Day: October 6, 2023

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Constructed by: Ruth Bloomfield Margolin
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Ick Factor

Themed answers are common phrases with the letter string “ICK” (the ICK FACTOR) removed:

• 64A Measure of grossness avoided in the answers to the starred clues? : ICK FACTOR

• 17A *Litter collection vehicles? : PUP TRUCKS (from “pickup trucks”)
• 24A *Malcolm’s status at the end of “Macbeth”? : ALIVE AND KING (from “alive and kicking”)
• 38A *”Arf” or “meow”? : PET LINE (from “picket line”)
• 52A *Source of friction when a messy person lives with a neatnik? : STY SITUATION (from “sticky situation”)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 51s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Rum mixer : COKE

The cocktail known as a Cuba libre is basically a rum and Coke, although the traditional recipe also calls for a splash of lime juice.

5 Tarot suit : CUPS

A deck of tarot cards is based on a traditional Italian pack, and so includes four suits: batons, coins, cups and swords.

9 Destructive bug : BORER

“Borer” is a name given to various species of insect that bore into the woody parts of plants.

15 Draft choice : ONE-A

The US government maintains information on all males who are potentially subject to military conscription, using what is called the Selective Service System (SSS). In the event that a draft was held, men registered would be classified into groups to determine eligibility for service. Class 1-A registrants are those available for unrestricted military service. Other classes are 1-A-O (conscientious objector available for noncombatant service), 4-A (registrant who has completed military service) and 4-D (Minister of religion).

17 *Litter collection vehicles? : PUP TRUCKS (from “pickup trucks”)

Pickup trucks are probably so called because they can be used to “pick up” bulky items from say a store, and then deliver them elsewhere. Here in North America, we call a pickup with four rear wheels (instead of two) a “dually”, a colloquial term. A dually can carry more weight on the rear axle than a regular pickup.

20 First baseball team to play in a dome : ASTROS

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

21 “Birthplace of Aviation” : OHIO

Dayton is a city in the southwest of Ohio that is famously home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The city is also referred to as the “Birthplace of Aviation”, as it was in Dayton that Orville and Wilbur Wright built and improved the Wright Flyer. The Wright Flyer made the first controlled and sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

23 __ salt : SEA

The lobbyists have done their shameful job when it comes to the labeling of “sea salt”. In the US, sea salt doesn’t even have to come from the sea. The argument is that all salt came from the sea if you look back far enough. The politics of food; don’t get me started …

24 *Malcolm’s status at the end of “Macbeth”? : ALIVE AND KING (from “alive and kicking”)

In William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”, Duncan is the King of Scotland. The title character assassinates the king, by stabbing him in his sleep. Duncan’s son Malcolm then succeeds to the Scottish throne.

27 Writer who populated the Hundred Acre Wood : AA MILNE

Hundred Acre Wood is where Winnie-the-Pooh lives with his friends. According to a map illustrating the books by A. A. Milne, Hundred Acre Wood is part of a larger forest, with Owl’s house sitting right at the center. Piglet also lives in the Hundred Acre Wood, in a beech tree next to a sign that says “TRESPASSERS W”. Piglet says this is short for Trespassers William, which is his grandfather’s name.

30 Shade in four-color printing : CYAN

“Cyan” is short for “cyan blue”. The term comes from the Greek word “kyanos” meaning “dark blue, the color of lapis lazuli”.

Four-color printing uses four different color inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The black ink is also known as the “key”. The first letter of the colors (with black being ”key”) give the more common name for four-color printing, namely CMYK.

31 Actor Reeves : KEANU

Actor Keanu Reeves was sitting on a park bench one day in 2010, eating a sandwich. He was hungry, and just thinking about things. Someone snapped a photograph, and the pensive look and pose was easily interpreted as indicative of sadness. The photo was shared online, and “Sad Keanu” became a thing, and Internet meme. Now there’s even a Cheer-up Keanu Day observed every year on June 15th.

32 Mission control org. : NASA

NASA’s famous Mission Control is located in the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. NASA’s Launch Control Center is located at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. Responsibility for controlling the spacecraft resides with the Launch Control Center until the vehicle clears the launch tower, at which time control is passed over to Mission Control.

37 Fish sticks fish : COD

Fish sticks are known as fish fingers in the UK and Ireland.

38 *”Arf” or “meow”? : PET LINE (from “picket line”)

Back in the late 17th century, a picket was a pointed stake used militarily to defend against attacking forces, and charging cavalry in particular. Ultimately, the term “picket” comes from the French verb “piquer” meaning “to pierce”. The term “pickets” then became the name for troops posted in the front lines, watching for the enemy. A picket line is a unit of soldiers lined up as a team of lookouts. The first use of “picket line” in the sense of labor disputes appeared just after the end of WWII. Our use of “picket fence” evolved from the original lines of pointed stakes used to defend positions held by early colonists.

41 “Tubular!” : RAD!

“Tubular” is a slang from the 1980s meaning “awesome, excellent”. Apparently, the term has its roots in surfers using “tube” as slang for a hollow and curling wave considered best for surfing.

45 Future atty.’s exam : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

46 Quick-as-lightning Bolt : USAIN

Usain Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter who won the 100m and 200m race gold medals in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. Back in Jamaica, Bolt was really into cricket, and probably would have been a very successful fast bowler had he not hit the track instead.

48 City near the heel of Italy’s boot : BARI

Bari is a major port city on the Adriatic coast of Italy. It has the unfortunate distinction of being the only city in Europe to experience chemical warfare during WWII. Allied stores of mustard gas were released during a German bombing raid on Bari in 1943. Fatalities caused by the chemical agent were reported as 69, although other reports list the number as maybe a thousand military personnel and a thousand civilians.

52 *Source of friction when a messy person lives with a neatnik? : STY SITUATION (from “sticky situation”)

The suffix “-nik” is of Slavic origin. It is somewhat like the suffix “-er” in English. By adding “-nik” to a noun, the new word describes a person related to what that noun describes. Examples of the use of “-nik” in mainstream English are “beatnik” and “”refusenik”. Examples of more casual “-nik” terms are “neatnik” and “peacenik”.

57 See 26-Down : PENN
[26D With 57-Across, co-star in the “Harold & Kumar” film series : KAL]

“Harold & Kumar” is a trilogy of comedy films about two potheads played by John Cho (Harold) and Kal Penn (Kumar). Not my cup of tea …

67 “America the Beautiful” pronoun : THEE

When she was 33 years old, Katharine Lee Bates took a train ride from Massachusetts to Colorado Springs. She was so inspired by many of the beautiful sights she saw on her journey that she wrote a poem she called “Pikes Peak”. Upon publication the poem became quite a hit, and several musical works were adapted to the words of the poem, the most popular being a hymn tune composed by Samuel Ward. Bates’s poem and Ward’s tune were published together for the first time in 1910, and given the title “America the Beautiful”.

68 “Frozen” princess : ANNA

“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. The film is all about the exploits of Princess Anna, the younger sister of Elsa, Snow Queen of Arendelle. Elsa was originally intended to be a villain, a malicious and power-hungry character. By the final version of the film, Elsa had transformed from a one-dimensional villain into a fully fleshed-out protagonist.

69 Beckett title character who is not in the cast : GODOT

“Waiting for Godot” is a play by novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett that premiered in 1953. Irishman Beckett actually wrote the piece in French, under the title “En attendant Godot”. He then translated the play into English himself.

71 Fifth Avenue retailer : SAKS

Fifth Avenue in New York City is sometimes referred to as the “most expensive street in the world”. The section that runs through Midtown Manhattan is home to upscale stores, such as Saks Fifth Avenue.

Down

1 __ Mundial de Fútbol : COPA

In Spanish, supporters might shout “gol!” (goal!) at the “Copa Mundial” (World Cup) of soccer.

2 Major work : OPUS

The Latin for “work” is “opus”, with the plural being “opera”. We sometimes use the plural “opuses” in English, but people do that just to annoy me …

7 Tea type : PEKOE

A pekoe (or more commonly “orange pekoe”) is a medium-grade black tea. There is no orange flavor in an orange pekoe tea. The “orange” name most likely derived from the name of the trading company that brought the tea to Europe from Asia.

8 Obama daughter : SASHA

Sasha is the younger of the two Obama children, having been born in 2001. She was the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy, Jr. moved in with his parents as a small infant. Sasha’s Secret Service codename is “Rosebud”, and her older sister Malia has the codename “Radiance”.

9 __ Mary : BLOODY

Mary I was Queen of England and Ireland from 1553 to 1558. Mary was the only surviving child from the marriage of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Unlike her father, Mary adhered to her Roman Catholic faith and was noted for her brutal persecution of Protestants during her reign. She had almost three hundred religious dissenters burned at the stake, resulting in her gaining the nickname “Bloody Mary”. Roman Catholic rule was reversed after she died, when her half-sister Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne.

The Bloody Mary is one of my favorite cocktails, perhaps because it seems to taste so differently depending on who makes it. It has numerous ingredients above and beyond the requisite vodka and tomato juice, and has been described as “the world’s most complex cocktail”.

10 Wordsmith’s ref. : OED

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

11 Post production? : RAISIN BRAN

The name of the cereal “Raisin Bran” is not trademark protected. The Skinner Manufacturing Company introduced Raisin Bran in 1926, and did have trademark protection until 1944. At that time, an appeals court ruled that “Raisin-BRAN” should not be considered a trademark as it is merely a description of the cereal’s ingredients.

C. W. Post decided to get into the cereal business after visiting the Battle Creek Sanitarium operated by John Harvey Kellogg. Post was interested in the chemistry of digestion and was inspired by the dietary products offered by Kellogg at his sanitarium. The first breakfast cereal Post introduced was Grape-Nuts, way back in 1897.

12 Steel city north of Cologne : ESSEN

Essen is a large industrial city located on the River Ruhr in western Germany. The city experienced major population growth in the mid-1800s that was driven by the iron works established by the Krupp family.

18 Arrive, as in a limo : ROLL UP

The word “limousine” derives from the name of the French city of Limoges. The area around Limoges is called the Limousin, and it gave its name to a cloak hood worn by local shepherds. In early motor cars, a driver would sit outside in the weather while the passengers would sit in the covered compartment. The driver would often wear a limousin-style protective hood, giving rise to that type of transportation being called a “limousine”. Well, that’s how the story goes …

22 Like some ancient Peruvian pottery : INCAN

The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Túpac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.

27 Pedigree registry since 1884: Abbr. : AKC

The American Kennel Club (AKC) is the organization that handles registration of purebred dogs The AKC also promotes dog shows around the country, including the famous Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

28 Long, long time : AEON

Geologic time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

• supereon
• eon (also “aeon”)
• era
• period
• epoch
• age

40 Author Welty : EUDORA

Eudora Welty was an author from Jackson, Mississippi who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Welty won a Pulitzer in 1973 for her novel “The Optimist’s Daughter”. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1980. The Eudora email system, once used by Mac and Windows operating systems, was named for Eudora Welty.

42 Crime lab material : DNA

I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that the DNA of living things is so very similar across different species. Human DNA is almost exactly the same for every individual (to the degree of 99.9%). However, those small differences are sufficient to distinguish one individual from another, and to determine whether or not individuals are close family relatives.

44 Some Ph.D. students : TAS

Teaching Assistants (TAs)

47 Native New Yorkers : SENECAS

The Seneca Native-American nation was a member of the Six Nations or Iroquois League, along with the Iroquois, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Tuscarora peoples. Historically, the Seneca lived south of Lake Ontario. The name “Seneca” translates as “Great Hill People”.

55 Dried Mexican chile : ANCHO

An ancho is a dried poblano pepper used in Mexican cuisine. The poblano is a mild chili.

63 Phillipa of “Hamilton” : SOO

Phillipa Soo is an actress and singer who is perhaps best known for portraying Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, the title character’s wife in the original Broadway production of “Hamilton”.

65 Hawaii’s Mauna __ : KEA

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, the peak of which is the highest point in the whole state. Mauna Kea is in effect the tip of a gigantic volcano rising up from the seabed.

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