Day: May 18, 2022

Advertisement

Constructed by: Adrian Johnson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Oliver Twist

Themed answers each include, hidden within, the letter string “OLIVER” TWISTED (anagrammed):

• 64A Dickens orphan, and what is found in each set of circles in this puzzle? : OLIVER TWIST

• 17A Investment option when leaving an employer : ROLLOVER IRA
• 30A London fashion street : SAVILE ROW
• 39A Leaving the state without permission, perhaps : PAROLE VIOLATION
• 46A Goal at a film audition : MOVIE ROLE

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

Bill’s time: 6m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Rapunzel’s abundance : HAIR

“Rapunzel” is a fairy tale in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. Rapunzel was a maiden who was locked in a tower by an enchantress. The inevitable prince turns up, and he climbs up to Rapunzel using her long, fair hair as a climbing rope.

11 Fashion monogram : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

16 Punk subgenre : EMO

“Emo” is short for “emotional hardcore”.

17 Investment option when leaving an employer : ROLLOVER IRA

A rollover IRA is a subtype of traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The funds for a rollover IRA come from another qualified plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b) account.

19 Chem class : LAB

Our term “laboratory”, often shortened to “lab”, comes from the Medieval Latin word “laboratorium” meaning “place for labor, work”. This in turn comes from the Latin verb “laborare” meaning “to work”.

20 Link to another story? : STAIR

A landing is the area at the top and bottom of a staircase. Apparently, we called the steps between the landings a “flight” of stairs, because one “flies” between landings! Can that be true?

21 __ Sutra : KAMA

The “Kama Sutra” is renowned for its descriptions of positions that can be used for sexual intercourse, but the sutra includes many other texts that deal with various matters of a sexual nature, including how to woo a woman, the conduct of a “chief wife”, the conduct of “other wives”, how to make money as a courtesan, and much more.

23 Station with an eye on the TV : CBS

CBS used to be known as the Columbia Broadcasting System. CBS introduced its “eye” logo in 1951. That logo is based on a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign.

30 London fashion street : SAVILE ROW

Savile Row is a street in central London that is home to many prestigious men’s tailors. The street was named for Lady Dorothy Savile, who was one of Queen Caroline’s Ladies of the Bedchamber (Caroline was the wife of King George II).

33 Big Apple? : IMAC

The iMac is a desktop computer platform that Apple introduced in 1998. One of the main features of the iMac is an “all-in-one” design, with the computer console and monitor integrated. The iMac also came in a range of colors that Apple marketed as “flavors”, such as strawberry, blueberry and lime.

35 Audio jack abbr. : MIC

Microphone (mic.)

36 “It’s a Wonderful Life” director : CAPRA

I can’t tell you how many of Frank Capra’s movies are on my list of all-time favorites. He directed such classics as “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”, “Lost Horizon”, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, “Meet John Doe”, “Arsenic and Old Lace” and the holiday favorite “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Capra was the first person to win three directorial Oscars: for “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” and “You Can’t Take It With You”. Capra also did his bit during WWII, enlisting just a few days after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Given his great talent, and the fact that he enlisted at the relatively advanced age of 44, the US Army put him to work directing 11 documentary war films in the “Why We Fight” series, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

The Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” was released in 1946, and is a Frank Capra movie starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. The film’s screenplay was adapted from a short story called “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. Remember the famous swimming pool scene? That was shot in Beverly High School gym, and the pool is still in use today.

39 Leaving the state without permission, perhaps : PAROLE VIOLATION

“Parole” is a French word that we use in English, with the French “parole” meaning “word, speech”. Of particular interest is the French phrase “parole d’honneur” which translates as “word of honor”. In the early 1600s we started using “parole” to mean a promise by a prisoner of war not to escape, as in the prisoner giving his “word of honor” not to run off. Over time, parole has come to mean conditional release of a prisoner before he or she has served the full term of a sentence.

43 Low joint : ANKLE

The tarsals (also “tarsi”) are the ankle bones, and are equivalent to the carpals in the wrist.

50 Country quartet __ Young Band : ELI

The Eli Young Band is a country group from Texas founded by Mike Eli and James Young when they were roommates in the University of North Texas.

51 Trattoria frozen dessert : GRANITA

Granita is a semi-frozen dessert in Italian cuisine that resembles sorbet, with the difference being that granita is usually less smooth and more crystalline.

56 Physics entity : ATOM

Our word “atom” comes from the Latin “atomus” meaning “indivisible particle”. In turn, the Latin term comes from the Greek “a-tomos” meaning “not-cut”.

64 Dickens orphan, and what is found in each set of circles in this puzzle? : OLIVER TWIST

“Oliver Twist” is an 1838 novel by Charles Dickens. The title character is an orphan who escapes from an oppressive apprenticeship with an undertaker. He gets drawn into the criminal underworld of London, where he meets up with some colorful characters such as the Artful Dodger, Fagin and Bill Sykes. Television, stage and film adaptations of “Oliver Twist” tend to lift the overall mood of the story, which in the novel is pretty bleak.

66 Gym shirt : TEE

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

68 Mardi Gras locale, familiarly : NOLA

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana has the nickname “The Big Easy”. This name might come from the early 1900s when musicians found it relatively “easy” to find work there. The city is also known by the acronym NOLA, standing for New Orleans (NO), Louisiana (LA).

“Mardi Gras” translates from French as “Fat Tuesday”, and gets its name from the practice of eating rich foods on the eve of the fasting season known as Lent. Lent starts on the next day, called Ash Wednesday.

69 Pour hamster food into the dog’s bowl, say : ERR

The rodents known as hamsters are commonly kept as house pets. Male hamsters are called bucks, females are called does, and baby hamsters are known as pups.

71 Elitist sort : 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.

Down

1 Like everything in a she shed : HERS

A “she shed” is the equivalent of a “man cave”. It is somewhere that “she” can use as her own space within a home.

3 Land in the agua : ISLA

In Spanish, an “isla” (island) is “tierra en el agua” (land in the water).

5 Off-roader, for short : ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

7 Fictional archaeologist Croft : LARA

Lara Croft was introduced to the world in 1996 as the main character in a pretty cool video game (or so I thought, back then) called “Tomb Raider”. Lara Croft moved to the big screen in 2001 and 2003, in two pretty awful movie adaptations of the game’s storyline. Angelina Jolie played Croft, and she did a very energetic job.

12 “The Hobbit” dragon : SMAUG

The dragon named Smaug is the principal antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”.

13 L, in a hotel elevator : LOBBY

Back in the mid-16th century, a lobby was a cloister, a covered walkway. The term “lobby” was imported from Latin, in which language a “lobia” is a “covered walkway in a monastery”.

26 Killer whale : ORCA

The taxonomic name for the killer whale is “Orcinus orca”. The use of the name “orca”, rather than “killer whale”, is becoming more and more common. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.

27 TV host Kelly : RIPA

When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting gig. Ripa has acted as spokeswoman for several brands over the years, including Electrolux and Rykä.

28 Mideast sultanate : OMAN

Qaboos bin Said al Said was Sultan of Oman, until his death in 2020, after coming to power in a coup in 1970 by deposing his own father. Qaboos had no children, and no agreed heir. After his death, the country’s Defense Council opened a letter left by Qaboos that named his successor, his cousin Haitham bin Tariq.

29 Hypothetical cosmic stuff : DARK MATTER

Dark matter is the theoretical material that makes up over 80% of the universe. Astrophysicists use dark matter to explain the discrepancy between the calculated mass of a large object and the mass determined empirically by observing gravitational effects. The term “dark matter” is an apt one as the matter is invisible to telescopes and neither admits nor absorbs light of significance.

31 “Tom & __”: biopic about T.S. Eliot and his first wife : VIV

“Tom & Viv” is a 1994 film based on a 1984 play of the same name by Michael Hastings. Both play and film tell the story of T. S. Eliot and Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot, the poet’s first wife. Willem Dafoe plays “Tom”, and Miranda Richardson plays “Viv”.

40 “Shazam!” actor Zachary : LEVI

Zachary Levi is an actor best known for playing the title role in the comedy-drama TV show “Chuck”, in which he starred opposite Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski. More recently, Levi has been playing the title character in the “Shazam!” superhero movies.

“Shazam” is a word that was coined in the “Captain Marvel” comics in 1940. Billy Batson is a boy who can transform himself into the superhero Captain Marvel (aka “Shazam”) by speaking the magic word “Shazam”. “Shazam” is actually an acronym standing for “Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury”.

41 Good Grips gadget brand : OXO

The OXO line of kitchen utensils and housewares is designed to be ergonomically superior to the average household tools. The intended user of OXO products is someone who doesn’t have the normal range of motion or strength in the hands e.g. someone suffering from arthritis.

47 Napoli’s home : ITALIA

Naples (“Napoli” in Italian) is the third largest city in Italy. The name “Napoli” comes from the city’s Ancient Greek name, which translates as “New City”. That’s a bit of a paradox as today Naples is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world.

52 Indy entrant : RACER

The Indianapolis 500 race is held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The race is run around a 2.5 mile oval, hence requiring 200 laps for completion. The first Indy 500 race was held on Memorial Day in 1911. The winner that day was one Ray Harroun. Harroun had seen someone using a rear view mirror on a horse-drawn vehicle, and decided to fit one on his Marmon “Wasp” motor car. Supposedly, that was the first ever use of a rear-view mirror on a motor vehicle.

58 Like a podcast about recording a podcast : META

In recent decades the prefix “meta-” has been used as a standalone adjective. In this sense “meta” means “self-referential”, describing something that refers to itself. For example, “This sentence starts with the word ‘this’ and ends with the word ‘this’” might be called a meta sentence. A movie that is about the making of the very same movie could also be described as meta.

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.

60 Detroit pro : LION

The Detroit Lions are the NFL team that play home games at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The team was founded way back in 1929 as the Portsmouth Spartans from Portsmouth, Ohio. The Spartans joined the NFL during the Great Depression as other franchises collapsed. However, the Spartans couldn’t command a large enough gate in Portsmouth so the team was sold and relocated to Detroit in 1934.

61 Capital city served by Gardermoen Airport : OSLO

Gardermoen Airport is the main airport serving the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Gardermoen was established as a military camp/base way back in 1740, and some military flights from the base started in 1912. It was Nazi Germany who developed Gardermoen as a proper airport, and these facilities were taken over by the Norwegian Air Force at the end of the war.

64 “!!!” : OMG!

“OMG” is text-speak for “Oh My Gosh!” “Oh My Goodness!” or any other G-words you might care to use …

65 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rapper MC __ : REN

“MC Ren” is the stage name of rapper Lorenzo Patterson. The “Ren” in his stage name comes from the middle letters in his given name “Lorenzo”.