Day: February 12, 2024

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Constructed by: Amanda Cook
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Open for Business

Themed answers OPEN with a word that is often seen ahead of BUSINESS:

• 37A Sign outside a new store, or what the first words of 18-, 24-, 52-, and 59-Across can do? : OPEN FOR BUSINESS

• 18A Sunday comics locale : FUNNY PAGES (giving “funny business”)
• 24A Pull-apart breakfast treat : MONKEY BREAD (giving “monkey business”)
• 52A Broadway number that brings the house down : SHOWSTOPPER (giving “show business”)
• 59A High roller : BIG SPENDER (giving “big business”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Photocopier unit : REAM

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

9 __ Day: tree-planting occasion : ARBOR

Arbor Day is a holiday each year in which people traditionally plant and care for trees. The first Arbor Day was held way back in 1872.

14 “The Real” co-host Love : LONI

Loni Love is a comedian and TV personality from Detroit. She was the runner-up in 2003 on the relaunched “Star Search” show. In 2013, Love became one of the hosts of the daytime talk show “The Real”.

20 Shaggy’s sidekick, familiarly : SCOOB

“Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” is a series of cartoons produced for Hanna-Barbera Productions, first broadcast in 1969. The title character is a great Dane dog owned by a young male called Shaggy Rogers. The character’s name was inspired by the famous “doo-be-doo-be-doo” refrain in the Frank Sinatra hit “Strangers in the Night”. Shaggy was voiced by famed disk jockey Casey Kasem. Shaggy and Scooby’s friends are Velma, Fred and Daphne.

22 Season for the 2024 Olympiques : ETE

When Paris hosts the Summer Olympics in 2024, it will become only the second city to host the Olympics three times (London hosted in 1908, 1948 and 2012).

23 Brita rival : PUR

Pur is a brand of water filters and related products that was sold to Procter & Gamble in 1999, and sold on again to Helen of Troy Limited.

24 Pull-apart breakfast treat : MONKEY BREAD (giving “monkey business”)

Monkey bread is a breakfast pastry that is sweet and sticky, and that is often pulled apart with the fingers. The dish likely originated in the US with Hungarian immigrants in the late nineteenth century, as monkey bread is basically the Hungarian dessert known as “arany galuska”, which translates as “golden dumpling”.

28 That, in Tijuana : ESO

Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.

30 “Russian Doll” co-creator Poehler : AMY

Amy Poehler was a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” from 2001 to 2008, notable for appearing in many great sketches, including those where she played Hillary Clinton opposite Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin. Poehler also starred with Fey in the 2008 movie “Baby Mama”. And, Poehler led the cast of the sitcom “Parks and Recreation” for its seven-season run.

“Russian Doll” is a comedy-drama TV show starring Natasha Lyonne as a woman who is caught in a time loop on the day of her 36th birthday party. She dies on that day, and spends each repeat of the day to figure out exactly what happened to her. I haven’t seen this one yet, but it does sound very interesting …

34 Conger catcher : EELER

Conger eels can grow to be very, very large, perhaps up to 10 feet in length.

42 Language of India that derives from Sanskrit : HINDI

Hindi is one of the two official languages of India, along with English. It was the fourth most-spoken first language in the world (after Mandarin, Spanish and English) in 2018.

43 Cuba y Cozumel : ISLAS

In Spanish, “Cuba y Cozumel” (Cuba and Cozumel) are “islas” (islands).

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean. The exact etymology of the name “Cuba” seems a little unclear. Most believe “Cuba” to be derived from the Taíno terms for “where fertile land is abundant” (cubao) or “great place” (coabana).

Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It is a tourist destination, and is especially attractive to scuba divers. My son and I spent a great week there diving some years ago …

47 Go through dots like Pac-Man, e.g. : EAT

The Pac-Man arcade game was released first in Japan in 1980, and is as popular today as it ever was. The game features characters that are maneuvered around the screen to eat up dots and earn points, while being pursued by ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. The name of the game comes from the Japanese folk hero “Paku”, who is known for his voracious appetite. The spin-off game called Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1981.

51 Happy Greek cry : OPA!

“Opa!” is a celebratory cry very much associated with Greece and Greek restaurants, where it often accompanies the celebratory smashing of plates and glasses.

57 Endeavour astronaut Jemison : MAE

Mae Jemison was a crew member on the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a 1992 mission, and as such became the first African-American woman to travel in space. She is also a big fan of “Star Trek” and appeared on an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. That made Jemison the first real astronaut to appear on any of the “Star Trek” shows.

NASA’s Space Shuttle program was the agency’s fourth human spaceflight program, following Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Five fully functional shuttles were built and deployed into space:

1. Columbia made its first flight in 1981, but was destroyed during a tragic reentry disaster in 2003.
2. Challenger made its first flight in 1983, but was destroyed in an accident just after launch in 1986.
3. Discovery made its first flight in 1984, and was retired to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex at Washington Dulles Airport
4. Atlantis made its first flight in 1985, and was retired to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
5. Endeavour made its first flight in 1992, and was retired to the California Science Center in Los Angeles

59 High roller : BIG SPENDER (giving “big business”)

In the world of gambling, a high roller is a person who brings a relatively large amount of money to the table and who routinely risks big sums.

63 Corgis and collies : DOGS

The Welsh corgi is a herding dog that originated in Britain, with two recognized breeds: the Pembroke and Cardigan. Corgis aren’t fast enough to do their job by running around livestock like collies, and instead nip at the heels. “Corgi” is Welsh for “dwarf dog”.

The collie isn’t actually a breed of dog, but rather the name given to a group of herding dogs that originated in Scotland and Northern England. An obvious (and wonderful) example would be the border collie. Many dogs classed as collies don’t have the word “collie” in the name of the breed, for example the old English sheepdog and the Shetland sheepdog.

64 Like seven candles on the first night of Hanukkah : UNLIT

There is a seven-branched menorah used symbolically in ancient temples. However, the Hanukkah menorah is a nine-branched lampstand that is lit during the eight-day holiday called Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights. “Menorah” is the Hebrew word for “lamp”.

65 Volcano associated with Hephaestus : ETNA

In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the god of blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. The Roman equivalent of Hephaestus was Vulcan. Given his spheres of influence, it is perhaps not surprising that Hephaestus made all of the weapons for the gods of Olympus.

66 Litter’s littlest : RUNT

Back around 1500, a runt was an old or decayed tree stump, and by the early 1600s “runt” was being used to describe animals that were similarly old and decayed. Ultimately “runt” came to mean the smallest and often sickest in a litter.

67 Fitbit units : STEPS

Fitbits are wearable activity trackers that are mainly used to track the number of steps walked, although more and more features have been added over time. A Fitbit was even used as evidence in at least one murder case. A Connecticut man claimed that a home intruder had shot and killed his wife. Police used data from the wife’s Fitbit to disprove the husband’s story, and ended up charging him with the murder.

Down

1 Life-saving donation : PLASMA

Plasma (sometimes “plasm”) is the clear, yellow-colored liquid component of blood and lymph in which cells are suspended.

5 NHL whistle blower : REF

Back in the early 17th century, a referee was someone who examined patent applications. We started using the same term for a person presiding over a sporting event in the 1820s. “Referee” is a derivative of the verb “to refer”, and literally describes someone who has the authority to make a decision by “referring” to a book, archive etc.

6 __ de parfum : EAU

In the world of perfumery, eau de parfum (EdP) is generally more concentrated than eau de toilette (EdT), which in turn is generally more concentrated than eau de cologne (EdC).

7 Ed of “Elf” : ASNER

“Elf” is a comedy movie that was released for the 2003 Christmas season. It was directed by Jon Favreau and stars Will Ferrell in the title role, with James Caan supporting and Ed Asner playing Santa Claus. It’s all about one of Santa’s elves who finds out he is human and goes to meet his father in New York City. The film was adapted into a stage musical that premiered on Broadway during the Christmas season of 2010.

8 Protégé : MENTEE

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.

9 Tour de France mountain : ALP

Back in the late 1800s, long-distance cycle races were used as promotional events, traditionally to help boost sales of newspapers. These races usually took place around tracks, but in 1902 the backers of the struggling sports publication “L’Auto” decided to stage a race that would take the competitors all around France. That first Tour de France took place in 1903, starting in Paris and passing through Lyon, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes and then back to Paris.

11 Boulangerie loaf : BAGUETTE

“Baguette” is the French word for “wand, baton” as in “baguette magique” (magic wand). We’ve only been calling long, thin loaves of French bread “baguettes” since the late 1950s.

In French, one might buy bread in a “boulangerie” (bakery).

12 Supervises : OVERSEES

A supervisor is someone in charge, one who oversees. The verb “to supervise” comes from the Latin “super” (over) and “videre” (to see).

25 “Here goes nothing” hashtag : YOLO

You only live once (YOLO)

26 Oktoberfest quaff : BIER

Oktoberfest is a 16-day beer festival in Munich that actually starts in September. About six million people attend every year, making it the largest fair in the world. I’ve attended twice, and it really is a remarkable party …

29 FanDuel stat : ODDS

DraftKings and FanDuel are companies offering fantasy sports games and leagues.

37 Pro Football Hall of Fame location : OHIO

The Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in 1963 in Canton, Ohio. One reason that Canton was chosen for the Hall of Fame was that the National Football League (NFL) was founded in the city in 1920.

50 Snowman with a magic hat : FROSTY

“Frosty the Snowman” is a song that was first recorded by Gene Autry, in 1950. The song was specifically written in the hope that it would become a follow-up hit to Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” that topped the charts the previous year.

54 San Diego slugger : PADRE

The San Diego Padres baseball team was founded in 1969, and immediately joined the ranks of Major League Baseball as an expansion team. The Padres took their name from a Minor League team that had been in the city since 1936. The name is Spanish for “fathers” and is a reference to the Franciscan Friars from Spain who founded San Diego in 1769.

59 Magic vehicle for Ms. Frizzle : BUS

“The Magic School Bus” is a children’s cartoon show that originally aired on PBS in the nineties. The show was based on a series of books of the same name by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen.

60 TD’s six : PTS

In football, a touchdown (TD) is worth six points (pts.)

61 Brian of Roxy Music : ENO

Roxy Music is a British band formed by Bryan Ferry, who also served as the lead singer. One of the group’s more famous former band members was Brian Eno, someone who turns up in crosswords far too often …