Day: December 18, 2023

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Constructed by: Jay Silverman
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: On the House

Themed answers each end with something found ON THE HOUSE:

• 61A Welcome words from a bartender, and where to find the ends of 17-, 30-, and 46-Across? : ON THE HOUSE

• 17A Online customer service component : CHAT WINDOW
• 30A Metaphorical feature of a poorly run company, perhaps : REVOLVING DOOR
• 46A Does a celebratory dance by pushing up one’s palms : RAISES THE ROOF

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

Bill’s time: 5m 16s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Furry “Return of the Jedi” creature : EWOK

The Ewoks are creatures that live on the moon of Endor in the “Star Wars” universe. First appearing in “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”, they’re the cute and cuddly little guys that look like teddy bears.

14 Off-roaders, for short : ATVS

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

15 “The Jungle Book” bear : BALOO

“The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling was originally published in 1894, and is a collection of adventure stories or fables featuring the animals of the jungle and a young boy named Mowgli. Baloo is a sloth bear that teaches the cubs of a wolf pack the Law of the Jungle. Baloo’s most challenging pupil however is no lupine, but rather the man-cub Mowgli.

21 Thor’s father : ODIN

In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. He is usually depicted as having one eye, reflecting the story of how he gave one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom.

22 White Monopoly bills : ONES

The commercial game of Monopoly is supposedly a remake of “The Landlord’s Game” created in 1903 by a Quaker woman named Lizzie Phillips. Phillips used her game as a tool to explain the single tax theory of American economist Henry George. The Landlord’s Game was first produced commercially in 1924. The incredibly successful derivative game called Monopoly was introduced in 1933 by Charles Darrow, who became a very rich man when Parker Brothers bought the rights to the game just two years later in 1935.

34 Since Jan. 1 : YTD

Year-to-date (YTD)

40 Stanzas of six lines : SESTETS

A sestet is a group of six lines of poetry. It is similar to a quatrain, a group of four lines.

45 “The Walking Dead” network : AMC

“The Walking Dead” is a horror television show made by AMC that is based on a comic book series of the same name. There are lots of flesh-eating zombies featured, so I won’t be caught “dead” watching it …

50 Like a famous Broadway couple : ODD

“The Odd Couple” is a play by the wonderfully talented Neil Simon that was first performed on Broadway, in 1965. This great play was adapted for the big screen in 1968, famously starring Jack Lemmon (as Felix Unger) and Walter Matthau (as Oscar Madison). The success of the play and the film gave rise to an excellent television sitcom that ran from 1970-1975, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. In 1985, Neil Simon even went so far as to adapt the play for an all-female cast, renaming it “The Female Odd Couple”. I’d like to see that one …

57 Electrical adapter letters : AC/DC

Anyone with a laptop with an external power supply has an AC/DC converter, that big “block” in the power cord. It converts the AC current from a wall socket into the DC current that is used by the laptop.

64 Early Peruvian : INCA

Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro discovered the Incas in 1526, marking the beginning of the end for an ancient civilization that was to be ravaged by brutal Spanish colonists and by imported smallpox. The last leader of the Inca was Atahualpa. Pizarro staged a mock trial and then condemned Atahualpa to execution by burning. A Spanish friar intervened on behalf of the condemned man, as Atahualpa believed that if he was burned his soul would not move on to the afterlife. Pizarro was kind enough to have Atahualpa garroted instead.

65 “Doctor Who” actress Gillan : KAREN

Scottish actress Karen Gillan is most famous for playing Amy Pond in the “Doctor Who” sci-fi show made by the BBC. Pond was the companion to the eleventh doctor, played by Matt Smith. More recently, Gillan played Nebula in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series of films.

66 Commedia dell’__ : ARTE

“Commedia dell’arte” translates literally from Italian as “comedy of craft”. It is a style of theater that started out in Italy in the mid-1500s. The commedia featured a cast of stock characters such as devious servants and foolish old men, most of whom wore distinctive and recognizable masks. Some of the better known characters are Harlequin (a foolish but acrobatic servant), and Pantalone (a lascivious old merchant).

Down

2 “Training Day” actor Hawke : ETHAN

Ethan Hawke is a Hollywood actor who made his breakthrough in a supporting role in “Dead Poet’s Society”, playing opposite Robin Williams. Hawke used to be married to Uma Thurman, with whom he has two children.

“Training Day” is a 2001 crime movie starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke as two narcotics officers in Los Angeles. The film was well received and merited a TV spin off. The small-screen version was canceled after one season following the death of lead actor Bill Paxton.

3 James Cameron franchise featuring the Na’vi : AVATAR

In James Cameron’s epic “Avatar”, the “blue people” are the Na’vi, the indigenous species that lives on the lush moon called Pandora. The main Na’vi character featured in the film is the female Neytiri. According to Cameron, Neytiri was inspired by the character played by Raquel Welch in the movie “Fantastic Voyage” and the comic book character Vampirella.

4 Mar.-to-Nov. hrs. : DST

Daylight saving time (DST)

6 “Get Out” actor Kaluuya : DANIEL

British actor Daniel Kaluuya’s breakthrough role was the lead in the 2017 horror film “Get Out”. His performance in that movie garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Kaluuya is quite the soccer fan, and an ardent supporter of the London team Arsenal. Amazon gave him the job of narrating the 2022 docuseries “All or Nothing: Arsenal”.

7 Discount clothing chain owned by Gap : OLD NAVY

Old Navy is a store brand founded and owned by The Gap. The name “Old Navy” was taken from the Old Navy Cafe in Paris.

10 “__ Brockovich” : ERIN

Erin Brockovich is an environmental activist who is famous for the role she played in building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric for contaminating drinking water. Her story was told in a 2000 film titled “Erin Brockovich” starring Julia Roberts in the title role. Brockovich herself actually appeared in the film, as she was given a cameo as a waitress in a restaurant scene.

26 Skedaddles : GITS

“Skedaddle” is a slang term meaning “run away”, one that dates back to the Civil War.

29 Loads from a lode : ORES

A lode is a metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure. The mother lode is the principal deposit in a mine, usually of gold or silver. “Mother lode” is probably a translation of “veta madre”, an expression used in mining in Mexico.

32 Google or Yahoo : DOT COM

The Google search engine was originally called “BackRub” would you believe? The name was eventually changed to “Google”, an intentional misspelling of the word “googol”. A googol is a pretty big number, 10 to the power of 100. That would be the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros.

Jerry Yang and David Filo called their company “Yahoo!” for two reasons. Firstly, a Yahoo is a rude unsophisticated brute from Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”. Secondly, Yahoo stands for “Yet another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”.

44 London’s Old Vic, for one : THEATRE

The Old Vic is a very famous theater (or should I say “theatre”?) in London. It was previously known as the Royal Coburg Theatre and then the Royal Victorian Theatre (giving it the current name “The Old Vic”). The theater owes a lot of its fame and standing to the fact that it housed the National Theater of Great Britain after it was founded in 1963 by Sir Laurence Olivier. Today the National Theater has new, modern premises, but the Old Vic Theatre Company still garners a lot of attention.

54 Wintry mix : SLEET

Apparently, “sleet” is a term used to describe two different weather conditions. One is a shower of ice pellets that are smaller than hail, and the second is a mixture of rain and snow, with the snow melting as it falls.

56 Constricting snakes : BOAS

Boa constrictors are members of the Boidae family of snakes, all of which are non-venomous. Interestingly, the female boa is always larger than the male.

60 Chef-training sch. based in N.Y. : CIA

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York was founded in 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut as the New Haven Restaurant Institute. It was established as a training school for veterans returning from WWII.