Across

1. They may be split

5. Common word

8. Moistens

13. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

15. Fool

16. Eye layer

17. Flair

18. Not at work

19. Star pitcher who never did for the Mets what Johan accomplished

20. Egg cells

22. The Rambam

24. Wonder

27. Come forth

29. Beauty pageant wear

30. Leah

32. Formal vote

34. Boot part

35. Author Morrison

36. Column’s counterpart

38. Traffic sign

40. Rochel

44. Binge

47. Lanzbom and Solomon, e.g.

48. “___ and the King of Siam”

52. Wrath

53. High ball?

56. Yosef

58. Farm newborn

60. High elected office in Rome, once

62. Great-great uncle of 56 and 63-Across

63. Binyamin

65. Santana, e.g.

67. Wolf down

68. Wall St. debut

70. Two-door car

74. Curl one’s lip

75. Pitied person, for short

76. Rav Yosef Karo

77. First name of a president shot while running for a third term in office

78. Feminine suffix

79. Simcha dance

Down

1. Fat letters?

2. After-tax amount

3. Like some humor

4. Han of sci-fi

5. Also

6. Where the Hawks play

7. Statue, perhaps

8. Fool

9. Declares

10. Help settle

11. Umbrella

12. Pie-eyed

14. “When pigs fly!”

21. Lifeless, old-style

23. Honey maker

24. Be in a cast?

25. Seuss resident

26. Bard’s nightfall

28. Form of ether

31. Sensation, slangily

33. Affirmative vote

37. Get hitched

39. Apple product

41. Aquarium denizen

42. Swear

43. Blah

44. Most awesome (in slang)

45. Desecrate

46. Akin

49. Lg. for Kings and Devils

50. Matrix character

51. Invoice fig.

54. Instrument with rina

55. Ox-related

57. Choose

59. Set straight

61. Scruffs

64. Agile

66. Brit’s “Baloney!”

69. Delivery room doctors, for short

71. ET carrier

72. Average

73. In-flight info, for short

(Answers, next week)

Yoni can be reached at yoniglatt@gmail.com.

A recently published report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has ranked Israel as the second most educated country in the world, according to analysis of the data by 24/7 Wall St.

The report, titled Education at a Glance 2011, seems to counter conventional wisdom regarding the direction of Israel’s education system. Among its findings are: that 45% of Israel’s population have post-secondary education; that 78% of the money spent on educational institutions in Israel are public funds; and that Israel had the highest population increase among OECD countries from 2000-2009, with growth of 19.02%.

The study found that the countries with the most highly educated citizens are the wealthiest in the world, and that with the exception of the UK, all of the best-educated countries fall within the top 15 OECD countries for greatest spending on college education as a percentage of GDP.

The ten most educated countries in the world, according to 24/7 Wall St.‘s analysis are: Canada, Israel, Japan, US, New Zealand, South Korea, Norway, the UK, Australia, and Finland.