Day: June 10, 2024

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Constructed by: Noelle Griskey
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Fresh Start

Themed answers each START with a synonym of “FRESH”:

• 60A New beginning, and a feature of 17-, 26-, and 44-Across : FRESH START

• 17A Low-slung jeans : HIP-HUGGERS
• 26A 1993 film about the Olympic bobsled team from Jamaica : COOL RUNNINGS
• 44A Magazine with tips and techniques for anglers : FLY FISHERMAN

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

Bill’s time: 4m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Taj Mahal city : AGRA

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is a magnificent marble mausoleum. It was built in the mid-17th century by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her 14th child in 1631. When Shah Jahan himself died in 1666, he was buried in the Taj Mahal, alongside his wife.

5 Hors d’oeuvres spread : PATE

An hors d’oeuvre is a first course in a meal. “Hors d’oeuvre” translates from French as “apart from the work”, which really means “not the main course”.

9 Type of ski lift : T-BAR

A T-bar is a ski lift on which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair standing (not sitting!) either side of a T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skiers as they remain standing on their skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, which is a similar device but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time.

16 Cogito __ sum : ERGO

The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum”. This translates into French as “Je pense, donc je suis” and into English as “I think, therefore I am”. Anything pertaining to the philosophy of Descartes can be described by the adjective “Cartesian”.

17 Low-slung jeans : HIP-HUGGERS

Hip-huggers are low-rise pants or skirts, so called because they fit tightly around the hips rather than the waist.

19 Semimonthly tide : NEAP

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.

23 Mega Stuf cookie : OREO

Double Stuf Oreos were introduced in 1975, and have twice the normal amount of white cream filling as the original cookie. Nabisco really went big in 2013, introducing the Mega Stuf Oreo that has even more white cream filling.

26 1993 film about the Olympic bobsled team from Jamaica : COOL RUNNINGS

The 1993 film “Cool Runnings” was inspired by a true story of the unlikely participation of Jamaica in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in the bobsled competition. The film was well received, as was the song “I Can See Clearly Now” by Jimmy Cliff that features on the soundtrack. John Candy appears in the film as the bobsled team’s coach. This was to be the last John Candy film to be released in his lifetime.

32 “Just Mercy” actor __ Jackson Jr. : O’SHEA

O’Shea Jackson Jr. is an American actor and rapper who is best known for his portrayal of his own father, rapper Ice Cube, in the biopic “Straight Outta Compton” (2015).

“Just Mercy” is a 2019 legal drama movie that is based on a 2014 memoir of the same name by Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson, a defense attorney devoted to representing African-American prisoners on death row, is portrayed by Michael B. Jordan. After the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, Warner Bros. made the film available for free on several streaming platforms in an effort to educate the public about systemic racism. It’s a very powerful film …

33 __ leches cake : TRES

A tres leches cake is a type of sponge cake that has been soaked in three kinds of milk, in heavy cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk.

38 “The Road Not Taken” poet Robert : FROST

The wonderful poet Robert Frost was a native of San Francisco, but lived most of life in New England. He also spent a few years in England, just before WWI. Frost was well recognized for his work during his lifetime, and received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He was also Vermont’s first Poet Laureate, a position that he held from 1961 until his death in 1963.

Robert Frost had a poem published in 1916 in which he describes the road he took in the last lines:

I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Because of these last lines, the poem is often assumed to be titled “The Road Less Traveled”. In fact, the poem’s correct name is “The Road Not Taken”. Quite interesting …

59 N, on a French map : NORD

In French, “nord” (north) is opposite to “sud” (south).

62 Beige hue : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

Our word “beige” comes from the Old French “bege”, a term that applied to the natural color of wool and cotton that was not dyed.

64 Dramatic ballroom dance : TANGO

The dramatic tango dance originated in the late 1800s in the area along the border between Argentina and Uruguay. Dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires in particular traveled to Europe and beyond in the early twentieth century and brought the tango with them. The tango craze first struck Europe in Paris in the 1910s, and from there spread to London and Berlin, crossing the Atlantic to New York in 1913.

65 Quaker’s “you” : THEE

Members of the Religious Society of Friends are known as Friends or Quakers. The Christian sect started in England in the 1640s, led by George Fox. The principal tenet at that point was that Christians could have direct experience of Jesus Christ without the mediation of clergy, a reflection of the increasing dissatisfaction with the established church at that time. The term “Quaker” is thought to have been used earlier in reference to foreign religious sects whose followers were given to fits of shaking during religious fervor. Somehow that term became used for members of the Religious Society of Friends.

66 Sail the seven __ : SEAS

The phrase “the seven seas” has been used for centuries by many different peoples. The actual definition of what constitutes the collection of seven has varied depending on the period and the culture. Nowadays we consider the seven largest bodies of water as the seven seas, namely:

• The North Pacific Ocean
• The South Pacific Ocean
• The North Atlantic Ocean
• The South Atlantic Ocean
• The Indian Ocean
• The Southern Ocean
• The Arctic Ocean

Down

3 Like a fragrant melon : RIPE

Melons are plants with edible, fleshy fruits that are usually sweet. The fruit of a melon is actually a berry.

4 Wimbledon winner Arthur : ASHE

The great American tennis player Arthur Ashe spent the last years of his life writing his memoir called “Days of Grace”. He finished the manuscript just a few days before he passed away, dying from AIDS caused by a tainted blood transfusion.

The Wimbledon Championships of tennis are held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club located in Wimbledon, a district of London. The Wimbledon Championships started in 1877, and have been played on grass since day one.

5 “Peanuts” character in a cloud of dirt : PIG-PEN

Pig-Pen is the kid in the “Peanuts” cartoon strip that is always dirty. Charles Schulz, the strip’s author, said that Pig-Pen was one of his least favorite characters, and he almost disappeared from the later years of “Peanuts” comic strips.

6 Suffix with lemon and Gator : -ADE

Gatorade was developed at the University of Florida by a team of researchers at the request of the school’s football team. And so, Gatorade is named after the Gators football team.

7 Maryland athlete, for short : TERP

The sports teams of the University of Maryland (UMD) are called the Maryland Terrapins, or “Terps” for short. The name dates back to 1932 when it was coined by the university’s president at the time, Curley Byrd. He took the name from the diamondback terrapins that are native to the Chesapeake Bay.

9 Sport for 4-Down : TENNIS
[4D Wimbledon winner Arthur : ASHE]

Our modern sport of tennis evolved from the much older racquet sport known as real tennis. Originally just called “tennis”, the older game was labeled “real tennis” when the modern version began to hold sway. Real tennis is played in a closed court, with the ball frequently bounced off the walls.

10 Sourdough or rye : BREAD

The active ingredient used to make sourdough bread is found in a pre-ferment (also “starter”). This pre-ferment is a mixture of flour and water that has been allowed to ferment for some time (maybe days) to grow a colony of wild yeast and lactobacilli. The starter is added to the dough used to make the final bread, with the start accounting for about 20% of the weight of the final mixture. During baking, the wild yeast causes the bread to rise and the lactobacilli produce lactic acid, which gives sourdough its characteristic sour taste.

14 Pulitzer-winning novelist Welty : EUDORA

Eudora Welty was an author from Jackson, Mississippi who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Welty won a Pulitzer in 1973 for her novel “The Optimist’s Daughter”. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1980. The Eudora email system, once used by Mac and Windows operating systems, was named for Eudora Welty.

18 Hindu spiritual mentor : GURU

“Guru” is a Hindi word meaning “teacher” or “priest”.

26 Mined fuel : COAL

Coal forms from peat that is subject to heat and pressure deep in the ground over millions of years. The peat is dead plant matter from former wetlands that we now refer to as “coal forests”.

27 Norway home of the Munch Museum : OSLO

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian expressionist, and most famous for his painting “The Scream”, painted in 1893. What a wonderful work that is, a true representation of expressionism. The Munch Museum in Oslo is dedicated to his work and life. In 2004, two of Munch’s paintings, “The Scream” and “Madonna”, were stolen from the Munch Museum by armed robbers who subdued the museum guards. The paintings were missing for two years, but recovered in 2006.

28 Cleveland’s state : OHIO
53 Cleveland’s lake : ERIE

Cleveland, Ohio was named after the man who led the team that surveyed the area prior to the founding of the city. General Moses Cleaveland did his work in 1796 and then left Ohio, never to return again.

30 Tax-collecting org. : IRS

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.

38 Cook in a wok : FRY

“Wok” is a Cantonese word, and is the name for the frying pan now used in many Asian cuisines.

44 Dish with melted cheese or chocolate : FONDUE

Fondue is a traditional Swiss dish comprising melted cheese served in a pot over a tabletop stove, into which diners dip bread. The term “fondue”, which is French for “melted”, is now applied more widely to similar dishes served in a communal pot into which a food is dipped. Traditional fondue is delicious, so very delicious …

47 Impressionist painter Claude : MONET

French artist Claude Monet was one of the founders of the Impressionist movement, and indeed the term “Impressionism” comes from the title of his 1872 painting “Impression, Sunrise”. That work depicts the port of Le Havre, which was Monet’s hometown. Later in his life, Monet purchased a house in Giverny, and famously installed lily ponds and a Japanese bridge in the property’s extensive gardens. He spent two decades painting the water lily ponds, producing his most famous works. I was fortunate enough to visit Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny a few years ago. A beautiful place …

49 Pied-à-__: secondary residence : TERRE

A pied-à-terre is a secondary living space or temporary accommodation, often somewhere to live in a big city that is some distance away from a primary residence. “Pied-à-terre” is French for “foot on the ground”.

55 Sports page datum, for short : STAT

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

58 School near Windsor Castle : ETON

Windsor Castle is located on the River Thames in Berkshire, just 20 miles outside London. It was built in the early 11th century by William the Conqueror after the Norman invasion of England. Queen Elizabeth II used to spend many of her weekends at Windsor. She had lots of room to move around there, as it’s the largest inhabited castle in the world.