Day: January 15, 2024

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Constructed by: Zachary Schiff
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: The Color Purple

Themed answers each start with a PURPLE-COLORED plant:

• 49A 2023 musical film produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, and an apt title for this puzzle : THE COLOR PURPLE

• 20A Thoroughfare in New York City’s Little Italy : MULBERRY STREET
• 25A Hit single from Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” : LAVENDER HAZE
• 43A Meatless cheesy entree, familiarly : EGGPLANT PARM

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

Bill’s time: 6m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13 __ slaw : COLE

The term “coleslaw” is an Anglicized version of the Dutch term “koolsla”, which in itself is a shortened form of “Koolsalade” meaning “cabbage salad”.

14 Aptly named cooler brand : IGLOO

Igloo Products is a Texas-based manufacturer of coolers. The company started up in 1947 making metal water coolers, and introduced its first all-plastic ice chest in 1962. The Igloo name was adopted in 1971.

16 Ocean motion : TIDE

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

19 Father and son authors Kingsley and Martin : AMIS

Kingsley Amis (what a great name!) was a very successful English writer, famous for producing entertaining, comedic novels. His most famous novel is probably his first, “Lucky Jim” published in 1954. That said, he won a Booker Prize for a later novel, “The Old Devils” published in 1986. He passed on some of his talent through his genes, it seems, as his son Martin Amis is a very successful novelist too.

I suppose the successful English novelist Martin Amis must have writing in his blood. He is the son of the respected author Kingsley Amis, a Booker Prize winner. Martin Amis’s best-known novels comprise his so-called “London Trilogy” consisting of “Money” (1984), “London Fields” (1989) and “The Information” (1995).

20 Thoroughfare in New York City’s Little Italy : MULBERRY STREET

Mulberry Street in Manhattan, New York City was named for the mulberry trees that once lined it and Orange Street (together known as “Mulberry Bend”). Mulberry Street runs north-south, and was once the heart of the city’s Little Italy neighborhood. As well as passing through today’s LIttle Italy, the street traverses Little Australia and extends into Chinatown.

23 Nerf missile : DART

Nerf is a soft material used in a whole series of toys designed for “safe” play indoors. The Nerf product is used to make darts, balls and ammunition for toy guns. “NERF” is an acronym, standing for Non-Expanding Recreational Foam.

25 Hit single from Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” : LAVENDER HAZE

“Lavender Haze” is a 2022 song co-written and recorded by Taylor Swift. According to Swift, the phrase “lavender haze” is a 1950s expression describing “love”. I’m not so sure, though …

38 Choreographer de Mille : AGNES

Agnes de Mille was a dancer and choreographer from New York City. She was the niece of famous director Cecil B. DeMille, and the daughter of William C. deMille who was also a Hollywood director. Agnes turned to dance after she was told that she was “not pretty enough” to pursue her first love, which was acting …

39 Chromosome part : GENE

A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

40 Goofy drawing? : CEL

Disney’s Goofy first appeared as Dippy Dawg in 1932. Goofy became famous for his “How to …” series of cartoons in the 1940s which dealt with everything from snow skiing to sleeping, and from football to riding a horse. Goofy’s last theatrical appearance was in a 2007 work called “How to Hook Up Your Home Theater”.

43 Meatless cheesy entree, familiarly : EGGPLANT PARM

Parmigiana (familiarly “parm”) is a dish from southern Italy. The original parmigiana was made with an eggplant filling, with cheese and tomato layers and then baked. Versions originating outside of Italy have replaced the eggplant with breaded cutlets of chicken or veal.

47 City near Anaheim : BREA

The city of Brea is in Orange County in Southern California. Historically, the area that is now Brea was known for its many oil wells. The city was incorporated in 1917, taking the name “Brea” as it is a Spanish term meaning “natural asphalt, tar”.

49 2023 musical film produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, and an apt title for this puzzle : THE COLOR PURPLE

“The Color Purple” is a 2023 musical drama film that is based on a stage musical of the same name, as well as a 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker. Two of the movie’s producers are Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg. Spielberg had directed a 1985 big-screen adaptation of the novel, using the same title, in which Winfrey had starred.

58 Neeson of the “Taken” films : LIAM

Irish actor Liam Neeson’s big break came with the role of Oskar Schindler in the Spielberg epic, “Schindler’s List”. Neeson was in the news some years later when he lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, in a tragic skiing accident in 2009. Earlier in his life, in the 1980s, Neeson lived for several years with Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren.

“Taken” is a fabulous thriller movie released in 2008. It stars Liam Neeson as kind of an older James Bond-ish character, and he is great in the role. “Taken 2” followed in 2012 and it wasn’t a bad sequel, I must say. 2014’s “Taken 3” was just “okay” …

60 Actress Hathaway : ANNE

Actress Anne Hathaway is a trained soprano singer. She put that training on display in the 2012 film adaptation of “Les Misérables,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

61 Rosebud __: “Schitt’s Creek” location : MOTEL

“Schitt’s Creek” is a very entertaining Canadian sitcom created by two of the four leading actors: Dan Levy and his father Eugene Levy. The other two leads are played by Catherine O’Hara and Annie Murphy. It is about a very wealthy family who lose their money and relocate to a small town called Schitt’s Creek, which they had once purchased as a joke. Recommended …

62 Land measure : ACRE

At one time, an acre was defined as the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in a day. Then, an acre was more precisely defined as a strip of land “one furrow long” (i.e. one furlong) and one chain wide. The length of one furlong was equal to 10 chains, or 40 rods. An area of one furlong times 10 rods was one rood.

64 Kelly of morning talk TV : RIPA

When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting gig. Ripa has acted as spokeswoman for several brands over the years, including Electrolux and Rykä.

65 Hornet home : NEST

A hornet is a large type of wasp, with some species reaching over two inches in length.

Down

1 Airwaves-regulating govt. agency : FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been around since 1934, when it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.

11 Drooling dog in “Garfield” : ODIE

Odie is Garfield’s best friend, and is a slobbery beagle. Both are characters in Jim Davis’ comic strip named “Garfield”.

12 Gnat, e.g. : PEST

Gnats have a relatively short lifespan, of about 7-10 days.

22 Weight adjustment factor : TARE

Tare is the weight of a container that is deducted from the gross weight to determine the net weight, the weight of the container’s contents.

26 Baylor in the Basketball Hall of Fame : ELGIN

Elgin Baylor is a retired NBA player and a former NBA general manager. Baylor spent 22 years as GM for the LA Clippers.

The Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts is more correctly known as the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The facility is named for James Naismith, the Canadian-American physical educator who invented the sport. Although the first Hall of Fame class was inducted in 1959, the first Basketball Hall of Fame building did not open until 1968, on the grounds of Springfield College. The increasing number of visitors resulted in the construction of a new building, which opened in 1985 on the banks of the Connecticut River in Springfield. The current facility is also located on the river, and opened in 2002.

29 Strong start? : ESS

The word “strong” starts with the letter S (ess).

33 Designer Cassini : OLEG

French-born American fashion designer Oleg Cassini developed a reputation for designing costumes for films, and dressing numerous film stars. He had two big names particularly associated with his designs. In the sixties he produced the state wardrobe for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. He was also the exclusive designer for Hollywood’s Gene Tierney, who was Cassini’s second wife.

34 CVS rival : WALGREENS

Walgreens is the largest chain of drugstores in the United States, with over 7,500 retail outlets. The company is named for the owner of the first store and founder of the chain, Charles R. Walgreen. Also, Walgreens claims to have introduced the malted milkshake, in 1922.

38 Org. on a bottle of mouthwash : ADA

The American Dental Association (ADA) is the largest and oldest national dental association in the world. Today the ADA is based in Chicago, but the association was founded in Niagara Falls, New York in 1859. The ADA started out as a group of 26 dentists, and it now has more than 152,000 members.

41 Gravy Cravers pet food brand : ALPO

Alpo is a brand of dog food introduced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo dog food in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

45 Tía’s madre : ABUELA

In Spanish, the mother of your “tia” (aunt) is your “abuela” (grandmother).

48 “The Brady Bunch” housekeeper : ALICE

Alice Nelson is the housekeeper on the sitcom “The Brady Bunch”. Alice is portrayed by actress Ann B. Davis. 1995’s “The Brady Bunch Movie” had a different cast from the TV show, with Henriette Mantel playing Alice. But, Davis made a cameo appearance in that movie, as a trucker named Schultzy.

55 AirPods holders : EARS

AirPods are Apple’s line of bluetooth earbuds. When AirPods were introduced in 2016, the market reacted with some skepticism. The left and right AirPods are not connected by any wire, so there was concern that individual earbuds could fall out of the ear, and possibly get lost. Another concern was Apple’s stated intent to abandon the wired headphone socket on new iPhone models.