Day: June 6, 2023

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Constructed by: Bart Gold
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Between You and Me

Themed answers each start with U and end with ME:

• 55A Secret-teller’s intro, and an apt title for this puzzle : BETWEEN YOU AND ME …

• 16A Star-spangled garb for July 4th : UNCLE SAM COSTUME
• 22A “Catch you later” : UNTIL NEXT TIME
• 34A Activity with Skip and Wild Draw Four cards : UNO GAME
• 47A Focus of many a murder podcast : UNSOLVED CRIME

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

Bill’s time: 5m 42s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Sketch show with a musical guest, familiarly : SNL

NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.

14 South Pacific island : 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.

15 Bert who played the Cowardly Lion : LAHR

The Cowardly Lion in L. Frank Baum’s “Land of Oz” books was portrayed by Bert Lahr in the celebrated 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz”. The costume that Lahr wore in the film was made from real lion fur, and weighed a whopping 60 pounds.

16 Star-spangled garb for July 4th : UNCLE SAM COSTUME

The Uncle Sam personification of the United States was first used during the War of 1812. The “Uncle Sam” term was so widely accepted that even the Germans used it during WWII, choosing the code word “Samland” for “America” in intelligence communiques.

On 11 June 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five people to draft a declaration of independence. Included in the five were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Adams persuaded the other committee members to give Jefferson the task of writing the first draft. A resolution of independence was passed by the Congress on 2 July 1776. The final draft of the declaration was approved by the Congress two days later, on July 4th. John Adams wrote a letter to his wife that included an assertion that July 2nd (the date of the resolution of independence) would become a great American holiday. Adams was wrong, and it was actually the date the Declaration of Independence was finalized that came to be celebrated annually.

26 Taxi prices : FARES

We call cabs “taxis”, a word derived from “taximeter cabs” that were introduced in London in 1907. A taximeter was an automated meter designed to record distance traveled and fare to be charged. The term “taximeter” evolved from “taxameter”, with “taxa” being Latin for “tax, charge”.

28 Ref. work favoring “favour” : OED

The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was published in installments between 1884 and 1928. It was edited by James Murray and a team of lexicographers and linguists, who worked to collect and document the history and usage of English words from the earliest known written sources.

29 Sneaker pattern : TREAD

“Sneaker” is a common name for an athletic shoe, one that is now used as everyday casual wear. The term “sneaker” is used widely across the US. Back in my homeland of Ireland, the terms “trainers” and “tennis shoes” are more common.

31 Tax return fig. : AGI

Adjusted gross income (AGI)

32 Pharmaceutical giant __ Lilly : ELI

Eli Lilly is the largest corporation in the state of Indiana. Founder Eli Lilly was a veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War, and a failed Mississippi plantation owner. Later in life he returned to his first profession and opened a pharmaceutical operation to manufacture drugs and sell them wholesale. Under Lilly’s early guidance, the company was the first to create gelatin capsules to hold medicines and the first to use fruit flavoring in liquid medicines.

33 Last section of the 28-Across : ZED
[28A Ref. work favoring “favour” : OED]

The letter zed has been around since about 1400, and derives from the Greek letter zeta. The spelling and pronunciation “zee”, used in America today, first popped up in the 1670s. The spelling and pronunciation “zed” is still used in Britain and Ireland.

34 Activity with Skip and Wild Draw Four cards : UNO GAME

UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. It falls into the shedding family of card games, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.

40 Pres. after FDR : HST

Harry S. Truman became vice president under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January of 1945. He was in office for only 82 days when he was informed at the Whie House by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt that her husband had died in Warm Springs, Georgia. Truman was sworn in as US president, and served out the remainder of Roosevelt’s term without naming a replacement vice president. When Truman ran for president in his own right in 1948, he shared the ticket with Alben W. Barkley. Truman and Barkely won that election, and were in office until 1953.

46 Observes Ramadan, say : FASTS

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is traditionally a period of fasting. The faithful who observe Ramadan refrain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from dawn to dusk everyday, a lesson in patience, humility and spirituality.

47 Focus of many a murder podcast : UNSOLVED CRIME

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.

50 Diagnostic scan, briefly : MRI

MRI scans can be daunting for many people as they usually involve the patient lying inside a tube with the imaging magnet surrounding the body. Additionally, the scan can take up to 40 minutes in some cases. There are some open MRI scanners available that help prevent a feeling of claustrophobia. However, the images produced by open scanners are of lower quality as they operate at lower magnetic fields.

51 Illegal turn, maybe : UIE

Hang a “uey” or “uie”, make a u-turn, make a 180.

52 Inexact lunch hour : ONEISH

“Lunch” is an abbreviated form of “luncheon”, but the exact etymology of “luncheon” seems unclear. That said, back in the 1650s, a luncheon was a light snack eaten between regular mealtimes, as opposed to a regular midday repast.

59 Cut with a beam : LASE

The term “laser” is an acronym standing for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. It has been pointed out that a more precise name for laser technology is “light oscillation by stimulated emission of radiation”, but the resulting acronym isn’t quite so appealing, namely “loser”.

60 “Night” author Elie : WIESEL

Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor who is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was also the first recipient of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, which was later renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in his honor.

62 North Carolina university town : ELON

Elon is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina located close to the city of Burlington. Elon University is a private liberal arts school founded in 1889.

64 Greenpeace, for one : NGO

Non-governmental organization (NGO)

Environmental organization Greenpeace was founded in 1971, and is headquartered in Amsterdam. Famously, the organization uses seagoing vessels in some of its campaigns. The most renowned of these ships was the refitted fishing trawler Rainbow Warrior. The original Rainbow Warrior was known for disrupting activities like whale-hunting, dumping of radioactive waste and nuclear testing. In response to the latter, the French government secretly bombed the vessel while in harbor in Auckland, New Zealand. A Dutch freelance photographer died in that bombing.

Down

2 Singer Simone : NINA

“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.

4 Low choir voices : BASSI

The bass is the lowest male singing voice. A man with such a voice might be called a “basso” (plural “bassi”). In an opera, the villain of the piece is usually played by a basso.

8 __ City, Iowa : SIOUX

Sioux City, Iowa has a history that is inextricably linked with the Missouri River. The city grew from a camp established by the Lewis and Clark expedition that traveled up the river in 1804. Today, Sioux City is the navigational head of the Missouri, the furthest point upstream that is accessible by general cargo ships.

9 Sandwich known by its initials : BLT

The BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) is the second-most popular sandwich in the US, after the plain old ham sandwich.

10 Avant-garde violinist and artist Anderson : LAURIE

Laurie Anderson is an avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director. Anderson was married to fellow musician Lou Reed for five years, until his death in 2013.

26 Brimless hat : FEZ

A fez is a red, cylindrical hat worn mainly in North Africa, and by Shriners here in the US. The fez used to be a very popular hat across the Ottoman Empire. The etymology of “fez” is unclear, although it may have something to do with the Moroccan city named Fez.

27 “__ Maria” : AVE

“Ave Maria” (“Hail Mary” in English) is the prayer at the core of the Roman Catholic Rosary, which itself is a set of prayers asking for the assistance of the Virgin Mary. Much of the text of the “Hail Mary” comes from the Gospel of Luke. The words in Latin are:

AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

The prayer has been adapted as a hymn. The two most famous musical versions of “Ave Maria” are by Charles Gounod (based on a piece by Bach) and by Franz Schubert.

32 Pro in an ambulance : EMT

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

Our word “ambulance” originated from the French term “hôpital ambulant” meaning “field hospital” (literally “walking hospital”). In the 1850s, the term started to be used for a vehicle transporting the wounded from the battlefield, leading to our “ambulance”.

36 Greek god of the sea : POSEIDON

Poseidon was the god of the sea in Greek mythology as well as the “Earthshaker”, the god responsible for earthquakes.

39 Brian of Roxy Music : ENO

Brian Eno started his musical career with Roxy Music. However, Eno’s most oft-played composition (by far!) was Microsoft’s “startup jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows 95 operating system is booting up. Eno might have annoyed the Microsoft folks when he stated on a BBC radio show:

I wrote it on a Mac. I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them.

Roxy Music is a British band formed by Bryan Ferry, who also served as the lead singer. One of the group’s more famous former band members was Brian Eno, someone who turns up in crosswords far too often …

41 Instant noodles option : RAMEN

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

42 Sound of distant thunder : RUMBLE

The word “thunder” precedes the word “lightning” in the phrase “thunder and lightning”. However, thunder comes after lighting in reality, at least to the observer. The observer sees the flash of lightning and then seconds later hears the crash of thunder. That’s because light travels faster than sound.

45 Judy Blume novel about a girl with scoliosis : DEENIE

“Deenie” is a young adult novel by Judy Blume that was published in 1973. The title character is a girl who is under pressure from her mother to become a model. Sadly, the girl is diagnosed with scoliosis, and her mother’s dream is shattered. Author Blume chose the name “Deenie” from the lead role “Deanie”, played by Natalie Wood in the 1961 film “Splendor in the Grass”.

Judy Blume writes novels for children and young adults. Blume’s novels for teens were groundbreaking when first published, tackling such difficult subjects as racism, divorce and bullying.

49 Cathedral city on the Seine : ROUEN

Rouen is the major city in Normandy in northern France. During the days of Norman Britain, Rouen was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties. It was also where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431.

Impressionist Claude Monet produced a series of paintings of Rouen Cathedral in the 1890s. Famously, Monet painted the same subject at varying times of the day and times of the year, with the intention of recording the changes in appearance with differing light. He produced over thirty such paintings of Rouen Cathedral over a two-year period, resulting in one of the artist’s most famous and prized series of works.

56 “The Mandalorian” actress Ming-Na __ : WEN

Ming-Na Wen is an actress who is perhaps best known for voicing Mulan in the animated film “Mulan” and its sequel and for playing Fennec Shand in the Star Wars franchise. Wen is trilingual, being fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

“The Mandalorian” is a TV series in the “Star Wars” universe that is set five years after the events in the 1983 film “Return of the Jedi”. The show was created by actor and filmmaker Jon Favreau, and has been well received. The title character is Din Djarin (played by Pedro Pascal), a bounty hunter with a ward named Grogu. Grogu is an infant of the same species as Yoda, and so is referred to by viewers as “Baby Yoda”.

57 Evergreen tree with pliable wood : YEW

Yew is the wood of choice for the longbow, a valued weapon in the history of England. The longbow is constructed with a core of yew heartwood (as the heartwood resists compression) that has a sheath of yew sapwood (as the sapwood resists stretching). The yew was in such demand for longbows that for centuries yew trees were in short supply in Britain and the wood had to be imported from all over Europe.

58 Spanish bear : OSO

In Spanish, “osa” is a female bear, and “oso” is a male. An “oso” might be found in “un zoológico” (a zoo).