Day: June 22, 2023

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Constructed by: Taylor Johnson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Let’s Roll

Themed answers are people who might utter the words “LET’S ROLL”:

• 57A “Time to go,” and a phrase that could be uttered by a 15-, a 21-, a 32-, or a 48-Across? : LET’S ROLL

• 15A See 57-Across : DIRECTOR
• 21A See 57-Across : CRAPS DEALER
• 32A See 57-Across : SUSHI CHEF
• 48A See 57-Across : JAZZ DRUMMER

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

Bill’s time: 7m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Oscar, __, Quebec: NATO sequence : PAPA

The NATO phonetic alphabet is also called the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet. Alfa, Bravo, Charlie … X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

5 Wand-waving org. : TSA

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

18 Dickens miser : SCROOGE

Ebeneezer Scrooge is the main character in the novella “A Christmas Carol” By Charles Dickens. Through the course of the story, Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, who show him the consequences of his miserly behavior. His name “Scrooge” has become a part of the English language as a term to describe someone who is stingy and mean with money.

20 SLC athlete : UTE

The Utah Utes are the athletic teams of the University of Utah.

21 See 57-Across : CRAPS DEALER
[57A “Time to go,” and a phrase that could be uttered by a 15-, a 21-, a 32-, or a 48-Across? : LET’S ROLL]

If one considers earlier versions of craps, then the game has been around for a very long time and probably dates back to the Crusades. It may have been derived from an old English game called “hazard” also played with two dice, which was mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” from the 1300s. The American version of the game came here courtesy of the French and first set root in New Orleans where it was given the name “crapaud”, a French word meaning “toad”.

25 Season with heavy rainfall : MONSOON

The term “monsoon” was first used in India in the days of the British Raj, when it described the seasonal winds that brought rain from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea from June to September. “Monsoon” is derived from the Portuguese “monção”, which in turn comes from the Arabic “mawsim” meaning “season”.

27 Faux __ : PAS

The term “faux pas” is French in origin, and translates literally as “false step” (or “false steps”, as the plural has the same spelling in French).

28 The Cavaliers of the NCAA : UVA

The University of Virginia (UVA) sports teams are known officially as “the Cavaliers”. The unofficial nickname is “the Wahoos”.

32 See 57-Across : SUSHI CHEF
[57A “Time to go,” and a phrase that could be uttered by a 15-, a 21-, a 32-, or a 48-Across? : LET’S ROLL]

Sushi is a Japanese dish that has as its primary ingredient cooked, vinegared rice. The rice is usually topped with something, most often fish, and can be served in seaweed rolls. If we want raw fish by itself, then we have to order sashimi.

44 “Mangia!” : EAT!

“Mangia!” is Italian for “Eat!” and is a word often used in the names of Italian restaurants or in brand names of Italian foods.

51 __ Paulo, Brazil : 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.

52 Strong dark beer : BOCK

A bock is a strong lager from Germany that was first brewed in the town of Einbeck. The famous brewers of Munich adopted the style of beer, calling it Einbeck after the town of its origin. However, with the Bavarian accent “Einbeck” came out as “ein Bock”, the German for “a billy goat”. The name “bock” stuck, and so you’ll often see a billy goat on the labels of bock beers.

55 Palm leaves : FRONDS

Palms are perennial flowering plants that take many forms, some as shrubs and some as vines, for example. Some take on a tree-like shape, with a woody stem topped by a crown of leaves. Such palms are usually referred to as “palm trees”. The coco de mer palm tree has the largest seeds of any plant on the planet. We are more familiar with the coconut palm tree, which has the second-largest plant seeds known.

62 Big cheese : BOSS

The phrase “the big cheese” doesn’t have its roots in the word “cheese” at all. The original phrase was “the real cheese” meaning “the real thing”, and was used way back in the late 1800s. “Chiz” is a Persian and Hindi word meaning “thing”, and it’s not hard to see how the expression “the real chiz” morphed into “the real cheese”. In early-20th century America, instead of “the real cheese”, the most influential person in a group was labeled as “the big cheese”.

63 Homer’s “okily-dokily” neighbor : NED

Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer Simpson on TV’s “The Simpsons”. Ned was married to Maude, with whom he had two children Rod and Todd. Maude died in an accident involving a T-shirt cannon. Ned is voiced by actor Harry Shearer, and has been around since the very first episode aired in 1989.

64 “Champagne Life” R&B singer : NE-YO

“Ne-Yo” is the stage name of R&B singer Shaffer Chimere Smith. He began his career as a songwriter, penning hits for artists such as Mario, Rihanna, and Beyoncé. In 2006, he released his debut album “In My Own Words”, which launched Ne-Yo’s career as a solo artist.

Down

1 “__ Save America”: Crooked Media production : POD

“Pod Save America” is a political podcast hosted by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor. The show launched in January 2017, shortly after President Trump took office. Many high-profile politicians and journalists have been interviewed on the show over the years, including Barack Obama in his last interview as US president.

2 Jennifer of “The Morning Show” : ANISTON

Jennifer Aniston won a 2002 Emmy for playing Rachel on the great sitcom “Friends”. Jennifer’s parents are both actors, and her godfather was the actor Telly Savalas.

“The Morning Show” is a powerful drama TV series that is based on the 2013 book “Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV” by CNN’s Brian Stelter. The show stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon as two anchors for “The Morning Show”, one very experienced, and one new to the job. Steve Carell plays a former anchor who is ousted due to a sexual misconduct scandal.

5 “My Neighbor __ “: 1988 Miyazaki film : TOTORO

“My Neighbor Totoro” is a 1988 Japanese animated film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. The film tells the story of two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, who move to the countryside with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. The sisters befriend Totoro, a large, furry creature who lives in the nearby forest.

9 Gp. with student diplomats : MODEL UN

Model United Nations is an educational simulation in which students learn about diplomacy, international relations and the UN in general. Model UN conferences date back to the fifties.

10 One of the Three Stooges : MOE

“Moe Howard” was the stage name of Moses Harry Horwitz. Howard was one of the Three Stooges. In 1925, he married Helen Schonberger, who was a cousin of Harry Houdini.

14 Italian port neighboring Slovenia : TRIESTE

Trieste is a city-port on the northeastern coast of Italy that is almost completely surrounded by the country of Slovenia. Trieste was home for many years to Irish author James Joyce.

The Republic of Slovenia is a country in Central Europe that is bordered by Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. Given its geographic location, the country has been part of various realms over the centuries, most recently being part of Yugoslavia. Slovenia declared independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991, and is now a member of the European Union.

16 Pixar film with the song “Remember Me” : COCO

“Remember Me” is a song from the animated film “Coco” that appears throughout the movie, in various contexts and sung by various characters.

“Coco” is a 2017 Pixar movie about a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who ends up in the land of the dead by accident. There, he seeks out the help of the great-great-grandfather to get back to his family in the land of the living.

17 Punctuation found in many Emily Dickinson poems : EM DASH

In typography, there are em dashes and en dashes. The em dash is about the width of an “m” character, and an en dash about half that, the width of an “n’ character. An en dash is used, for example, to separate numbers designating a range, as in 5-10 years. The em dash seems to be going out of style, and indeed the application I am using to write this paragraph won’t let me show you one!

Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 1800 poems in her lifetime, with less than a dozen published before she died in 1886. Emily’s younger sister discovered the enormous collection, and it was published in batches over the coming decades. Try this one for size:

I’m nobody!
Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

20 Actress Thurman : UMA

Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”. Uma’s big break in the movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

22 Blueprint info : SPEC

Blueprints are reproductions of technical or architectural drawings that are contact prints made on light-sensitive sheets. Blueprints were introduced in the 1800s and the technology available dictated that the drawings were reproduced with white lines on a blue background, hence the name “blue-print”.

23 Part of NYE : EVE

New Year’s Eve (NYE)

26 “Absolutamente” : SI SI

In Spanish, when one is positive, one might say, “Absolutamente” (Absolutely), “Si si” (Yes yes).

33 Bargain bin stock at some music stores : USED CDS

The compact disc (CD) was developed jointly by Philips and Sony as a medium for storing and playing sound recordings. When the first commercial CD was introduced back in 1982, a CD’s storage capacity was far greater than the amount of data that could be stored on the hard drive of personal computers available at that time.

34 San Jose team : SHARKS

The San Jose Sharks hockey team play their home games at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, a venue that we locals call “the Shark Tank”.

35 Native Rwandan : HUTU

The Hutu are the largest population in Rwanda, with the Tutsi being the second largest. The bloody conflict that has existed between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples dates back to about 1880 when Catholic missionaries arrived in the region. The missionaries found that they had more success converting the Hutus than the Tutsi, and when the Germans occupied the area during WWI they confiscated Tutsi land and gave it to Hutu tribes in order to reward religious conversion. This injustice fuels fighting to this very day.

36 Vegan sandwich, initially : PBJ

Peanut butter and jelly (PB&J or PBJ)

A vegan is someone who stays away from animal products. A dietary vegan eats no animal foods, not even eggs and dairy that are usually eaten by vegetarians. Ethical vegans take things one step further by following a vegan diet and also avoiding animal products in other areas of their lives e.g. items made from leather or silk.

37 “Your Song” singer Rita : ORA

“Your Song” is a 2018 song written by Steve Mac and Ed Sheeran for English singer Rita Ora.

38 Some recliners : LA-Z-BOYS

La-Z-Boy is a furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan. Although the company makes furniture for every room in the house, it is famous for its recliner chairs found in family rooms all over the country.

41 “Moonlighting” actress Allyce : BEASLEY

Actress Allyce Beasley is perhaps best known for her role as Agnes DiPesto, love-struck receptionist in the TV series “Moonlighting”. I also remember her playing Coach’s daughter, Lisa Pantusso, on a memorable episode of the sitcom “Cheers”.

42 Full house indicator : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

45 Electrical unit : AMPERE

The unit of electric current is the ampere, which is abbreviated correctly to “A” rather than “amp”. It is named after French physicist André-Marie Ampère, one of the main scientists responsible for the discovery of electromagnetism.

46 Sang with gusto : BELTED

“Gusto” is an Italian word meaning “taste”. We use it in English in the phrase “with gusto” meaning “with great enjoyment”.

47 Swim/bike/run races, briefly : TRIS

An Ironman Triathlon is a race involving a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon run of just over 26 miles. The idea for the race came out of a debate between some runners in the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay. They were questioning whether runners, swimmers or bikers were the most fit athletes. The debaters decided to combine three local events to determine the answer, inviting athletes from all three disciplines. The events that were mimicked in the first triathlon were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). The idea was that whoever finishes first would be called “the Iron Man”. The first triathlon was run in 1978, with fifteen starters and only twelve finishers. The race format is used all over the world now, but the Hawaiian Ironman is the event that everyone wants to win.

50 Disney retelling of a Chinese folk legend : MULAN

“Mulan” is a 1998 animated feature film made by Walt Disney studios. The film is based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, a woman who takes the place of her father in the army and serves with distinction for twelve years without reward. Disney’s lead character was given the name Fa Mulan. Donny Osmond provided the singing voice for one of the lead characters, after which his sons remarked that he had finally made it in show business as he was in a Disney film.

54 Drescher of “The Nanny” : FRAN

Fran Drescher’s real name is Francine Jane Drescher. She is a comedian and comic actress best known for playing Fran Fine on the sitcom “The Nanny”. Fran was born in Queens, New York (go figure!). Her big break came with a small role, but in a huge movie. You might recall in “Saturday Night Fever” that John Travolta was asked by a pretty dancer, “Are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor?” Well, that young lady was Fran Drescher.

56 Sigma preceder : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R. It is the 17th letter in the Greek alphabet.

58 Asian language : LAO

Lao, the language of Laos, does not use spaces between words (or periods!), although this is apparently changing. Spaces are used between sentences and clauses.