Day: November 28, 2023

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Constructed by: Chandi Deitmer
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Humble Beginnings

Themed answers all BEGIN with a synonym of HUMBLE:

• 38A Part of a rags-to-riches story, and what the answers to the starred clues literally have : HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

• 18A *Unembellished facts : PLAIN TRUTH
• 27A *Soda and candy, metabolically : SIMPLE CARBS
• 51A *Indie rock band with the hit single “Float On” : MODEST MOUSE
• 61A *No-frills TV choice : BASIC CABLE

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

Bill’s time: 6m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Light-tube gas : NEON

The basic design of neon lighting was first demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. Such lighting is made up of glass tubes containing a vacuum into which has been introduced a small amount of neon gas. When a voltage is applied between two electrodes inside the tube, the neon gas “glows” and gives off the familiar light.

10 Forehead hider : BANGS

“Bangs” is another word that caught me out when I arrived in the US. “Bangs” back in Ireland are called “a fringe”. Apparently the US term is somehow derived from the name given to the hair on a horse’s head.

15 Très très : ULTRA

In French, one might be “très” (very) glad to finish the crossword.

20 Japanese lunchbox : BENTO

A bento is a single-person meal that is eaten quite commonly in Japan. A bento can be purchased as a take-out meal, or it may be packed at home. A bento is usually sold as a “bento box”.

21 Boo-Boo’s buddy : YOGI

Boo-Boo Bear was the sidekick to Yogi Bear on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon classic “The Yogi Bear Show”.

Yogi Bear made his debut for Hanna-Barbera in 1958, on “The Huckleberry Hound Show” before he was given his own series. Do you remember that collar that Yogi wore around his neck? That was a little trick from the animators. By using the collar, for many frames all they had to do was redraw everything from the collar up, saving them lots and lots of time. Yogi and Boo-Boo lived in Jellystone Park, and made Ranger Smith’s life a misery.

22 Bryant of “Shrill” : AIDY

Actor and comedian Aidy Bryant made her debut on “Saturday Night Live” in 2012. Bryant married fellow comedian Conner O’Malley in 2018.

“Shrill” is a comedy TV show that started airing in 2019. The show was co-developed by Aidy Bryant and Lindy West. Bryant plays the lead on the screen, and West wrote the book “Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman” on which the show is based.

24 Clairvoyant’s gift, for short : ESP

We’ve been using the term “clairvoyant” to describe a psychic since the nineteenth century. Prior to that, a clairvoyant was a clear-sighted person. The term comes from French, with “clair” meaning “clear” and “voyant” meaning “seeing”.

31 Mobile’s st. : ALA

Mobile, Alabama was founded in 1702, and was the first capital of French Colonial Louisiana. The city takes its name from the Mobilian tribe of Native Americans who lived in that area.

32 “Kim’s Convenience” actor Paul Sun-Hyung __ : LEE

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is a Canadian actor who was born in South Korea. He is perhaps best known for playing Appa, the patriarch on the TV show “Kim’s Convenience”. The show is based on a play of the same name, in which Lee played the same part in the original 2011 run.

33 Like some forest ground : MOSSY

There is a traditionally-held belief that in the northern hemisphere there is a heavier growth of moss on the north-facing side of trees. The assumption is that the sun creates a drier environment on the south side of the tree, an environment that is less conducive to the growth of moss.

47 Former “American Gladiators” co-host Ali : LAILA

Laila Ali is the daughter of the great Muhammad Ali and is a very capable boxer in her own right. Laila’s professional record is an impressive 24 wins, including 21 knockouts. Now retired, she never lost a fight, and nor did she ever draw. One of those victories was against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, daughter of her father’s nemesis Joe Frazier. Laila is not a bad dancer either, coming in third place in the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars”.

“American Gladiators” is a competition TV show that aired from 1989 to 1996, and again with a new cast in 2008. Hosts for the more recent version were Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali.

50 Hoppy draft choice, for short : IPA

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

51 *Indie rock band with the hit single “Float On” : MODEST MOUSE

Modest Mouse is a rock band from Issaquah, Washington that formed in 1993. The name “Modest Mouse” comes from a Virginia Woolf story called “The Mark on the Wall” in which there is a passage:

I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises.

56 Fuel from a bog : PEAT

When dead plant matter accumulates in marshy areas, it may not fully decay due to a lack of oxygen or acidic conditions. We are familiar with this in Ireland, because this decaying matter can form peat, and we have lots and lots of peat bogs around the country.

66 Oscar winner Swinton : TILDA

Tilda Swinton is an English actress who is quite famous in her native land. She made a big name for herself outside the UK when she played the “baddie” in the 2007 movie “Michael Clayton”, opposite the “goodie” played by George Clooney. That performance earned Swinton a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

68 Give a wide berth : AVOID

Back in the 1600s, “berth” was “convenient sea room”, i.e. plenty of room to maneuver. So, to give a wide berth was to allow a lot of room. The use of “berth” to mean “place for sailors to sleep” didn’t evolve until the 1700s.

70 __ Ness monster : LOCH

Scotland’s Loch Ness is famous for its fabled “monster”, referred to affectionately as “Nessie”. The loch is the second-largest lake in the country (Loch Lomond is the largest). Loch Ness takes its name from the River Ness that flows from the loch’s northern end.

71 Really, really into crosswords, say : NERDY

Arthur Wynne is generally credited with the invention of what we now know as a crossword puzzle. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England and emigrated to the US when he was 19-years-old. He worked as a journalist and was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1913 when he introduced a “Word-Cross Puzzle” in his page of puzzles written for the “New York World”. The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Shuster & Shuster, in 1924. The collection of puzzles was a huge hit, and crosswords were elevated to the level of “a craze” in 1924 and 1925.

Down

2 The whole shebang : ALL

The word “shebang” is probably a derivative of “shebeen”, which is an Irish term describing a “speakeasy”, an establishment where liquor was drunk and sold illegally. In English, a “shebang” was originally a “hut” or a “shed”. Just how this evolved into the expression “the whole shebang”, meaning “everything”, is unclear.

4 TLC and HAIM : TRIOS
5 Performed like TLC and HAIM : SANG

The girl band called TLC is from Atlanta, Georgia. The band’s name comes from the trio’s original members:

• Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins
• Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes
• Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas

Haim is a Los Angeles band consisting of three Haim sisters: Este, Danielle and Alana.

6 Scand. land : NOR

Norway has been ranked as the country in the world with the highest standard of living almost every year since 2001. It is rich in natural resources and has a relatively low population. The people benefit from a comprehensive social security system, subsidized higher education for all citizens and universal health care. And Norway is famous for her success at the Winter Olympic Games, having won more gold medals than any other nation in the world.

11 “__ You the One?”: reality dating series : ARE

“Are You the One?” is an MTV reality show that starts the season with ten men and ten women hoping to find their perfect love match. Nope …

12 SF NFL team : NINERS

The 49ers football team in San Francisco takes its name from the gold prospectors who flooded into Northern California around 1849 during the California Gold Rush. These “1849 prospectors” became known as the “49ers”.

13 “Great” West Egg resident Jay : GATSBY

East Egg is a fictional location in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby”. It is an exclusive residential area located on Long Island’s north shore, across from another fictional area called West Egg. East Egg is said to be based on the real-life location of Sands Point, Long Island.

19 “__ the season … ” : ‘TIS

The music for the Christmas song “Deck the Halls” is a traditional Welsh tune that dates back to the 16th century. The same tune was used by Mozart for a violin and piano duet. The lyrics with which we are familiar (other than the “fa-la-la”) are American in origin, and were recorded in the 19th century.

“’Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la la!”

25 Supersonic speed measure : MACH

The Mach number of a moving object (like say an airplane) is its speed relative to the speed of sound. A plane traveling at Mach 2, for example, is moving at twice the speed of sound. The term “Mach” takes its name from the Austrian physicist Ernst Mach who published a groundbreaking paper in 1877 that even predicted the “sonic boom”.

26 Six-time MLB All-Star Moisés : ALOU

Moisés Alou played Major League Baseball, as did his father Felipe and his uncles Matty and Jesús.

35 “Three Billboards … ” actress Cornish : ABBIE

Abbie Cornish is an actress and rap singer from Australia. As an actress, Cornish played the wife of Police Chief Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) in the excellent movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”. She also plays the title character’s love interest in the TV series “Jack Ryan”. As a rapper, Cornish performs under the name “Dusk”.

39 Internet lingo from a cat meme : LOLSPEAK

A lolcat is an image of a cat with a humorous message superimposed in text. Such images have been around since the late 1800s, but the term “lolcat” only surfaced in 2006 as the phenomenon was sweeping across the Internet. “Lolcat” is a melding of the acronym for “laugh out loud” (LOL) and “cat”.

52 Selena’s “Only Murders in the Building” role : MABEL

Selena Gomez is an actress and singer from Grand Prairie, Texas. Gomez’s first television role was in the children’s show “Barney & Friends”. She then played the lead in the TV series “Wizards of Waverly Place”. Gomez’s fans often refer to themselves as “Selenators”. Offscreen, Gomez made a splash as the girlfriend of Canadian singer Justin Bieber for a couple of years.

“Only Murders in the Building” is a comedy-mystery TV show starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez as a trio of true-crime podcasters who band together to solve murders in their apartment building. Steve Martin co-created the series. Highly recommended …

54 Tequila plant : AGAVE

The agave is a succulent plant found mainly in Mexico. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), the agave is unrelated to the cactus, and isn’t related to the aloe plant either. The blue agave is used in the production of tequila.

60 Nutrition fig. : RDA

Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) were introduced during WWII, and were replaced by Recommended Daily Intakes (RDIs) in 1997.