brothers and culminating most recently with 2010's MacGruber, a MacGyver parody starring Will Forte that was critically panned and failed to recoup its budget at the box office.

On the flip side, 1992's Wayne's World (starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as the hosts of a public access television show) holds the honor of being the highest-grossing movie to be based on an SNL skit – earning over $180 million and kicking off a run of lackluster features over the next decade that tried and failed to replicate its success, including Coneheads (1993), It's Pat (1994), Stuart Saves His Family (1995), A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Superstar (1999), and The Ladies Man (2000).

97D | Poet Hughes

TED

Also a playwright, translator and children's book author, Ted Hughes (1930-98) served as the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1984 until his death.

In 1956, Hughes co-founded Saint Botolph's Review, a poetry magazine that only published one issue, but ultimately holds claim to one of the most legendary launch parties in literary history on account it being the event where Hughes first met his future wife, Sylvia Plath (American poet and author of The Bell Jar).

The pair were married four months later and remained so for nearly seven years until Plath took her own life, some suggest on account of worsening depression due in part to Hughes's affair with a woman subletting their London apartment.

Hmm, that sounds familiar 🤔

36A | Tourney sponsor since 1939

NCAA [see The Sunday Glossword - 02/09/2025]