Day: July 5, 2024

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Constructed by: Erik Agard
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Framework

Themed answers are all professionals who WORK with FRAMES:

• 59A Basic structure, or what a 19-, 24-, 40-, and 52-Across do? : FRAMEWORK or FRAME WORK

• 19A Athlete making a living in alleys : PRO BOWLER
• 24A Professional who calls the shots : MOVIE DIRECTOR
• 40A Professional whose website might have a contact page? : OPTICIAN
• 52A Met someone? : MUSEUM CURATOR

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

Bill’s time: 11m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Split apart : SUNDER

To sunder is to break apart. We rarely use the verb “sunder” these days, but the root of the word persists in the adjective “asunder” meaning “into parts”.

7 Spit take sound : PFFT!

The comic maneuver in which someone spits out a drink in response to a joke or a surprising statement, that’s called a “spit-take”.

11 PC accessories : MICE

The computer mouse was invented at the Stanford Research Institute in 1963, by one Douglas Engelbart. Sadly for him, his patent ran out before mice became standard equipment on computers, so he never made any money from his amazing invention.

19 Athlete making a living in alleys : PRO BOWLER

A kegler is a person who plays ten-pin bowling. “Kegel” is a German word meaning “bowling pin”.

31 Kung __ chicken : PAO

Kung Pao chicken (or sometimes shrimp or tofu) is a Sichuan stir-fry dish that includes peanuts, vegetables and chili peppers. The name “Kung Pao” is thought to come from a governor of the Sichuan province whose title was “Gongbao”, meaning “Palace Guardian”.

32 Screen type : LCD

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) are the screens that are found in most laptops today, and in flat panel computer screens and some televisions. LCD monitors basically replaced Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) screens, the old television technology.

35 Some WNBA fouls : TECHS

In basketball, the most common technical foul is unsportsmanlike conduct.

36 Coffee Meets Bagel alternative : HINGE

Coffee Meets Bagel is an online dating app that was launched by three sisters in 2012, initially in New York City. The Kang sisters appeared on “Shark Tank” seeking $500,000 for 5% of the company. Instead, they received an offer of $30 million to buy the whole company, which was the highest offer in the history of the show. The Kangs refused the offer.

39 __ mode : A LA

In French, “à la mode” simply means “fashionable”. In America, the term has also come to describe a way of serving pie. Pie served à la mode includes a dollop of cream or ice cream, or as I recall from my time living in Upstate New York, with a wedge of cheddar cheese.

40 Professional whose website might have a contact page? : OPTICIAN

An optician is a professional who specializes in fitting and dispensing corrective eyewear, based on prescriptions from optometrists or ophthalmologists. The word “optician” comes from the Latin “opticus,” meaning “of or relating to sight.”

43 Leslie’s love on “Parks and Rec” : BEN

Ben Wyatt, a character from the sitcom “Parks and Recreation”, is portrayed by actor Adam Scott. Over the course of the show, he sheds his uptight demeanor, eventually falling in love with Leslie Knope, becoming her husband and fathering triplets.

44 Vietnamese New Year : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

45 Robs of hobnobbing : SHUNS

“To hobnob with” means “to rub elbows with, associate with”. The phrase dates back to the mid 1700s and is derived from “hob and nob”, an expression meaning to toast each other in turn, or to buy alternate rounds of drinks.

49 Tabletop game with campaigns, for short : DND

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D, DnD) is a complex role-playing game (RPG) introduced in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my youngest son …

52 Met someone? : MUSEUM CURATOR

The term “curator” is Latin and applies to a manager, guardian or overseer. In English, the original curators were the guardians and overseers of minors and those with mental disease. Today, we use the term “curator” particularly for someone in charge of a museum, zoo or other exhibition.

The term “museum” comes from the ancient Greek word “mouseion” that denoted a temple dedicated to the “Muses”. The Muses were the patrons of the arts in Greek mythology.

58 “Allahu __” : AKBAR

The Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar” is usually translated as “God is greatest”. The phrase can be seen written in Arabic letters at the center of the flag of Iraq, and written 22 times across the flag of Iran.

68 Cut covered with a Bluey bandage, e.g. : OWIE

“Bluey” is a preschool TV show from Australia. The title character is an anthropomorphic blue heeler puppy whose full name is Bluey Christine Heeler. Her younger sister is Bingo Heeler. My granddaughter just loves Bluey …

70 Nocturnal hunters : OWLS

Much of an owl’s diet consists of small mammals. As a result, humans have used owls for centuries to control rodent populations, usually by placing a nest box for owls on a property. Despite the fact that owls and humans live together in relative harmony, owls have been known to attack humans from time to time. Celebrated English bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye when attacked by a tawny owl that he was trying to photograph. Hosking wrote a 1970 autobiography with the wry title “An Eye for a Bird”.

Down

1 Questionable, for short : SUS

The slang term “sus” is a shortened form of “suspicious” or “suspect”.

2 Granite State sch. : UNH

The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is the largest university in the state. UNH was founded as the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts in 1866 in Hanover. The college was moved to Durham in the early 1890s, which is where UNH’s main campus is located to this day. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Wildcats.

New Hampshire gained the nickname “The Granite State” in the early 1800s when granite quarrying became a significant industry in the state. However, the term was popularized in 1825 by Philip Carrigain, who used the phrase in a song:

North, and South, and East, and West,
Grateful homage have express’d,
Greeting loud the Nation’s Guest:
Son of Liberty;
Whom Tyrants curs’d–when Heav’n approv’d,
And millions long have mourn’d and lov’d;
He comes by fond entreaties mov’d,
The GRANITE STATE to see.

3 Largest U.S. union : NEA

Founded in 1857, the National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the country, and mainly represents public school teachers.

4 Poet Mahmoud who wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence : DARWISH

Mahmoud Darwish was sometimes referred to as Palestine’s national poet. It was he who authored the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988 that formally established the State of Palestine.

5 Hot shots? : ESPRESSOS

Espresso is made by forcing extremely hot water, under pressure, through finely ground coffee beans. The result is a thick and concentrated coffee drink that contains quite a lot of solids and a lot of foam. An espresso machine was first patented in 1884 in Italy, although it was a machine to make the beverage in bulk. The first patent for a machine that made individual measures was applied for in 1901, also in Italy.

8 Husky’s hair : FUR

The Siberian Husky is one of the oldest breeds of dog, and originated in northern Asia. Siberian Huskies were imported into Alaska in great numbers in the early 1900s for use as sled dogs during the gold rush.

10 Letters before Q? : TAB

Like most features on our computer keyboards, the tab key is a hangover from the days of typewriters. When using a typewriter, making entries into a table was very tedious, involving lots of tapping on the spacebar and backspace key. So, a lever was added to typewriters that allowed the operator to “jump” across the page to positions that could be set by hand. Later this was simplified to a tab key which could be depressed, causing the carriage to jump to the next tab stop in much the same way that the modern tab key works on a computer.

13 “I May Destroy You” star Michaela : COEL

“Michaela Coel” is the stage name of British actress Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson. She created, wrote and starred in the sitcom “Chewing Gum”, which was based on her own 2012 play “Chewing Gum Dreams”. On this side of the Atlantic, she is perhaps better known for creating, writing and starring in the comedy-drama mini-series “I May Destroy You”, for which she won an Emmy. Coel was inspired to write “I May Destroy You” after having been drugged and sexually assaulted by two men during the writing of “Chewing Gum”.

24 Half a “Lion King” phrase : MATATA

“Hakuna matata” is a Swahili phrase, with a literal translation of “there are no worries”, or more colloquially perhaps, “no problem”. The phrase is used as the title for a hit song from the musical “The Lion King”.

25 Denver dish : OMELET

A Western omelet (sometimes “omelette”) is also known as a Southwest omelet or a Denver omelet. The usual ingredients include diced ham, onions and green bell peppers.

27 Big-budget flicks : EPICS

The slang term “flick” meaning “movie” came into use in the mid-1920s. It comes from the “flickering” appearance of films back then.

29 Praetor’s wrap : TOGA

The Praetorian Guard were elite soldiers in ancient Rome who provided close security for the emperor. The guard was actually created in the days of the Roman Republic, before the formation of the Roman Empire, at which time their job was to protect senior military officers known as “praetors”, giving rise to the name “Praetorian Guard”.

33 Orange puff : CHEETO

Cheetos snacks were developed by the same guy who created Fritos, hence the similarity in name. On the market since 1948, up until the turn of the century the name was written as “Chee-tos”. Oh, and Cheetos contain pork enzymes, so vegetarians beware!

34 Common allergen : DANDER

Dander is microscopic material shed from an animal’s body. It is small enough to travel through the air, and becomes part of house dust. It is usually when traveling through the air that it can be breathed in by humans, and cause an allergic reaction. Dandruff is similar to dander, except that the skin that is shed comes from the scalp instead of the main body, and the flakes are larger in size.

36 Member of the third-largest religious group : HINDU

Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam.

50 “Cathy” cry : ACK!

“Cathy” is a comic strip drawn by Cathy Guisewite. The strip was largely based on Guisewite’s own life experiences. For decades, cartoon Cathy was a single woman dealing with food, love, family and work. Cathy married her longtime boyfriend Irving in 2005, and the strip ended its run in 2010 with the revelation that Cathy was expecting a baby girl.

51 W.E.B. who wrote “The Souls of Black Folk” : DU BOIS

W. E. B. Du Bois was a sociologist and civil rights activist from Massachusetts. Du Bois was the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard, and went on to become a professor at Atlanta University. In 1909, he was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

“The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches” is a 1903 collection of works by sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Pois. It explores the lived experiences of Black Americans in a post-slavery society, examining issues of race, identity, and the “double consciousness” of being both Black and American.

52 Group chat fodder : MEMES

“Fodder”, meaning “animal feed”, is an Old English word for “food”. We also use the term figuratively to describe material or information that serves as a source for a particular purpose, often with a connotation of being raw, unprocessed, or of lesser quality.

54 Has as a salary : MAKES

It has been suggested that our term “salary” comes from the Latin “sal” meaning “salt”. The idea is that a Roman soldier’s “salarium” might have been an allowance to purchase salt.

56 Bird that can make tools : CROW

Some species of crows are remarkably intelligent birds known for their ability to create and use tools. They fashion sticks and leaves into hooks and spears to extract insects and other food from crevices.

64 Powerhouse of women’s soccer : USA

The US women’s national team (USWNT) is the most successful in international women’s soccer. The team has won multiple World Cups, and multiple Olympic Golds. “Sports Illustrated” named the whole team as the 1999 Sportswomen of the Year.