# Crossword puzzle Immortals: Yma Sumac **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332 "2008-11-05T19:46:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/41 "2008-11-07T01:07:42Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > So what other examples of trivia are banned from crossword puzzles in your world? Obsolete words? Alternate spellings? Acronyms? Oh, don’t get me going! First names of golfers, architects, obscure 19th century painters, abbreviations that nobody uses (such as for seldom mentioned books of the Old Testament), best supporting actors from any film released more than two decades ago, the names (or nicknames) of baseball players who retired more than 30 years ago…and others, which I can’t recall off the top of my head. Only people who spend all their free time doing crosswords know these things. If they get rid of these, I’ll gladly forgo these obvious answers which for some reason crossword writers are obsessed with: epee ale (always ale, never beer) Abba eel ode oleo (really, does anyone ever buy oleo? What the hell is it, anyway?) Eire (never Ireland, always Erie) lei abo (blood typing system) the word for “friend” in French or Spanish orate ire emote eon and era there are others… ETA: Oh, yes! Uma! What the hell makes them so obsessed with Uma Therman??!! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/42 "2008-11-07T01:19:35Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Oh, don’t get me going! Trust me, I wish I hadn’t. 🙂 Seriously, you know that it’s a hard job, right, making a crossword puzzle? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/43 "2008-11-07T01:23:12Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Trust me, I wish I hadn’t. > > 🙂 > > Seriously, you know that it’s a hard job, right, making a crossword puzzle? My tears are palpable. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/44 "2008-11-07T01:47:29Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Uma - Oprah, Oprah - Uma! I’ve always been 99% sure that Dave was riffing on that \*New Yorker \*piece at the Oscars, but no one else got it. I did, and I sent him a letter at the time to let him know. (No, he didn’t reply.) ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/45 "2008-11-07T02:03:10Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I also thought of Brian Eno. And Queen Ena of Spain. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/46 "2008-11-07T02:20:36Z")
Film actress **Ilona Massey** , otherwise famous only as the girl (okay, Baroness) in _Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man_ (1943). ---
**Author:** ![Alpine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpine/32/17813_2.png) [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/47 "2008-11-07T03:09:32Z")
I just got \*\*Yma \*\*as a clue in the crossword I’m working on. Wouldn’t have gotten it w/o this thread, and I’ve seen most of the ones listed above. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/48 "2008-11-07T03:27:26Z")
ERTE (Art Deco master) Playwright William INGE ENOS may be “Slaughter of baseball”, “Cabell of the Astros”, or “Son of Seth”. African adventurer OSA Johnson (who’s actually the inspiration for a character in the play _Chamber Music_) And every other puzzle in _TV Guide_ features SNEE (John of _The New Leave it to Beaver_) and/or ERBE (Kathryn of _Law & Order: Criminal Intent_). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/49 "2008-11-07T03:47:51Z")
Another one is Smee, who was one of Captain Hook’s henchmen in Peter Pan. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/50 "2008-11-07T16:25:39Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > However much I like her music, her name is no place for a crossword puzzle just because some crossword writer needed some unlikely combination of letters to make a puzzle. The vast majority of people who get this clue are simply those who have done previous versions of this puzzle that have the same answer, worded differently, perhaps. It’s not really a true puzzle, but a question of, “How many times have you done this particular puzzle?” > > Yeah, her name will live forever, but not because anybody who does crosswords would otherwise know who she is. Agreed, but that’s kind of the point of this thread. It’s meant to be an affectionate poke at some of the more tedious tropes of the medium. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/51 "2008-11-07T18:36:45Z")
A few I anticipate showing up in the future, if they haven’t yet: Turkish writer, academic, and Nobel Prize recipient: [Orhan Pamuk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orhan_Pamuk) Egyptian novelist and social critic: [Alaa Al Aswany](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaa_Al_Aswany) Nigerian musician and activist: [Fela Kuti](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti) ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/52 "2008-11-08T00:19:02Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Agreed, but that’s kind of the point of this thread. It’s meant to be an affectionate poke at some of the more tedious tropes of the medium. I realize that. Just consider me affectionless, though still poking. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/53 "2008-11-08T06:42:56Z")
I still don’t know who these people are, but their names still show up in puzzles all the time: ADELA Rogers St. Johns (a writer of some kind) EDY Williams (actress of some kind) People I HAVE heard of who show up a lot: EWAN MacGregor, the young Obi-Wan Kenobi Jean AUEL, “Clan of the Cave Bear” author ERLE Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason’s creator Thespians Ken or Lena OLIN ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/54 "2008-11-08T16:42:39Z")
Britney Spears is an anagram of presbyterian. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/55 "2008-11-10T05:05:31Z")
Ava Gardner Tito Puentes ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332/56 "2008-11-10T12:58:08Z")
How about initials? They’ll almost always be AES, RLS, or TSE. (But poor T.S. Eliot, oftentimes his initials are used instead as “Half a biting bug” or something.) As for the OP and Yma Sumac, I actually knew who she was before I became a crossword junkie. She’s pretty popular among “incredibly strange music” collectors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crossword-puzzle-immortals-yma-sumac/471332.md?page=2)