Day: April 20, 2022

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Constructed by: C.C. Burnikel
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Solve That!

Themed clues are imperative phrases ending in “that!” Themed answers are things to which the imperatives might apply literally:

• 17A Top that! : WEDDING CAKE
• 30A Beat that! : STEEL DRUM
• 46A Strike that! : POWER POSE
• 63A Take that! : COFFEE BREAK

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

Bill’s time: 5m 41s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Open mic night host : EMCEE

The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism used for a Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

11 Automated Twitter user : BOT

A bot is a computer program designed to imitate human behavior. It might crawl around the Web doing searches for example, or it might participate in discussions in chat rooms by giving pre-programmed responses. It might also act as a competitor in a computer game.

19 Prefix with binary : NON-

The non-binary (NB, enbie) spectrum of gender identities covers those that do not qualify as exclusively masculine or feminine.

22 Kabocha or pumpkin, e.g. : GOURD

A gourd is a plant in the same family as the cucumber. The hollow, dried out shell of the fruit is large and rounded, and used for a number of purposes. Gourds make fine bottles and bowls, and resonating chambers as part of musical instruments … and drums.

Kabocha is a winter squash that also goes by the name “Japanese pumpkin” in North America.

The pumpkin is a winter squash that is grown for food, and for carving as a jack-o’-lantern. Pumpkins can grow to very large sizes. Mature giant pumpkins can weigh over 2,000 pounds!

26 Mike who voices Shrek : MYERS

Mike Myers does a great British accent, witness his performance in the madcap “Austin Powers” movies. He has an advantage though, as both his parents are British, and live in Ontario, Canada.

In the 2001 animated feature “Shrek”, the title character is voiced by Mike Myers. Eddie Murphy voices Shrek’s sidekick Donkey, and Princess Fiona is voiced by Cameron Diaz.

28 David Ortiz’s 1,768, briefly : RBIS

The Dominican-American baseball player David Ortiz has the nickname “Big Papi”. After each home run that Ortiz scores, he looks upwards and points to the sky in a tribute to his mother who died in a car crash in 2002 when she was only 46 years old.

30 Beat that! : STEEL DRUM

Steel drums (also “steelpans”) are musical instruments that originated in Trinidad and Tobago. They were an evolution of similar drums made using bamboo. That evolution started in the early 1940s, when the base material for the drums became 55-gallon oil drums.

36 SoFi Stadium player : 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) 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.

SoFi Stadium is an arena in Inglewood, California just a few miles from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It is the home of two NFL teams: the LA Rams and the LA Chargers.

38 Caroline du Sud, e.g. : ETAT

In French, “Caroline du Sud” (South Carolina) is an “état” (state).

39 Like some angles : ACUTE

In geometry, there are several classes of angles:

• Acute (< 90 degrees) 
• Right (= 90 degrees) 
• Obtuse (> 90 degrees and < 180 degrees) 
• Straight (180 degrees) 
• Reflex (> 180 degrees)

44 Realm entered through a wardrobe : NARNIA

Apparently, it’s not certain how C. S. Lewis came to choose Narnia as the name of the fantasy world featured in his series of children’s books, including “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. There was an ancient city in Umbria that the Romans called Narnia, but there is no evidence of a link.

50 Miami-__ County : DADE

The residents of Florida’s Dade County voted to change its name to Miami-Dade County in 1997. The change was made in recognition of its most populous and famous city.

54 Test versions : BETAS

In the world of software development, the first tested issue of a new program is usually called the alpha version. Expected to have a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, the alpha release is usually distributed to a small number of testers. After reported bugs have been eliminated, the refined version is called a beta and is released to a wider audience, but with the program clearly labeled as “beta”. The users generally check functionality and report further bugs that are encountered. The beta version feeds into a release candidate, the version that is tested just prior to the software being sold into the market, hopefully bug-free.

56 Farm skyscraper : SILO

“Silo” is a Spanish word that we absorbed into English. The term ultimately derives from the Greek “siros”, which described a pit in which one kept corn.

58 Hairstyle for Nina Simone : AFRO

“Nina Simone” was the stage name of Eunice Waymon. Simone was very much associated with jazz music, although she really wanted to be a classical musician early in her career. She was inspired by a love for the music of Bach.

66 Hoover, for one : DAM

When the magnificent Hoover Dam was completed in 1936 it was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, as well as being the world’s largest concrete structure. The edifice was originally known as Boulder Dam, due to its location near Boulder City, Nevada. The dam was eventually named after Herbert Hoover for his role in having the dam built when he was Secretary of Commerce, and his later support as US President. There was a formal dedication ceremony held in September 1935 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the area, when only work on the powerhouse was incomplete. President Roosevelt managed to make his dedication speech without once referring to the name of his former opponent President Hoover. When the dam was finally put into service in 1936, the project was two years ahead of schedule. Those were the days …

69 Four-time WNBA champion Bird : SUE

WNBA player Sue Bird is one of only two basketball players, male or female, to have won five Olympic gold medals. The other is fellow WNBA star Diana Taurasi. Bird became engaged to US soccer phenom Megan Rapinoe in 2020.

71 Fine partner : DANDY

Fine and dandy

Down

1 Cornfield calls : CAWS

A caw is the harsh cry of a crow, and crows might be found in fields of corn …

2 Cookie that has a lychee flavor in China : OREO

Oreo cookies can be found with a savory-flavored filling in some parts of the world. In China, you can buy Hot Chicken Wing Oreos and Wasabi Oreos.

Litchis are better known in English as “lychees”. One can’t eat the skin of the lychee fruit, which is why you’ll notice that you are only served the sweet flesh. If you’ve never tried them, you should do so as they’re delicious. Even though there is a nut-like seed within the edible flesh of the lychee fruit, I wouldn’t eat it, as it is poisonous …

5 __ Lanka : SRI

The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.

7 Nutmeg spice : MACE

The fruit of the nutmeg tree yields two very different spices. What we call “nutmeg” comes from the seed of the tree. “Mace” is the dried covering of the seed.

8 Chewy chowder chunk : CLAM MEAT

The type of soup known as “chowder” is possibly named for the pot in which it used to be cooked called a “chaudière”, a French term.

9 Animal on Idaho’s state seal : ELK

The Great Seal of the state of Idaho was designed by painter and designer Emma Edwards Green, who passed away in 1942. Idaho’s is the only state seal to have been designed by a woman.

18 Doc intended to prevent leaks : NDA

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

23 Windy City airport code : ORD

The IATA airport code for O’Hare International in Chicago is ORD, which comes from Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field (OR-D).

25 Ariana Grande’s “God __ Woman” : IS A

Ariana Grande is a singer and actress from Boca Raton, Florida. Grande plays the role of Cat Valentine on the sitcom “Victorious” that aired for four seasons on Nickelodeon. Grande’s singing career took off with the release of the 2011 album “Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show”.

27 Gulf of Aden republic : YEMEN

Yemen is located on the Arabian Peninsula, and lies just south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman. Yemen is the only state on the peninsula that is a republic (its official name is the Republic of Yemen). Everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote, but only Muslims can hold elected office.

The Gulf of Aden is the body of water that lies south of the Red Sea, and just north of the Horn of Africa.

33 Painted Desert landform : MESA

The Painted Desert in Arizona is a beautiful badlands area noted for colorful rock formations. The name was given way back in 1540 by the Spanish, and is an English translation of the Spanish name “El Desierto Pintado”.

35 Stinging insects : WASPS

While wasps are considered a nuisance by many, they are very important to the agricultural industry. Wasps prey on many pest insects, while having very little impact on crops.

40 Regimen with Workouts of the Day : CROSSFIT

CrossFit is a trademarked fitness, strength and conditioning program that was introduced in 2000.

45 Podcast interrupters : ADS

A podcast is basically an audio or video media file that is made available for download. The name comes from the acronym “POD” meaning “playable on demand”, and “cast” from “broadcasting”. So, basically a podcast is a broadcast that one can play on demand, simply by downloading and opening the podcast file.

47 Org. regulating pesticides : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

49 Freestyle skier Gu who won two gold medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics : EILEEN

Eillen Gu is a San Francisco-born freestyle skier who started competing for China starting in 2019.

53 Where to wear a metti : TOE

Toe rings are commonly worn in the Indian subcontinent. The hindi name for toe rings is “bichiya”, and the Tamil name is “Metti”.

55 Old Testament twin : ESAU

Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins “the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)”. As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father’s wealth (it was his “birthright”). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a “mess of pottage” (a meal of lentils).

59 Terrarium plant : FERN

Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

A terrarium (plural “terraria”) is a contained environment used to house land animals. The term “terrarium“ comes from the equivalent “aquarium”, a tank for holding mainly fish. In general, a contained environment for keeping live animals or plants is known as a “vivarium”