Day: August 20, 2024

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Constructed by: Zachary David Levy
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Rope Bridge

Themed answers use the letters ROPE to BRIDGE the two words in each of those answers:

• 59A Rudimentary span suspended over a river, or a span found in 17-, 25-, 37-, and 49-Across : ROPE BRIDGE

• 17A Garage button : DOOR OPENER
• 25A Jewelry that hangs just below a lobe : DROP EARRING
• 37A Coriander-based sauce : CILANTRO PESTO
• 49A Promotional interest rate, perhaps : ZERO PERCENT

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

Bill’s time: 7m 26s

Bill’s errors: 2

• OHANA (Ohano)
• AREPA (arepo)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

19 Sandwich spread : MAYO

Mayonnaise originated in the town of Mahon in Menorca, a Mediterranean island belonging to Spain. The Spanish called the sauce “salsa mahonesa” after the town, and this morphed into the French word “mayonnaise” that we use in English today.

20 Jacket wool : TWEED

Tweed is a rough woolen fabric that is very much associated with Scotland in the UK, and with County Donegal in Ireland. The cloth was originally called “tweel”, the Scots word for “twill”. Apparently a London merchant misinterpreted some handwriting in the early 1800s and assumed the fabric was called “tweed”, a reference to the Scottish River Tweed, and the name stuck …

22 Ryder Cup org. : PGA

The Ryder Cup trophy was donated to the sport of golf by Samuel Ryder, an English entrepreneur. Ryder made his money selling garden seeds in small packets. He only took up golf when he was in his fifties but became quite the enthusiast and eventually donated the trophy in 1927, when it was valued at 100 guineas. The Ryder Cup is a biennial tournament played between teams from the US and Europe.

37 Coriander-based sauce : CILANTRO PESTO

What we know here in North America as cilantro is called coriander in my home nation of Ireland and in other parts of the world. “Cilantro” is the Spanish name for the herb.

The Italian term “pesto” applies to anything made by pounding. What we tend to know as pesto sauce is more properly called “pesto alla genovese”, i.e. pesto from Genoa in northern Italy. I love, love pesto sauce …

48 Tie sometimes worn with an open collar : ASCOT

An ascot is a wide tie that narrows at the neck, which these days is only really worn at weddings or part of a dress uniform. The tie takes its name from the Royal Ascot horse race at which punters still turn up in formal wear at Ascot Racecourse in England.

55 “__ means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten”: “Lilo & Stitch” : OHANA

“‘Ohana” is a Hawaiian word meaning “extended family”.

“Lilo & Stitch” was released by Disney in 2002. Compared to other Disney feature-length cartoons, “Lilo & Stitch” was relatively cheaply produced, using the voices of lesser-known actors. One interesting change had to take place in the storyline during production, when Lilo was meant to fly a Jumbo Jet through downtown Honolulu in one sequence. This was replaced with a sequence using a spaceship instead, as the producers were sensitive to public sentiment after the September 11 attacks.

64 Lake that feeds the Niagara River : ERIE

The mighty Niagara River flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, and forms part of the border between the US and Canada. The river is only about 35 miles long, so some describe it as a “strait”. It has a drop in elevation of 325 feet along its length, with 165 feet of that drop taking place at Niagara Falls.

66 Soccer star Messi : LIONEL

Lionel “Leo” Messi is a soccer player from Argentina. Messi has been awarded FIFA’s Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) award more times than any other player. The Ballon d’Or is presented to the player who is considered the best in the world in the prior year.

Down

1 Ingredient in some oils, briefly : CBD

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a chemical extracted from cannabis plants that is used as a herbal drug. It does not contain the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is responsible for the marijuana “high”.

2 __ Grande : RIO

The Rio Grande (Spanish for “big river”) is a waterway that forms part of the border between Mexico and the United States. Although we call the river the Rio Grande on this side of the border, in Mexico it is called the Río Bravo or Río Bravo del Norte (Spanish for “furious river of the north”).

3 Mattel card game : UNO

Mattel is the world’s largest toy manufacturer. Mattel was founded by Harold “Matt” Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945, and they chose the company name by combining “Matt” with “El-liot” giving “Matt-el”.

6 Link prefix : HYPER-

In essence, the World Wide Web (WWW) is a vast collection of documents that is accessible using the Internet, with each document containing hyperlinks that point to other documents in the collection. So the “Web” is different from the Internet, although the terms are often used interchangeably. The Web is a collection of documents, and the Internet is a global network of computers on which the documents reside. The Web was effectively the invention of British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. The key to Berner-Lee’s invention was bringing together two technologies that already existed: hypertext and the Internet. I, for one, am very grateful …

7 Wall St. “500” index : S AND P

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is a financial services company that is famous for its stock market indices, especially the S&P 500. The company also publishes credit ratings for sovereign governments, and in 2011 famously lowered the rating of the US federal government from AAA to AA+.

9 Tug-of-__ : WAR

Tug-of-war is a strength competition between two teams who pull on opposite ends of a rope, vying to pull the opponents over a marked line. The sport was an event in the Summer Olympic Games from 1900 until 1920. The USA teams won all three medals for the tug-of-war at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis.

18 Fair-hiring initials : EEO

“Equal Employment Opportunity” (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.

21 Leggy wader : CRANE

The magnificent birds known as cranes have long legs and long necks. The species called the Sarus Crane is the world’s tallest flying bird.

22 “Cosmos” network : PBS

“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” is a 2014 science documentary TV show presented by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The series is a follow-on to the famous 1980 show “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” that was presented by Carl Sagan.

23 Nacho dip, briefly : GUAC

Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.

The dish known as “nachos” was supposedly created by the maître d’ at a restaurant called the Victory Club in the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. The name of the maître d’ was Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya.

29 Seaweed superfood : KELP

Kelps are large seaweeds that grow in kelp forests underwater. Kelps can grow to over 250 feet in length, and do so very quickly. Some kelps can grow at the rate of 1-2 feet per day.

34 Oil used in some perfume : ATTAR

Attar is a fragrant essential oil obtained from flowers. The term “attar” often refers to the attar of roses in particular.

35 Beats by __: headphones brand : DRE

Beats by Dre is a brand of audio products made by Beats Electronics, a company that was co-founded by rapper Dr. Dre. Apple bought Beats for $3 billion in 2014, the largest acquisition by far in the company’s history.

36 IDs on 1040 forms : SSNS

Form 1040, issued by the IRS, is the “US Individual Income Tax Return”. It was originally created just for tax returns from 1913, 1914 and 1915, but it’s a form that just keeps on giving, or should I say “taking” …?

38 Stuffed cornmeal snack : AREPA

An arepa is a cornmeal cake or bread that is popular in Colombian and Venezuelan cuisines in particular. Each arepa has a flat, round shape and is often split to make a sandwich.

40 Olfactory stimulus : ODOR

The adjective “olfactory” means “relating to the sense of smell”. The term comes from the Latin verb “olfacere” meaning “to get the smell of”.

44 Island chain northwest of Morocco : AZORES

The Azores is an archipelago of nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic lying about 1,000 miles west of Portugal. The Azores are an autonomous region belonging to Portugal.

48 Early video game consoles : ATARIS

Kids today probably don’t realize that we had a video game console back in the seventies, and it wasn’t a Nintendo nor was it a PlayStation. The Atari 2600 game system introduced the idea of separating out computing hardware (the console) from the game code (a cartridge). The same concept persists to this day, although cartridges have been displaced by discs and downloads.

59 Sony Music subsidiary : RCA

RCA was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America, and as a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Electric (GE). GE divested RCA in 1932, and then reacquired the company in 1986. Today, RCA is just a brand name owned by Sony Music.

62 HS diploma alternative : GED

The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a battery of four tests designed to demonstrate that a student has the academic skills of someone who has graduated from an American or Canadian high school.

63 “Mr. Blue Sky” gp. : ELO

“Mr. Blue Sky” is a 1977 song by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) from Britain. It’s a song that has been described as “Beatlesque”, and I must say that I agree with that assertion …