Day: April 30, 2023

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Constructed by: Matthew Stock & Stacey Yaruss McCullough
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Inbox Zero

Themed answers are common phrases with the letter chain “IN” replaced by a letter “O”:

• 24A Mayhem that ensues when one tries to order a Big Mac at an Arby’s? : FAST-FOOD CHAOS (from “fast-food chains”)
• 37A Troubles in central France? : BURGUNDY WOES (from “Burgundy wines”)
• 47A Moment of brain freeze for a programmer? : CODER BLOCK (from “cinder block”)
• 70A What a wizard panda might cast on its hungry enemies? : THE CURSE OF THE BAMBOO (from “The Curse of the Bambino”)
• 93A How a baby born in mid-September might behave? : LIKE A VIRGO (from “Like a Virgin”)
• 100A Entry on a canner’s to-do list? : PROCESS PEACH (from “Princess Peach”)
• 118A Anticipation on a horse farm? : FOAL COUNTDOWN (from “final countdown”)

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

Bill’s time: 17m 20s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Sticky sandwiches : S’MORES

S’mores are treats peculiar to North America that are usually eaten around a campfire. A s’more consists of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers. The earliest written reference to the recipe is in a 1927 publication called “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts”. Girl Scouts always did corner the market on cookies and the like!

7 Hayek Pinault of “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” : SALMA

Salma Hayek is a Mexican actress. She was the first Mexican national to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, earning that nomination with her portrayal of artist Frida Kahlo in the 2002 movie “Frida”.

12 Mink cousin : MARTEN

Martens are weasel-like carnivores with yellowish to dark-brown fur. That fur is relatively thick, and is valued by fur trappers.

18 Rummylike game : CANASTA

The card game canasta originated in Uruguay apparently, with “canasta” being the Spanish word for “basket”. In the rummy-like game, a meld of seven cards or more is called a canasta.

27 Workday alternative : ADP

Automatic Data Processing (ADP) is an enterprise based in Roseland, New Jersey that provides business services to companies. The company was founded back in 1949 by Henry Taub as Automatic Payrolls, Inc.

30 Otolaryngologists, for short : ENTS

The ear, nose and throat (ENT) branch of medicine is more correctly called “otolaryngology”.

31 Lawyer’s org. : ABA

American Bar Association (ABA)

36 Some online convos : IMS

Convo (conversation)

37 Troubles in central France? : BURGUNDY WOES (from “Burgundy wines”)

The Burgundy region of France is famous for its wine production. If you’re looking at a label that isn’t translated into English though, you’ll see Burgundy written in French, namely “Bourgogne”.

40 __ mess: traditional English dessert : ETON

The dessert Eton mess is a mixture of strawberries or other berries, meringue, and whipped cream. It is believed to originate from Eton College in England, hence the name.

42 __ de deux : PAS

In the world of ballet, a pas de deux is a duet in which the dancers dance together. A classic pas de deux has a particular structure. It starts with a short entree followed by an adagio and two variations, one for each dancer, and ends with a short coda. The term “pas de deux” is French for “step for two”, or I suppose “dance for two”.

45 Jack or jenny : ASS

A female donkey/ass is known as a jenny and a male is known as a jack, or sometimes “jackass”. We started using the term “jackass” to mean “fool” in the 1820s.

47 Moment of brain freeze for a programmer? : CODER BLOCK (from “cinder block”)

Concrete masonry units are usually called cinder blocks here in the US, and breeze blocks in the UK and Ireland. The concrete used for the units includes cinders (ash) as the aggregate material, hence the name “cinder” block. Cinders/ash are also known as “breeze”, hence the name “breeze” block.

55 Port near Naples : SALERNO

Salerno is a port city on the southwest coast of Italy. In WWII, after the Italians negotiated a peace treaty with the Allies in 1943, the King of Italy relocated to Salerno from Rome. The new Italian government was set up in the city, and so for a few months, Salerno was the nation’s capital.

60 LaLiga chants : OLES

The premier division of Spanish club soccer is the “Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División”, or more usually “La Liga” (The League).

62 Animal that often sleeps holding hands with its mate : OTTER

Sea otters actually hold hands while sleeping on their backs so that they don’t drift apart. When sea otter pups are too small to lock hands, they clamber up onto their mother’s belly and nap there.

70 What a wizard panda might cast on its hungry enemies? : THE CURSE OF THE BAMBOO (from “The Curse of the Bambino”)

The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox the World Series from 1918 until 2004. The Curse was said to have been placed on the Red Sox by Babe “The Bambino” Ruth, who was reportedly angry at being traded to the Yankees.

77 Some Outback sprinters : EMUS

In Australia, the land outside of urban areas is referred to as the outback or the bush. That said, I think that the term “outback” is sometimes reserved for the more remote parts of the bush.

79 __ of undying: Minecraft item : TOTEM

Minecraft is a video game that was released in 2011. It is the most popular video game of all time, with well over 200 million units sold.

86 Beef rib, to be brief : ANAGRAM

“Beef rib” is an anagram of “be brief”.

91 Peppermint __ : PATTY

Peppermint Patty is a character in the long-running comic strip “Peanuts”, by Charles M. Schulz. Peppermint Patty has a friend named Marcie who famously refers to Peppermint Patty as “Sir”, which is perhaps a reference to her reputation as a tomboy. Tomboy or not, it is revealed in the strip that Peppermint Patty has quite a crush on Charlie Brown.

93 How a baby born in mid-September might behave? : LIKE A VIRGO (from “Like a Virgin”)

The astrological sign Virgo is the sixth sign in the Zodiac, and is associated with the constellation of the same name. The Virgo constellation is related to maidens (virgins), purity and fertility.

1984’s “Like A Virgin” is the lead and title single of Madonna’s second album. It was destined to be the pop diva’s first number-one in the Billboard Hot 100, and was the song that launched Madonna’s career as a global superstar.

95 “__ Mubarak”: holiday greeting : EID

“Eid Mubarak” translates from Arabic as “Blessed festival/feast”. It is a greeting used by many Muslins at the two main holidays celebrated in Islam: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

97 Summer Games org. : IOC

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894, and has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

98 Cell service initials : LTE

In the world of telecommunications, the initialism LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution, and is wireless broadband communication standard. In general terms, LTE improves broadband speeds. As I understand it, LTE technology allows a 3G network to perform almost as well as a true 4G network, and so LTE is sometimes marketed as 4G LTE, even though it’s really “3G plus”.

99 Place to get blintzes : DELI

A blintz (also “blintze” and “blin”, plural “blini”) is a thin pancake similar to a crêpe, although unlike a crêpe, a blintz may contain yeast.

100 Entry on a canner’s to-do list? : PROCESS PEACH (from “Princess Peach”)

Princess Peach is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom in Nintendo’s “Mario” universe. She is also Mario’s love interest.

108 NYSE launch : IPO

An initial public offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

111 __ Paulo : SAO

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil. It is also the city with the highest number of helicopters in the world. This is partly driven by the horrendous traffic jams in São Paulo, but also by the wealthy having a very real fear of being kidnapped on the city’s streets.

116 Soul maker : KIA

The Kia Soul is a compact car produced in South Korea, although it was designed by Kia here in the US, in Irvine, California. Yep, the Kia Soul is made in Seoul …

117 Rabbitlike mammal with short hind legs : PIKA

A pika is a small mammal with no external tail that lives in many parts of the world. The pika is prone to emitting a high-pitched alarm call as it dives for cover into its burrow, which behavior led to it being nicknamed the “whistling hare”. Taxonomically, the pika does indeed belong to the same order as rabbits and hares.

126 Heavy hammers : SLEDGES

A sledgehammer is a big hammer, one used to apply a lot of force. The word “sledgehammer” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “Slaegan” meaning “to strike violently”. “Slaegan” is also the root of the words “slag”, “slay” and “slog”.

127 Lightning container, idiomatically : BOTTLE

Someone trying to capture lightning in a bottle is a person taking on an extremely difficult task. The idiomatic phrase is thought to have originated in baseball in the 1940s. It may allude to the famous experiment by Benjamin Franklin in which he flew a kite in a thunderstorm and charged a Leyden jar (a rudimentary capacitor).

128 Jai alai basket : CESTA

The essential equipment in the game of jai alai is the pelota (ball) and the cesta (wicker scoop).

Down

1 Egyptian seal? : SCARAB

Scarabs were amulets in ancient Egypt. They were modeled on the dung beetle, as it was viewed as a symbol of the cycle of life.

2 Surfrider Beach city : MALIBU

Malibu Lagoon State Beach in Southern California is also known as Surfrider Beach, due to its popularity with surfers. In 2010, the beach was designated the first World Surfing Reserve on the planet.

4 Like a blue lobster or a blue moon : RARE

The American lobster species is normally colored a dark bluish green to a greenish brown. This color is the result of a mixture of yellow, blue and green pigments. There are known genetic mutations that have resulted in some different colors in the lobster population. About 1 in 2 million lobsters is blue, and 1 in 30 million is yellow. There may even be albino lobsters, occurring at a frequency of about 1 in 100 million.

As there is a full moon once every four weeks, approximately monthly, there are usually twelve full moons in any given year. However, every 2-3 years, depending on the phase of the moon at the beginning of the calendar year, there may be a thirteenth full moon. The “extra” full moon is called a “blue moon”, although no one seems to really know why the term “blue” is used, as far as I can tell. Which of the thirteen full moons that is designated as the blue moon varies depending on tradition. My favorite definition is from the Farmer’s Almanac. It states that as each of the seasons normally has three full moons (one for each calendar month), then the season with four full moons is designated as “special”, then the third (and not the fourth) full moon in that “special” season is the blue moon. Complicated, huh?

6 Foster’s partner : STEARNS

The Stearns & Foster mattress company was founded in 1846 by George S. Stearns and Seth Foster. The first products manufactured were high-end upholstery items for horse-drawn carriages. The first mattresses produced were for hotels.

7 Coppertone stat : SPF

Coppertone is a brand of sunscreen that is owned by Bayer. There is a famous advertising campaign featuring the “Coppertone girl”, in which a little dog pulls at the bathing suit of a pig-tailed girl revealing a cheeky tanline. A 1965 TV version of the ad featured 3-year-old Jodie Foster in her first acting role.

9 Mortgage-free resident, often : LESSEE

Our word “mortgage” comes from the Old French “mort gaige” which translated as “dead pledge”. Such an arrangement was so called because the “pledge” to repay “dies” when the debt is cleared.

13 “Mayfair Witches” cable network : AMC

“Mayfair Witches” is a supernatural drama TV show based on the Anne Rice novel “Lives of the Mayfair Witches”. Not really my cup of tea …

16 Viola Davis accomplishment, briefly : EGOT

The acronym “EGOT” stands for “Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony”, and is a reference to performers who have won all four awards. Also known as the “Showbiz Award Grand Slam”, there are relatively few individuals who have been so honored. The first five to do so were:

1. Richard Rodgers in 1962
2. Helen Hayes in 1977
3. Rita Moreno in 1977
4. John Gielgud in 1991
5. Audrey Hepburn in 1994 (posthumously)

Actress Viola Davis is probably best known on the small screen for playing the lead in the drama “How to Get Away with Murder”. On the big screen, I’d say that her most famous role is the starring role in the 2011 film “The Help”. Davis is one of the few EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) and is the only African-American to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (a competitive Oscar, Emmy and Tony).

17 Moray Firth river : NESS

Moray Firth on the northeast coast of Scotland is the largest firth (inlet) in the country. Several rivers flow into Moray Firth, the most famous of which is probably the River Ness, which flows from the “monstrous” Loch Ness.

32 “Running Up That Hill” singer Kate : BUSH

“Running Up That Hill” is a 1985 song released by English singer/songwriter Kate Bush. While the song did well on initial release, it did better in 2022. “Running Up That Hill” was featured prominently in the fourth season of the sci-fi horror series “Stranger Things”. That exposure resulted in the song topping the charts in several countries around the world.

33 __ one’s thumbs : TWIDDLE

“To twiddle one’s thumbs” is to do nothing, to spend time aimlessly. The phrase originated in the mid-1800s. In the early part of the 19th century, the equivalent phrase was “to twirl one’s thumbs”.

38 EV’s lack : GAS

Electric vehicle (EV)

41 Singer Rita who is a judge on the U.K. edition of “The Masked Singer” : ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

“The Masked Singer” is a reality TV show in which masked celebrities compete anonymously in a singing competition. Contestants reveal their identities when they are voted off the show by the audience and a panel of judges. The American version of the show is part of an international “Masked Singer” franchise that originated in South Korea.

43 Clearasil target : ACNE

Clearasil acne medication was developed in 1940 by Ivan Combe and Kedzie Teller. Combe promoted the product by sponsoring the television show “American Bandstand” for many years.

44 Heath bar alternative : SKOR

The candy bar named “Skor” is produced by Hershey’s. “Skor” is Swedish for “shoes”, and the candy bar’s wrapping features a crown that is identical to that found in the Swedish national emblem. What shoes have to do with candy, I don’t know …

The HEATH bar is a Hershey product that was introduced in the 1930s by brothers Bayard and Everett Heath. The candy was promoted back then with the line “Heath for better health!”, a reference to the “healthy” ingredients of the best milk chocolate and almonds, creamery butter and pure sugar cane. Different times …

52 State on the Colorado Plateau : UTAH

The Colorado Plateau is a geographical feature in the southwest, covering parts of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, roughly equivalent to what is known as the Four Corners region. It is home to the greatest concentration of national parks in the country. Included in the area are Grand Canyon NP, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Arches NP and Mesa Verde NP, to name but a few.

54 Tunisian film director Tlatli : MOUFIDA

Moufida Tlatli was a film director from Tunisia who is perhaps best known in the world of cinema for co-writing and directing the 1994 film “The Silences of the Palace”. After the 2011 Tunisian Revolution, Tlatli was appointed Minister of Culture by the country’s provisional government, a position that she held for just a few weeks.

57 Feng __ : SHUI

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese tradition of arranging objects, buildings and other structures in a manner that is said to improve the lives of the individuals living in or using the space. “Feng shui” translates as “wind-water”, a reference to the belief that positive and negative life forces ride the wind and scatter, but are retained when they encounter water.

61 Biblical queen’s land : SHEBA

Sheba is referenced in the Bible several times. The Queen of Sheba is mentioned as someone who traveled to Jerusalem to behold the fame of King Solomon. No one knows for sure where the kingdom of Sheba was located, although there is evidence that it was actually the ancient Semitic civilization of Saba. The Sabeans lived in what today is Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula.

64 Go back (on) : RENEGE

To renege on something is to back out of it. It’s a verb commonly used in card games like bridge and whist. A renege is when a player doesn’t follow suit, even though there may be a card of the suit led in his/her hand.

69 Big name in snacks : LAY’S

Lay’s potato chips were introduced in 1938 by Herman W. Lay. Lay started selling his chips out the trunk of his car, traveling all over the US. In those days the chips were pretty much handmade, but Lay put an end to that in 1942. He invented the first continuous potato processor in 1948, and chips started to take over the world!

71 Cohort : COMRADE

“Cohort” can be used as a collective noun, meaning “group, company”. The term can also apply to an individual supporter or companion, although usually in a derogatory sense. “Cohort” comes from the Latin “cohors”, which was an infantry company in the Roman army, one tenth of a legion.

87 Park in NYC : AVE

Park Avenue in New York City used to be known as Fourth Avenue, and for much of its length carried the tracks of the New York and Harlem Railroad. When the line was built, some of it was constructed by cutting through the length of the street and then forming underground tunnels by covering over the line with grates and greenery. This greenery formed a parkland between 34th and 40th Streets, and in 1860 the grassy section of Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue, a name that was eventually used for the whole thoroughfare.

88 Social atmosphere : MILIEU

We use the French term “milieu” (plural “milieux”) to mean “environment, surroundings”. In French, “milieu” is the word for “middle”.

91 Innocent, e.g. : POPE

There have been 13 popes with the name Innocent. Pope Innocent I took his name from his supposed father, a man called Innocens of Albano, which started the naming tradition. However, it is also believed that Innocent I was the son of the preceding pope, Anastasius I. The celibacy rules came later, I guess …

92 Air Force hotshot : ACE

A flying ace (also “air ace”) is an aviator who has shot down a number of enemy planes during combat. The qualifying number of kills seems to vary, but five is common. The first use of “ace” was during WWI, when the French newspapers dubbed pilot Adolphe Pegoud “l’as” (French for “the ace”) when he shot down his fifth German plane.

96 Trex construction : DECK

Trex is a company that manufactures composite decking, railing, and other outdoor items made from recycled materials. I had a Trex deck in my last home, and loved it …

97 Tel Aviv resident, e.g. : ISRAELI

Israel’s Tel Aviv is known as the “White City” because of its many Bauhaus-style buildings. In fact, it has the largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world, with over 4,000 buildings in this style. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a suburb of the ancient port city of Jaffa.

101 Flawed sentences : RUN-ONS

A “run-on sentence” is one in which two separate clauses are linked without appropriate conjugation. Two examples would be:

Today’s crossword is really tough I can’t finish.
Today’s crossword is really tough, I can’t finish.

More acceptable sentences would be:

Today’s crossword is really tough. I can’t finish.
Today’s crossword is really tough; I can’t finish.
Today’s crossword is really tough, so I can’t finish.

103 Italian cheese : ASIAGO

Asiago is a cheese that is named for the region in northeastern Italy from where it originates. It comes in varying textures depending on its age. Fresh Asiago is very smooth, while aged Asiago can be very crumbly.

107 Little hooter : OWLET

A baby owl is an owlet. The term “owlet” can also be used for the adults of the smaller species of owls.

109 Eye-related : OPTIC

The linguistic root “-opti-” appears in words such as “optical”, “autopsy” and “myopia”. “-opti-” comes from the Greek for “light, sight”.

112 Abbr. for some nonbinary people : AFAB

Assigned female at birth (AFAB) or assigned male at birth (AMAB).

117 Scholars’ degs. : PHDS

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

119 Animation studio souvenir : CEL

Animation cels are transparent sheets made of celluloid acetate that were used in traditional hand-drawn animation to create animated films. They were first introduced in the 1930s and were widely used in animation production until the late 1990s, when digital animation techniques began to dominate the industry.

121 Promise not to tell, for short : NDA

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

123 Ruby, for one : GEM

Ruby is a precious stone made from the mineral corundum, also called aluminum oxide. The corundum includes some of the element chromium, which results in the red or pink color.