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Constructed by: Matthew Luter

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Show Some Spine

Themed answers all can SHOW SOME SPINE:

• 50A Bravely stand one’s ground, or what 19-, 24-, and 45-Across typically do? : SHOW SOME SPINE

• 19A Long-lived plant native to the Sonoran Desert : SAGUARO CACTUS
• 24A Places for books that may be borrowed : LIBRARY SHELVES
• 45A Anatomical structure that includes bones and joints : SKELETAL SYSTEM

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

Bill’s time: 4m 30s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Collaboratively managed website : WIKI

A wiki is a website on which users are allowed to create and edit content themselves. The term “wiki” comes from the name of the first such site, introduced in 1994 and called WikiWikiWeb. “Wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “quick”, and is used because comprehensive content is created very quickly, as there are so many collaborators contributing to the site.

14A Ireland, to the Irish : EIRE

“Éire” is the Irish name for Ireland, coming from “Ériu”. Ériu was the matron goddess of Ireland in Irish mythology.

15A Novelist Vonnegut : KURT

Kurt Vonnegut was a writer from Indianapolis whose most famous work is probably the novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” from 1969. Beyond his writing, Vonnegut was noted for his support of the American Civil Liberties Union and American Humanist Association. Kurt had a brother who made a big contribution to society. Bernard Vonnegut was the atmospheric scientist who discovered that silver iodide could be used to seed clouds and artificially create rain.

16A Hamilton bills : TENS

The obverse of the US ten-dollar bill features the image of Alexander Hamilton, the first US Secretary of the Treasury. As such, ten-dollar bills are sometimes called “Hamiltons”. By the way, the $10 bill is the only US currency in circulation in which the portrait faces to the left. The reverse of the ten-dollar bill features the US Treasury Building.

18A Pet aisle brand : IAMS

Iams dog food was introduced by animal nutritionist Paul Iams. He felt that household pets were suffering somewhat by being fed a diet of table scraps, so he developed dry dog food that he felt was more nutritious and suitable for pet dogs. He founded the Iams company in 1946.

19A Long-lived plant native to the Sonoran Desert : SAGUARO CACTUS

The saguaro is a beautiful cactus, one that is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Arizona is proud of its saguaros, featuring them prominently on its license plates. If you ever get a chance to visit the Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona, I thoroughly recommend it.

22A Young newt : EFT

Newts wouldn’t be my favorite animals. They are found all over the world living on land or in water depending on the species, but always associated with water even if it is only for breeding. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental stages during their lives. They start off as larvae in water, fertilized eggs that often cling to aquatic plants. The eggs hatch into tadpoles, the first developmental form of the newt. After living some months as tadpoles swimming around in the water, they undergo another metamorphosis, sprouting legs and replacing their external gills with lungs. At this juvenile stage they are known as efts, and leave the water to live on land. A more gradual transition takes place then, as the eft takes on the lizard-like appearance of the adult newt.

32A Extra sports periods, briefly : OTS

Overtime (OT)

33A “You __ what you sow” : REAP

The commonly quoted line “As ye sow, so shall ye reap” is not actually a direct quote from the Bible, although the sentiment is expressed there at least twice. In the Book of Job is the line “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same”. In the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians is the line “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”.

35A Clearance rack caveat : AS IS

A caveat is a warning or a qualification. “Caveat” is the Latin for “let him, her, or it beware”.

39A Curved line on a musical score : SLUR

In the world of music, a slur is a curved line that connects neighboring notes that are to be played smoothly, without separation.

40A Internet access device : MODEM

A modem is a device that is used to facilitate the transmission of a digital signal over an analog line. At one end of the line, a modem is used to “modulate” an analog carrier signal to encode digital information. At the other end of the line, a modem is used to “demodulate” the analog carrier signal and so reproduce the original digital information. This modulation-demodulation gives the device its name: a MOdulator-DEModulator, or “modem”.

44A End of a college email address : EDU

The .edu domain was one of the six original generic top-level domains specified. The complete original list is:

• .com (commercial enterprise)
• .net (entity involved in network infrastructure e.g. an ISP)
• .mil (US military)
• .org (not-for-profit organization)
• .gov (US federal government entity)
• .edu (college-level educational institution)

45A Anatomical structure that includes bones and joints : SKELETAL SYSTEM

When we are born, our skeleton comprises more than 270 bones. Many of these bones fuse as we grow, leaving an adult with 206 bones in all.

57A Sweetheart : BEAU

A beau (plural “beaux”) is the boyfriend of a belle, a young lady. “Beau” and “belle” are the masculine and feminine forms of the French word for “handsome, beautiful”.

58A One with a superiority complex : SNOB

Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

60A Musical based on “La bohème” : RENT

The musical “Rent” by Jonathan Larson is based on the Puccini opera “La bohème”. “Rent” tells the story of struggling artists and musicians living in the Lower East Side of New York, and is set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. A main character in both “La bohème” and “Rent” is named Mimi. In the former, Mimi is a seamstress suffering from tuberculosis. In the latter, Mimi is an erotic dancer with HIV.

63A Sportsbook figures : ODDS

A sportsbook is a place that accepts bets on sporting events. The name comes from:

• Sports: it accepts wagers on various sports, duh …
• Book: a reference to the ledgers that “bookmakers” (or “bookies”) traditionally used to keep track of all the bets and odds.

64A Monopoly card : DEED

In the game of Monopoly there are 28 title deeds:

• 22 streets
• 4 railroads
• 2 utilities

Down

3D Hong __ : KONG

Hong Kong became part of the British Empire after the First Opium War in 1842. In 1898, Britain signed a 99-year lease to retain control of Hong Kong. That control ended 99 years later in 1997 with a formal transfer of sovereignty back to China.

5D Partridge’s place, in a Christmas song : PEAR TREE

The fabulous Christmas carol called “The Twelve Days of Christmas” dates back at least to 1780 when it was first published in England, though it may be French in origin. The concept of twelve days of Christmas comes from the tradition that the three kings came to visit the Christ Child twelve days after he was born. This same tradition is the origin of the title to Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”.

6D Disney’s “__ & Stitch” : LILO

“Lilo & Stitch” was released by Disney in 2002. Compared to other Disney feature-length cartoons, “Lilo & Stitch” was relatively cheaply produced, using the voices of lesser-known actors. One interesting change had to take place in the storyline during production, when Lilo was meant to fly a Jumbo Jet through downtown Honolulu in one sequence. This was replaced with a sequence using a spaceship instead, as the producers were sensitive to public sentiment after the September 11 attacks.

7D “Springsteen” country singer Church : ERIC

The lyrics of Eric Church’s 2012 country hit “Springsteen” name-checks several Bruce Springsteen songs: “Born to Run”, “Born in the USA”, “Glory Days”, and “I’m on Fire”. That’s about as far as the Springsteen connection goes, though. It’s about a teenage romance and a concert that featured a completely different artist.

9D Fruity candy brand : SKITTLES

Skittles are a brand of fruit-flavored candy that are produced by the Wrigley Company. They are small, round, and chewy, and come in a variety of colors, including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Apparently, there is quite a vigorous debate about whether or not the various colors of Skittle have different flavors, or all taste the same. They look different, and smell different, but do they taste different from each other? That is the question …

10D Party with poi : LUAU

Nowadays, the word “luau” denotes almost any kind of party on the Hawaiian Islands. To the purist, a luau is a feast that always includes a serving of poi, the bulbous underground stems of taro.

12D K-pop band also known as the Bangtan Boys : BTS

BTS is a boy band from South Korea with seven members. The initialism “BTS” stands for the phrase “Bangtan Sonyeondan”, which translates literally as “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. It is the best-selling musical act in the history of South Korea.

24D Fertile soils : LOAMS

Loam is soil made up of sand, silt and clay in the ratio of about 40-40-20. Relative to other soil types, loam is usually rich in nutrients and moisture, drains well and is easy to till. Loam can also be used in constructing houses as it is quite strong when mixed with straw and dried.

26D Back of a hit 45 record : B-SIDE

The first vinyl records designed to play at 33⅓ rpm were introduced by RCA Victor in 1931, but were discontinued due to quality problems. The first long play (LP) 33⅓ rpm disc was introduced by Columbia Records many years later in 1948, with RCA Victor following up with a 45 rpm “single” the following year, in 1949.

28D Sales pitch : SPIEL

A spiel is a lengthy speech or argument designed to persuade, like a sales pitch. “Spiel” comes to us from German, either directly (“spiel” is the German for “play”) or via the Yiddish “shpil”.

29D Parking attendant : VALET

A varlet was an attendant or servant, and perhaps a knight’s page. The term “varlet” comes from the Old French “vaslet” meaning “squire, young man”. “Vaslet” also gave us our contemporary word “valet”. The term “varlet” came to be pejorative, describing an unprincipled person.

31D Play a ukulele : STRUM

The ukulele (uke) originated in the 1800s and mimicked a small guitar brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

38D Sensory receptor on a tongue : TASTE BUD

There are 2,000 to 8,000 taste buds on the human tongue, and together they detect five different tastes: salty, sour, bitter, sweet and umami. Taste buds have a short lifetime, and are replaced about every ten days.

54D Des Moines locale : IOWA

The city of Des Moines is the capital of Iowa, and takes its name from the Des Moines River. The river in turn takes its name from the French “Riviere des Moines” meaning “River of the Monks”. It looks like there isn’t any “monkish” connection to the city’s name per se. “Des Moines” was just the name given by French traders who corrupted “Moingona”, the name of a group of Illinois Native Americans who lived by the river. However, others contend that French Trappist monks, who lived a full 200 miles from the river, somehow influenced the name.

55D Christmas carol : NOEL

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.