Day: March 11, 2024

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Constructed by: Margi Stevenson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: DMs

Themed answers each comprise two words starting with D and M:

• 69A Private chats, briefly, and what 17-, 29-, 45-, and 61-Across literally are : DMS

• 17A Sound of the 1970s : DISCO MUSIC
• 29A Electronic source of percussion : DRUM MACHINE
• 45A Unaccredited source of degrees : DIPLOMA MILL
• 61A Hypothetical space stuff that doesn’t interact with light : DARK MATTER

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

Bill’s time: 5m 13s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 __ eclipse: daytime celestial event : SOLAR

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes into the shadow cast by the Earth from the light of the Sun, in other words when the Earth is positioned directly between the Sun and the Moon. The more spectacular solar eclipse takes place when the Moon passes in front of the Sun, so that the Earth falls into the shadow cast by the Moon.

9 Iowa State’s home : AMES

Iowa State University of Science and Technology (ISU) is located in Ames, Iowa. Among many other notable milestones, ISU created the country’s first school of veterinary medicine, in 1879. The sports teams of ISU are known as the Cyclones.

21 Blue Ribbon brewery : PABST

Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) is the most recognizable brand of beer from the Pabst Brewing Company. There appears to be some dispute over whether or not Pabst beer ever won a “blue ribbon” prize, but the company claims that it did so at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The beer was originally called Pabst Best Select, and then just Pabst Select. With the renaming to Blue Ribbon, the beer was sold with an actual blue ribbon tied around the neck of the bottle until it was dropped in 1916 and incorporated into the label.

23 Novelist O’Brien : EDNA

Edna O’Brien is an Irish novelist and playwright who is known for her works that shine a light on the problems of women relating to men and society in general. O’Brien’s first novel, “The Country Girls”, was banned, burned and denounced by the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. As a result, O’Brien left the country and now lives in London.

27 Organ with an iris : EYE

The iris is the colored part of the eye. It has an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

44 Qatari leader : EMIR

Qatar is a sovereign state in the Middle East occupying the Qatar Peninsula, itself located in the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar lies on the Persian Gulf and shares one land border, with Saudi Arabia to the south. Qatar has more oil and gas reserves per capita of population than any other country in the world. In 2010, Qatar had the fastest growing economy in the world, driven by the petrochemical industry.

51 Florida NBA team, on scoreboards : ORL

The Orlando Magic were formed in 1989 as an NBA expansion team. A local paper was asked to run a competition to suggest names for the new team and the community came up with its four top picks of “Heat”, “Tropics”, “Juice” and “Magic”. A committee then opted for “Orlando Magic”. A good choice I think …

52 CrossFit units : REPS

CrossFit is a trademarked fitness, strength and conditioning program that was introduced in 2000.

57 Carrying capacity of a cargo ship : TONNAGE

Cargo is freight carried by some vehicle. The term “cargo” comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.

60 Trig function that models light waves : SINE

A sine wave is a mathematical function that describes a simple, smooth, repetitive oscillation. The sine wave is found right throughout the natural world. Ocean waves, light waves and sound waves all have a sine wave pattern.

61 Hypothetical space stuff that doesn’t interact with light : DARK MATTER

Dark matter is the theoretical material that makes up over 80% of the universe. Astrophysicists use dark matter to explain the discrepancy between the calculated mass of a large object and the mass determined empirically by observing gravitational effects. The term “dark matter” is an apt one as the matter is invisible to telescopes and neither admits nor absorbs light of significance.

66 Word repeated after “Que” in a classic song : SERA

The 1956 song “Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” was first performed by Doris Day in the Hitchcock film “The Man Who Knew Too Much”. Day later used the same tune as the theme song for the sitcom “The Doris Day Show” that aired in the late sixties and early seventies.

67 Locksmith’s supply : KEYS

A metalsmith (often just “smith”) is a metalworker, someone who fashions useful items out of various metals. The term “metalsmith” is often used to describe someone adept at working with many different metals. Other smiths tend to specialize, e.g. a blacksmith works mainly with iron and steel, a coppersmith works mainly with copper, a gunsmith builds and repairs firearms, and a locksmith works with locks.

68 Canadian honker : GOOSE

The Canada goose has quite a distinctive coloring, with a black head and neck broken up by a white “chinstrap”. They thrive in parks that are frequented by humans, and are so successful that they are considered pests by some.

69 Private chats, briefly, and what 17-, 29-, 45-, and 61-Across literally are : DMS

Direct message (DM)

Down

1 Diane of “Chesapeake Shores” : LADD

Diane Ladd is an American actress who was nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the 1990 film “Wild at Heart”. The lead roles in the movie were played by Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern. Laura Dern is Diane Ladd’s daughter in real life, as Ladd was once married to actor Bruce Dern.

“Chesapeake Shores” is a TV show that premiered on the Hallmark Channel in 2016. The series is based on a series of novels of the same name by Sherryl Woods. I haven’t seen the show, but it is described as a romance, and as a family drama.

2 The “E” of the Great Lakes HOMES mnemonic : ERIE

A well-known mnemonic for remembering the names of the Great Lakes is HOMES, an acronym standing for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Another mnemonic serving the same purpose is “super heroes must eat oats”.

4 Historic fort in South Carolina : SUMTER

Fort Sumter is a fortification lying on an artificially constructed island in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. In December 1860, when South Carolina seceded from the Union, US Army forces relocated to Fort Sumter deeming it to be a relatively defensible location. On 11 April 1861, confederate forces demanded that the fort be surrendered. When the defenders refused to budge, confederate artillery opened fire at 4:30 in the morning on 12 April 1861, starting the American Civil War.

6 Part of UCLA : LOS

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gets more applications from potential students than any other university in the country. UCLA also has more students enrolled than any other university in the state.

7 Singer DiFranco : ANI

Ani DiFranco is a folk-rock singer and songwriter. DiFranco has also been labeled a feminist icon, and in 2006 won the Woman of Courage Award from the National Organization for Women.

10 India’s largest city : MUMBAI

Mumbai is the most populous city in India, and the second-most populous city in the world (after Shanghai). The name of the city was changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995. It is the financial capital of India and is home to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the oldest stock exchange in Asia.

11 Inventor Thomas who co-founded General Electric : EDISON

The General Electric Company is usually referred to simply as “GE”. One of the precursor companies to GE was Edison General Electric, founded in 1890 by the inventor Thomas Edison. What we know today as GE was formed two years later when Edison merged his company with Charles Coffin’s Thomson-Houston Electric Company. In 1896, GE was selected as one of the 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. GE was the last of the original 12 to survive on that list, being replaced by Walgreens in 2018. I spent over ten years with GE at the beginning of my working career, and in fact it was GE that asked me to transfer to the US from Ireland back in the 1980s …

24 Composer Shostakovich : DMITRI

Dmitri Shostakovich was a Russian composer, producing works in the Soviet period. He had a difficult relationship with the Communist Party and twice was officially denounced by the party.

33 Tangerine coat : PEEL

The citrus fruit that we know as the tangerine is so called because the first “tangerines” imported into Europe were sourced in “Tangiers”, the capital city of Morocco in North Africa.

36 Georgia school that’s one of the New Ivies : EMORY

The so-called “New Ivies” are a group of schools with excellent reputations that are deemed to be a little easier to get into. The list is more extensive than the traditional Ivy League list and comprises 25 schools, including Boston College, Colgate University, Emory University, New York University and the University of Virginia. The term “New Ivies” was coined by “Newsweek” in 2006.

37 Play charades, say : MIME

In the parlor game known as charades, players take turns acting out words or phrases. “Charade” is a French word describing a literary puzzle that was popular in 18th-century France. In said game, the word or phrase was broken into its constituent syllables, with each syllable being described somewhat enigmatically. This puzzle evolved into “acted charades”, which we now refer to simply as “charades”.

41 Test for M.A. hopefuls : GRE

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

43 Mantra syllables : OMS

“Om” is a sacred mystic word from the Hindu tradition. “Om” is sometimes used as a mantra, a focus for the mind in meditation.

46 “Trainspotting” novelist Welsh : IRVINE

Irvine Welsh is a novelist from Scotland whose most famous work is 1993’s “Trainspotting”, which was adapted into a hit 1996 movie of the same name. Welsh earned himself an on-screen credit in the film, playing drug dealer Mikey Forrester. His stories tend to revolve around the use of recreational drugs. Welsh was a heroin addict for a year and a half when he was in his early twenties.

48 YSL men’s fragrance : L’HOMME

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

49 “Girls” creator Dunham : LENA

Lena Dunham is a co-star in the HBO series “Girls”, and is also the show’s creator. Dunham garnered a lot of attention for herself during the 2012 US Presidential election cycle as she starred in an ad focused on getting out the youth vote. In the spot, she compared voting for the first time with having sex for the first time.

56 Vintage Speed Wagons, e.g. : REOS

The REO Speed Wagon was a light truck introduced in 1915, and a precursor to the modern pickup truck. The rock band REO Speedwagon is named for the truck, but note the difference between the spelling of Speedwagon (the band) and Speed Wagon (the truck).

57 Boxing match decisions, for short : TKOS

Technical knockout (TKO)

62 Ruckus : ADO

The word “ruckus” is used to mean “commotion”, and has been around since the late 1800s. “Ruckus” is possibly a melding of the words “ruction” and “rumpus”.

63 Ipanema’s city : RIO

Ipanema is a beach community in the south of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The name Ipanema is a local word meaning “bad water”, signifying that the shore is bad for fishing. The beach became famous worldwide following the release of the song “The Girl from Ipanema” in 1962.