Day: June 29, 2023

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Constructed by: Hoang-Kim Vu & Jasper Davidoff
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Party Lines

Themed answers are common terms reinterpreted as LINES one might hear at a PARTY:

• 59A Political platforms, and an apt title for this puzzle? : PARTY LINES

• 17A “Pour the tea!” and “Let’s pick a new topic of conversation!”? : SOCIAL CUES
• 27A “Would you pin on my corsage?” and “May I have this dance?”? : FORMAL REQUESTS
• 46A “They’re going to make such good parents!” and “What a cute onesie!”? : SHOWER THOUGHTS

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

Bill’s time: 6m 13s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Emails discreetly : BCCS

A blind carbon copy (bcc) is a copy of a document or message that is sent to someone without other recipients of the message knowing about that extra copy.

5 __ Villa: Premier League team : ASTON

Aston Villa is a soccer team that was founded in Aston, Birmingham way back in 1874. The UK’s Football League was founded in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor. “Villa” was one of the league’s 12 founding member clubs.

The best soccer teams in England and Wales play in the Premier League. The league was founded in 1992 as the FA Premier League to take advantage of a generous television deal. Today, the Premier League is the most-watched soccer league in the world.

10 Phenomena in “Mars Attacks!” and “Arrival,” briefly : UFOS

“Mars Attacks!” is a 1996 science fiction-comedy movie directed by Tim Burton.The film parodies sci-fi B movies and has an impressive ensemble cast that includes Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Natalie Portman, Rod Steiger, Michael J. Fox and Tom Jones. The film is all about Martians invading Earth, and I watched it because of the cast. I hated it …

2016’s “Arrival” is a very entertaining sci-fi film that is based on a short story by Ted Chiang called “Story of Your Life”. Amy Adams plays a linguist who is called upon to communicate with aliens that have arrived on Earth.

14 MLB family name : ALOU

Jesus Alou played Major League Baseball, as did his brothers Matty and Felipe, and as did Felipe’s son Moises.

15 __ firma : TERRA

“Terra firma” is Latin for “solid ground”.

16 Brand with a swoosh : NIKE

I remember seeing a lady named Carolyn Davidson on the television show “I’ve Got a Secret”. Davidson created the Nike “swoosh” back in 1971 when she was a design student at Portland State. She did it as freelance work for Blue Ribbon Sports, a local company introducing a new line of athletic footwear. The “swoosh” is taken from the wing of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike. Years later, BRS changed its name to Nike, so I suppose the company should be grateful to Carolyn for both the great design, and a great company name.

19 Gadget news site : C|NET

c|net is an excellent technology website. It started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a c|net show.

20 Hilton rival : HYATT

The Hyatt hotel chain takes its name from the first hotel in the group, i.e. Hyatt House at the Los Angeles International Airport that was purchased in 1957. Among other things, Hyatt is famous for designing the world’s first atrium hotel, the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta.

21 Dresses up for a fan convention, say : COSPLAYS

Cosplay (costume play)

23 Risotto need : STOCK

Risotto is an Italian rice dish that is usually served as a first course in Italy, but as a main course here in North America.

26 Asia’s vanishing __ Sea : ARAL

The Aral Sea is a great example of how humankind can have a devastating effect on the environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

27 “Would you pin on my corsage?” and “May I have this dance?”? : FORMAL REQUESTS

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

“Corsage” is a word that we imported from French in the late 15th century. Back then it meant, believe it or not, “body size”. By the early 1800s, a corsage was a bodice, or the body of a woman’s dress. At the beginning of the 20th century, the French term “bouquet de corsage” was being used for a “bouquet worn on the bodice”, and this has been shortened simply to “corsage”.

32 Willie who broke the NHL’s color barrier : O’REE

Willie O’Ree is a retired professional hockey player from Canada who made his debut for the Boston Bruins in 1958. That made him the first Black player in the National Hockey League, and earned him the nickname “Jackie Robinson of ice hockey”.

33 Spiritual mentor : GURU

“Guru” is a Hindi word meaning “teacher” or “priest”.

A mentor is a trusted teacher or counselor. The term “mentor” comes from Homer’s “Odyssey” in which there is a character named Mentor. He is a friend of Odysseus, although he is a relatively ineffective old man. The goddess Athena takes on Mentor’s appearance in order to guide Odysseus’s young son Telemachus through difficult times.

36 2010 health law, for short : ACA

The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA).

40 Country where Etihad Airways is HQ’d : UAE

Etihad Airways is the second largest airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), after the airline called Emirates. “Etihad” loosely translates from Arabic as “union”, a reference to the union of emirates making up the UAE.

41 Quick way to Excel? : MACRO

A macroinstruction (usually shortened to “macro”) is a set of instructions in a computer program that are abbreviated to one simple command.

50 Slower than adagio, on scores : LENTO

A lento passage is a piece of music that has a slow tempo. “Lento” is “slow” in Italian.

An adagio is a piece of music with a slow tempo. The “adagio” marking on the score is an instruction to play the piece slowly and in a stately manner. The word “adagio” is Latin for “at ease”.

51 Andrew Miller novel about an Italian adventurer : CASANOVA

Andrew Miller’s 1998 novel “Casanova” has a ring of truth to it as it uses Giacomo Casanova’s own memoir “HIstoire de ma vie” as a source.

Giacomo Casanova was an 18th-century adventurer from Venice. We know so much about him, and his reputation as a womanizer, because he left us his autobiography “Histoire de ma vie” (Story of My Life). A guy recounting stories of his love life and conquests? All true, I am sure …

54 App for pix : INSTA

Instagram (often abbreviated to “Insta”, or “IG”) is a photo-sharing application, one that is extremely popular. Instagram started in San Francisco in 2010. Facebook purchased Instagram two years later, paying $1 billion. The billion-dollar Instagram company had just 13 employees at the time of the sale …

58 Oodles : A LOT

It’s thought that the term “oodles”, meaning “a lot”, comes from “kit and caboodle”.

63 “Enigma Variations” composer : ELGAR

Edward Elgar’s famous “Enigma Variations” are more correctly titled “Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra (“Enigma”)”. There are fourteen variations in the piece, with each named for one of Elgar’s close friends, a family member, and there is even one named for Elgar himself. Each variation is an affectionate portrayal of the person for which it is named. The “enigma” in the piece is quite a mystery. It is not even clear that the variations are based on a musical theme. Elgar’s notes tell us that the theme is “not played”, but he would never explain during his lifetime just what “the enigma” is.

66 Ingredients in garden “bombs” : SEEDS

A seed ball is a spherical mass of clay and nutrients mixed in with seeds. The idea is that the ball provides close to ideal conditions for germination. The hardiest plants, relative to the environment in which the ball is dropped, are the ones that flourish. Seed bombing is the practice of dropping seed balls onto land that is otherwise unused, often in an urban environment.

67 Jazz great James : ETTA

“Etta James” was the stage name of celebrated R&B and jazz singer Jamesetta Hawkins. James was an acquaintance of civil rights activist Malcom X. For ten years, she was a member of the Nation of Islam, and used the name “Jamesetta X”.

Down

2 Be overly sweet : CLOY

To cloy is to cause distaste by oversupplying something that would otherwise be pleasant, especially something with a sweet taste.

3 __-Cola : COCA

The exact formula for Coca-Cola is a trade secret. The secret recipe is locked in a vault. That vault is on public display in the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, Georgia.

5 Ga. airport : ATL

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the world’s busiest airport, as measured by passenger traffic. Atlanta has had that distinction since 1998, and was the world’s busiest in terms of take-offs and landings from 2005 until 2013. Over 50% of Atlanta’s traffic comes from Delta Air Lines.

7 Cab driver? : TRUCKER

A “semi” is a “semi-trailer truck”. The vehicle is so called because it consists of a tractor and a half-trailer. The half-trailer is so called because it only has wheels on the back end, with the front supported by the tractor.

8 Nabisco cookie : OREO

If you take a close look at the embossed design on the front and back of an Oreo cookie, you’ll spot the main elements of the Nabisco logo. Those elements are an oval with a cross on top, a cross with two bars. Usually the company name “Nabisco” is inside the oval, but for the cookie it’s the brand name “Oreo”. The current embossed design was introduced in 1952.

9 Long Island county : NASSAU

Nassau County on Long Island, New York is so called as Long Island used to have the name “Nassau”. The Dutch gave it that name in honor of Prince William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, later to be King William III of England. The county’s colors are orange and blue, the colors of the House of Orange. Nassau County is the richest county per capita in the whole of New York State.

18 Naan flour : ATTA

Atta is a whole-wheat flour used to make flatbreads in South Asian cuisine, such as chapati and naan. “Atta” is the Hindi or Urdu word for “dough”.

24 Merediz of “In the Heights” : OLGA

Olga Merediz is a Cuban-born, American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for playing Abuela Caludia in the Broadway musical “In the Heights”, and in the film adaptation.

27 Latte topper : FOAM

The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk; there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.

28 Marine predators : ORCAS

An apex predator is at the top of a food chain, and has no other natural predators. Examples are the orca (“killer whale”) in the oceans, the lion in Africa, and the Tyrannosaurus in the days of the dinosaurs.

30 Coronation __: 2023 celebratory dish : QUICHE

When King Charles III and Queen Camilla were crowned in 2023, they published a signature dish for the celebration, known as coronation quiche. When Charles’ mother was crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, her signature dish was coronation chicken.

37 Mr. Bean player Atkinson : ROWAN

Rowan Atkinson is an English comedian and actor who is most famous for playing the title role in the comedy shows “Mr. Bean” and “Blackadder”. In the world of movies, Atkinson had memorable supporting performances (in my opinion) in the Bond film “Never Say Never Again”, and in the romcoms “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Love Actually”. A very talented man …

39 Fundraising suffix : -THON

The world’s first telethon took place in 1949. It was a 16-hour fundraiser hosted by Milton Berle that raised over a million dollars for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The term “telethon”, a portmanteau of “television” and “marathon”, was coined in the news media the day after the event. One of the most famous annual telethons was the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, which raised funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association for over twenty years, from 1966 until 2010.

42 Makes like a dreidel : ROTATES

A dreidel is a spinning top with four sides that is often associated with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Each of the four sides on a dreidel bears a letter from the Hebrew alphabet (nun, gimel, hei and shin). The four letters are the initials of the Hebrew phrase “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham” meaning “a great miracle happened there”. According to tradition, children would be taught Torah while hiding in caves away from the Greeks. When Greek soldiers approached, the children would hide their torah scrolls and play with their dreidels instead.

44 On the lam : AT LARGE

To be on the lam is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, scram”.

51 Nicolas of “Ghost Rider” : CAGE

Actor Nicolas “Nic” Cage was born Nicolas Coppola. Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, both of whom are Nic Cage’s father’s siblings.

“Ghost Rider” is a 2007 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The film stars Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stuntman who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for curing his father’s cancer. However, the Devil tricks Blaze and transforms him into the Ghost Rider, a flaming skeleton who is bound to hunt down evil. Not my cup of tea …

52 Mozart’s “Rondo __ Turca” : ALLA

The third movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major is known as the “Rondo alla turca” (Turkish March), and is one of the composer’s most recognizable works.

57 On the briny : ASEA

The briny is the sea, with “brine” meaning “salty water”. The term “briny” was originally used for “tears”.

60 Skosh : TAD

“Skosh” is a slang term meaning “a little bit”, and was originally military slang that came out of the Korean War. “Skosh” derives from the Japanese word “sukoshi” which translates as “few, little, some”.