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Constructed by: Janice Luttrell

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: It’s Not Unusual

Themed answers each end with a synonym of “NOT UNUSUAL”:

• 56A Tom Jones hit, and what can be said about the end of 20-, 27-, or 49-Across : IT’S NOT UNUSUAL

• 20A Central green in a small town : VILLAGE COMMON
• 27A Plateau in England that’s home to Stonehenge : SALISBURY PLAIN
• 49A Comedian’s performance : STAND-UP ROUTINE

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

Bill’s time: 4m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Combo pattern for mil. garb : CAMO

The US Woodland camouflage pattern was used widely by the US military from the 1980s to the early 2000s. It is a four-color disruptive pattern consisting of overlapping green, brown, tan, and black splotches. It is sometimes referred to as “M81”, which is the name of the Battle Dress Uniform on which it was first used.

16A Country singer Jackson : ALAN

Alan Jackson is a country music singer, and a bit of an author too. He married his high school sweetheart in 1979, but they had a parting of the ways about twenty years later due to the pressures on the marriage from Jackson’s career. The pair reconciled, and Jackson’s wife wrote a book describing the couple’s relationship and her commitment to Christianity. The book is called “It’s All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life”, and it topped the New York Times Bestseller List.

25A __ Vegas Aces : LAS

The Las Vegas Aces women’s basketball team was formed in Salt Lake City in 1997 as the Utah Starzz. The team became the San Antonio (Silver) Stars in 2003, before moving to Las Vegas as the Aces in 2018.

27A Plateau in England that’s home to Stonehenge : SALISBURY PLAIN

Salisbury Plain is a 300-square-mile chalk plateau in southern England that is home to at least two notable sites. Firstly, the Salisbury Plain Training area is the UK’s largest military training area, covering nearly half of the plateau. Secondly, it is home to the prehistoric megalithic structure known as Stonehenge, one of England’s best known landmarks.

The magnificent Stonehenge monument in the south of England was built from 3000 to 2000 BC. “Stonehenge” has given its name to “henges”, a whole class of earthwork monuments that are circular in form with an internal ditch surrounded by a bank. Paradoxically, Stonehenge doesn’t qualify as a henge by this contemporary definition, as its earthen bank is surrounded by an external ditch.

36A Brief albums, briefly : EPS

An extended-play (EP) record, CD or download contains more music than a single, but less than a long-play (LP) record.

42A Luau bowlful : POI

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.

45A Beauty store chain : ULTA

Ulta Beauty is a chain of American beauty stores that was founded in 1990 and headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. I am not part of the company’s target demographic …

48A Kendrick Lamar genre : RAP

Kendrick Lamar is a hip-hop singer from Compton, California. Lamar’s full name is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, with the singer’s given name honoring Motown artist Eddie Kendricks. Notably, his 2017 album “Damn” won a Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first non-classical or non-jazz album to do so.

56A Tom Jones hit, and what can be said about the end of 20-, 27-, or 49-Across : IT’S NOT UNUSUAL

“It’s Not Unusual” is a classic pop song that became Tom Jones’ signature song. Released in 1965, it was one of his first and biggest hits, reaching number one in the UK and the top ten in the US. The song was featured in the sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” where it was famously paired with Carlton Banks’s signature dance.

62A Fast-food pork sandwich : MCRIB

The McDonald’s McRib sandwich is based on a pork patty. There isn’t any pork rib in the patty though. It is primarily made up of pork shoulder meat.

Down

1D Tax prep expert : CPA

Certified public accountant (CPA)

2D Silent communication syst. : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)

4D Most populous island in French Polynesia : TAHITI

Tahiti is the most populous island in French Polynesia, which is located in the central Southern Pacific. Although Captain Cook landed in Tahiti in 1769, he wasn’t the first European to do so. However, Cook’s visit was the most significant in that it heralded a whole spate of European visitors, who brought with them prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol. Included among the subsequent visitors was the famous HMS Bounty under the charge of Captain Bligh.

9D Reunion attendees : ALUMNI

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or alumnus.

10D Dark red : MAROON

“Marron” is the French word for “chestnut”, which gives us our word “maroon” meaning chestnut-colored, dark brownish-red.

13D Polish Solidarity leader Lech : WALESA

Lech Walesa worked as an electrician in the Gdansk Shipyards in Poland. He was active in the trade union movement in the days when unions were not welcome behind the Iron Curtain. His efforts resulted in the founding of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in Soviet-controlled territory. For his work, Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and in 1990 he became the first democratically elected President of Poland. He has lost support in Poland in recent years, but he is a very popular booking on the international speaking circuit.

22D Scandinavian capital near the North Sea : OSLO

The Norwegian capital of Oslo is located at the northern end of a fjord known as Oslofjord. The fjord is home to 40 islands that lie within the city’s limits. Oslo also has 343 lakes.

24D Pet canary’s home : CAGE

What we now know as the domestic canary was first brought to Europe from Macaronesia, off the coast of Africa, by Spanish sailors in the 1600s. Macaronesia is a collection of four archipelagos that includes the Canary Islands. The name of the islands comes from the Latin “Insula Canaria” meaning “island of dogs”, a reference to the many large dogs found locally. So, the canary bird is named for the Canary Islands, which in turn are named for dogs.

30D Actress de Armas : ANA

Ana de Armas is an actress from Cuba. Having attended the National Theater School of Cuba, she moved to Spain at the age of 18. There, she made a name for herself in a Spanish TV series called “El Internado”. De Armas moved to Los Angeles in 2014, after which her performance opposite Ryan Gosling in 2017’s “Blade Runner 2049” earned her critical acclaim.

40D “Save Me” singer Aimee : MANN

“Save Me” is a 1999 song written and recorded by Aimee Mann. It was used in the 1999 drama film “Magnolia”, and earned a nomination for that season’s Best Original Song Oscar. The accompanying music video features Mann inserted into scenes from the movie as she sings the song. The video scenes were filmed with Mann and the actors (not digitally manipulated) at the end of a day’s filming. The list of actors appearing in the music video includes Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Cruise and William H. Macy.

43D Not duped by : ONTO

A dupe is someone who is easily fooled, a “live one”, one who can fall victim to deception.

47D Leaf-peeping season : AUTUMN

“Leaf-peeping” is the name given to the activity of viewing and photographing the change in the colors of foliage during the fall. Leaf-peepers usually head for New England and the American Midwest in order to enjoy the rich colors exhibited by deciduous trees and shrubs in the autumn months.

53D Harley-Davidson customer : BIKER

The Harley-Davidson motorcycle company was founded in the very early 1900s by two childhood friends, William Harley and Arthur Davidson. Their first design was in effect an engine hooked up to a pedal bicycle, but the 116 cc cylinder capacity simply couldn’t generate enough power to get up the hills of their native city of Milwaukee. The pair came up with a redesigned model that had a cylinder capacity of 405 cc, which the partners built in a shed at the back of Davidson’s house. In 1906, the partners built their first factory, located where the company’s headquarters is to this day, on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Famously, Harley motorcycles are nicknamed “hogs”.

57D Wild canary’s home : NEST

The Atlantic canary, informally called the “wild canary”, resembles the domestic canary, but with brown streaks down the back. It is named for the Canary Islands, which paradoxically were named for dogs (canines).

58D Pixar clownfish : NEMO

“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 animated blockbuster from Pixar. The film was the winner of the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Believe it or not, “Finding Nemo” is the best-selling DVD of all time and until 2019’s “Toy Story 4”, it was the highest-grossing, G-rated movie at the box office.

Clownfish are very colorful, attractive-looking fish. They are orange and often have broad strips of white and black on their bodies depending on species. Clownfish spend their lives in a symbiotic relationship with sea anemones.

64D Cranberry-growing area : BOG

When early European settlers came across red berries growing in the bogs of the northern part of America, they felt that the plant’s flower and stem resembled the head and bill of a crane. As such, they called the plant “craneberry”, which evolved into “cranberry”.