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Constructed by: Elly Zupko
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Hey, Can I Get a Lift?

Themed answers each start with a way one might GET A LIFT:

• 56A Request from someone who needs a ride, or a request that can be made of the starts of 17-, 24-, and 43-Across : HEY, CAN I GET A LIFT?

• 17A Seat with horizontal spindles : LADDERBACK CHAIR
• 24A One competent in many areas : JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES
• 43A Concise promotional talks : ELEVATOR PITCHES

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 6m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 African tree snake : MAMBA

Mambas, most famously black mambas, are highly venomous snakes that used to be responsible for a great number of fatalities before anti-venoms became available. Mamba venom is a deadly mix of neurotoxins that attack the nervous system and cardiotoxins that attack the heart. A bite, if left untreated, causes the lungs and the heart to shut down.

6 Strappy tops, for short : CAMIS

A camisole (also “cami”) is a sleeveless undershirt worn by women that extends down to the waist. “Camisole” is a French word that we imported into English that ultimately derives from the Latin “camisia” meaning “shirt, nightgown”.

11 Los Angeles NFLer : RAM

The Los Angeles Rams are the only franchise to have won NFL championships in three different cities, i.e. Cleveland (1945), Los Angeles (1951 & 2021) and St. Louis (1999). The Rams were based in Cleveland from 1936 to 1945, in Los Angeles from 1946 to 1994, in St. Louis from 1995 to 2015, and returned to Los Angeles in 2016.

15 Introvert’s recharging period : ALONE TIME

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung popularized the terms “Introvert” and “extrovert”, although he believed that we all have introverted and extroverted sides to us. Nowadays we tend to think of extroversion and introversion as extremes on a continuum. We bloggers, sitting at home glued to our laptops, tend to the introverted end of the scale …

22 Many a YA hero : TEEN

Young adult (YA)

24 One competent in many areas : JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES

“Jack” is a nickname for “John”. Back in the 1500s, the term “jack” came to be used colloquially to describe any man of low status (as in “jack of all trades, master of none”). The usage was extended to describe any tool that saved work, perhaps replaced menial labor. By the end of the 1600s, the term “jack” became particularly associated with a portable device used to lift heavy weights using leverage.

32 Kitchen garb : APRONS

In Old French, a “naperon” was a “small table-cloth”. The term was absorbed into English as “napron”, describing a cloth used to cover the front of a person at work. Over time, “a napron” was heard as “an apron”, giving us our contemporary noun “apron”.

34 Antlered quadruped : ELK

The elk (also “wapiti”) is one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the “huge” wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely “elk”. The more correct name for the beast is “wapiti”, which means “white rump” in Shawnee. It’s all very confusing …

37 Surrealist painter with an iconic mustache : DALI

Artist Salvador Dalí liked to make a splash in public. He was known to walk an anteater on a lead around Paris. He also brought an anteater on stage to an interview on “The Dick Cavett Show” in 1970.

38 Hr. division : MIN

We use base-10, the decimal system for our numbers. Base-60, the sexagesimal system, was used by the ancient Babylonians. This ancient usage gives rise to our 60 seconds in a minute, and 360 (6 x 60) degrees in a circle.

39 Clarinet kin : OBOE

The clarinet is a lovely-sounding instrument, isn’t it? The name “clarinet” comes from the Italian word “clarino” meaning “trumpet”, with the “-et” suffix indicating “small”.

43 Concise promotional talks : ELEVATOR PITCHES

An elevator pitch is an abbreviated and informative description of something, perhaps a product or a company. The idea is that someone could get across the whole “pitch” to another party while traveling between floors in an “elevator”.

48 Place to store decorations, maybe : ATTIC

An attic or loft is a room or space located below the roof of a building. The term “attic” is a shortened form of “attic story”, the uppermost story or level of a house. This term “attic story” originally applied to a low, decorative level built on top of the uppermost story behind a building’s decorative facade. This use of decoration at the top of buildings was common in ancient Greece, and was particularly important in the Attica style. That Attica style was so called because it originated in the historical region of Attica that encompassed the city of Athens. And that’s how our attics are linked to ancient Greece.

51 Capital of Nigeria until 1991 : LAGOS

Lagos is a port and the biggest city in Nigeria. It used to be the country’s capital, until it was replaced in that role in 1991 by Abuja, a city built just for this purpose. Lagos is also the most populous city in the whole of Africa (followed by Cairo in Egypt).

60 Jazz choreographer Bob : FOSSE

Bob Fosse won more Tony Awards for choreography than anyone else, a grand total of eight (and another Tony for direction). Fosse also won an Oscar for Best Director for the 1972 movie “Cabaret”, even beating out the formidable Francis Ford Coppola who was nominated that same year for “The Godfather”.

63 __ salts: footbath additive : EPSOM

The Surrey town of Epsom in England is most famous for its racecourse (Epsom Downs), at which the Epsom Derby is run every year, one of the three races that make up the English Triple Crown. We also come across “Epsom salts” from time to time. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, originally prepared by boiling down mineral waters. Epsom was indeed a spa town at one time. The town is also home to Epsom College, an English “public school” (which actually means “private, and expensive”). One of Epsom’s “old boys” was the Hollywood actor Stewart Granger.

Down

6 Place to change for a dip in the pool : CABANA

Our word “cabana” comes from the Spanish “cabaña”, the word for a small hut or a cabin. We often use the term to describe a tent-like structure beside a pool or at a beach used for bathing.

7 Ruck of HBO’s “Succession” : ALAN

Actor Alan Ruck’s big break came when he was cast as the title character’s best friend (Cameron Frye) in the excellent 1986 film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. On TV, Ruck’s breakthrough role was the power-grabbing member of the mayor’s staff in the sitcom “Spin City”. More recently, he landed the part of Connor Roy in the hit drama show “Succession”. In real life, Ruck married fellow actor Mireille Enos in 2008.

“Succession” is a very popular dark comedy-drama series that premiered in 2018. It’s about a family-owned, global media company. The “succession” in question is who will get to run the empire after the passing of the ailing family patriarch. The marvelous Scottish actor Brian Cox plays the head of the company Logan Roy. Great stuff, albeit quite depressing and terrifying …

8 Comfy shoes, briefly : MOCS

“Moc” is short for “moccasin”, a type of shoe. The moccasin is a traditional form of footwear worn by members of many Native American tribes.

9 Printer supply : INK

Four-color printing uses four different color inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The black ink is also known as the “key”. The first letter of the colors (with black being ”key”) give the more common name for four-color printing, namely CMYK.

11 “Knives Out” filmmaker Johnson : RIAN

Filmmaker Rian Johnson wrote and directed quite a few major films, including “Looper” (2012), “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017) and “Knives Out” (2019).

“Knives Out” is an intriguing murder mystery film released in 2019. There’s a great cast including Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette and Christopher Plummer. I really enjoyed this one, partly because it’s a clever, contemporary take on a classic whodunit movie …

13 For a __ pittance : MERE

A pittance is a small amount, often a living allowance or remuneration. The term “pittance” came into English from Old French, and is basically an amount given out of a sense of “pity”.

16 Letter before iota : THETA

The letter theta is the eighth in the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks like the number zero with a horizontal line across the middle.

18 Coral-based ecosystems : REEFS

When coral reefs lose the algae living within the coral tissue, they also lose the colors associated with that algae. The algae have vibrant colors due to the presence of photosynthetic pigments. Without those colorful algae, the coral reefs appear white, as we just see the coral skeleton made up of calcium carbonate. This “coral bleaching” is mainly the result of rising ocean temperatures caused by climate change.

22 MMA decisions : TKOS

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport in which competitors use a variety of techniques from a variety of traditional combat sports and martial arts.

23 U.K. business abbr. : LTD

In Britain and Ireland, the most common type of business (my perception anyway) is one that has private shareholders whose liability is limited to the value of their investment. Such a company is known as a private limited company, and has the abbreviation “Ltd.” after the name. If the shares are publicly traded, then the company is a public limited company, and has the letters “plc” after the name.

24 Pressly of “Mom” : JAIME

Jaime Pressly is an actress from Kinston, North Carolina who is best known for playing the female lead in the sitcom “My Name is Earl”. More recently, she has been seen on TV in a supporting role in the sitcom “Mom”. Before turning to acting, Pressly worked as a model. She dropped out of school at 15 and traveled to Japan on a modeling contract. In order to do that, she had to legally emancipate herself from her parents.

25 __ : showers :: May : flowers : APRIL

The phenomenon known as April showers really only applies to Britain and Ireland. Increased occurrence of rain during April is largely due to an annual change in the position of the jet stream.

26 Origami bird : CRANE

Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She was exposed to the radiation and developed leukemia ten years later. While she was in the hospital, she began folding origami cranes. A Japanese folktale says that if a person folds 1,000 cranes (“senbazuru”), they will be granted a wish. Sadako hoped that by folding the cranes, she would be cured of her leukemia. She folded over 1,000 cranes before she died in 1955 at the age of 12.

29 __ Valley, California : DEATH

Death Valley is a spectacular desert valley in California that is part of the Mojave Desert. Badwater Basin in Death Valley is the lowest point in North America, sitting at 282 feet below sea level. Remarkably, Badwater Basin is located just 84 miles from Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.

30 Grammy nominee Goulding : ELLIE

Ellie Goulding is a singer-songwriter from England. One of Goulding’s claims to fame is that she sang at the wedding reception of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Buckingham Palace in 2011.

37 Geometric art style of the 1920s : DECO

Art Deco is a style of design and architecture of the 1920s that actually had its roots in Belgium and then spread throughout Europe before arriving in North America. Celebrated examples of Art Deco architecture are the magnificent Chrysler Building in New York City completed in 1930, and the GE Building that sits in the middle of New York City’s Rockefeller Center with the address of “30 Rock”.

40 “Dynamite” K-pop group : BTS

“Dynamite” is a 2020 song released by the boy band BTS from South Korea. It was a huge success internationally and hit number-one in the US charts. “Dynamite” was the first song that BTS fully recorded in English.

41 Cockpit figure : PILOT

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the original “cockpit” was a “pit” used for fighting “cocks”. The term was then applied nautically, as the name for the compartment below decks used as living quarters by midshipmen. The cockpit of a boat today, usually on a smaller vessel, is a sunken area towards the stern in which sits the helmsman and others (who can fit!). The usage extended to aircraft in the 1910s and to cars in the 1930s.

48 Melodramatic sigh : AH ME

A melodrama is a play or film that usually pits good against evil, with an obvious hero or heroine vying against an obvious villain. Melodrama has evolved over time, originating in the 18th century as a drama for which there was a musical accompaniment. The term is derived from the Greek “melos” meaning “music” and the French “drame” meaning “drama”.

49 Decking wood : TEAK

Teak is a hardwood tree in the mint family that is commonly found in monsoon forests of Asia. Teak’s tight grain and high oil content make it very suitable for constructing outdoor furniture, where weather resistance is valued. For the same reason, teak is the wood of choice for wooden decks on boats.

50 Tot : TYKE

“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902 For centuries before that, a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

51 Like most Twitch streams : LIVE

Twitch is a live-streaming platform used primarily by gamers. Folks playing games can broadcast their game play live to an audience.

52 Actor Steve of “Peacemaker” : AGEE

Steve Agee is multitalented. As a comedian, he had a regular role on “The Sarah Silverman Program”. As a more serious actor, he had a role in the superhero movie “The Suicide Squad” (2021). As a musician, he played guitar and bass in several rock bands in the nineties.

“Peacemaker” is a TV show based on the DC Comics superhero Peacemaker. It is a spinoff from the 2021 movie “The Suicide Squad”. John Cena plays the title character, both in the series and in the film.

55 Flute part : STEM

The narrow bowl of a champagne flute is usually preferred over the wide bowl of a champagne coupe as the smaller surface area of the wine helps retain its carbonation.

57 Persona __ grata : NON

A persona non grata (plural “personae non gratae”) is someone who is not welcome. The phrase is Latin for “an unacceptable person”. The opposite phrase is “persona grata”, meaning “acceptable person”.