Day: August 27, 2024

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Constructed by: Grant Boroughs
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: A Few Choice Words

Themed answers each start with a WORD that is a synonym of “CHOICE”:

• 63A Euphemism for rude expressions, and what can be found at the starts of 17-, 26-, and 48-Across : A FEW CHOICE WORDS

• 17A Like the motors in most small appliances : ELECTROMAGNETIC (hiding “ELECT”)
• 26A Playing surface that is 44 feet by 20 feet : PICKLEBALL COURT (hiding “PICK”)
• 48A Misleading image : OPTICAL ILLUSION (hiding “OPT”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Young horses : FOALS

There are lots of terms to describe horses of different ages and sexes, it seems:

• Foal: horse of either sex that is less than one year old
• Yearling: horse of either sex that is one to two years old
• Filly: female horse under the age of four
• Colt: male horse under the age of four
• Gelding: castrated male horse of any age
• Stallion: non-castrated male horse four years or older
• Mare: female horse four years or older

14 Steak named for its shape : T-BONE

The T-bone and porterhouse are related cuts of meat, with the latter being a larger version of the former, and both being cut from the short loin.

20 Dinero unit : PESO

“Dinero” is a Spanish word meaning “money”, as well as a slang term for money here in the US.

21 “Xanadu” band, familiarly : ELO

The title song of the 1980 movie “Xanadu” was performed by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and Olivia Newton-John (who starred in the film). Despite the popularity of ELO around the world, the song “Xanadu” was the band’s only number-one hit back in their homeland of the UK.

25 Ala. neighbor : FLA

Florida is known as the Sunshine State, although it is also the lightning capital of the US, experiencing more lightning strikes than the rest of the country. Florida is also the nation’s fourth-rainiest state, after Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

26 Playing surface that is 44 feet by 20 feet : PICKLEBALL COURT (hiding “PICK”)

Pickleball is a sport invented in the 1960s that combines elements of tennis, table tennis and badminton. Originally marketed as a game for children to play in backyards, pickleball is now played on purpose-built courts by many, many adults, but mainly in North and South America.

35 “SNL” alum Gasteyer : ANA

Ana Gasteyer is an actress best known for being a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) from 1996 to 2002. Gasteyer was famous on SNL for playing Martha Stewart … topless!

36 Mickey Mouse’s dog : PLUTO

Pluto is Mickey Mouse’s pet dog, as well as a star in his own right. Pluto is an unusual Disney character in that he is portrayed basically as a dog as opposed to a “humanized” version of a dog, as are the other Disney characters.

38 Rain delay sight : TARP

Originally, tarpaulins were made from canvas covered in tar that rendered the material waterproof. The word “tarpaulin” comes from “tar” and “palling”, with “pall” meaning “heavy cloth covering”.

40 Drum kit component : SNARE

Snare drums are so called because they have a set of wire strands (snares) stretching across the bottom surface of the drum. When the drum is struck, the snares vibrate against the bottom drumhead producing a unique sound.

45 Cary of “North by Northwest” : GRANT

The wonderful, wonderful actor Cary Grant was born in Bristol in England, and was given the name Archibald Leach. In the 1949 Howard Hawks film “His Girl Friday”, there’s a line where Grant describes the fate suffered by someone who crossed him. He names that person “Archie Leach”, an ad-lib using his real name.

“North by Northwest” is a marvelous 1959 Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. After the release of the movie, Hitchcock stated that he had envisioned Cary Grant’s character hiding from the villains on Mount Rushmore, in Abraham Lincoln’s nose. He also suggested the film might have had the title “The Man in Lincoln’s Nose”.

47 Hosp. scan : MRI

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

52 ESPN sister station : ABC

The initialism “ESPN” stands for Entertainment Sports Programming Network. ESPN is a cable network that broadcasts sports programming 24 hours a day, and was launched back in 1979. ESPN has a lot of ardent fans. Several parents have named their children Espn (usually pronounced “Espen”) in honor of the network.

53 Manatee relative : DUGONG

The dugong is a large marine mammal related to the manatee, and an ugly-looking brute. It feeds upon seagrass, and is the only marine mammal that is a strict herbivore.

57 Snapchat snap : PIC

Snapchat is a messaging system that allows users to send photos and video clips to a limited list of recipients. The photos and clips, called “snaps”, can be viewed for only a few seconds before they are deleted from the recipient’s device, and from the Snapchat servers.

67 Eisenhower’s nickname : IKE

When the future president was growing up, the Eisenhowers used the nickname “Ike” for all seven boys in the family, as “Ike” was seen as an abbreviation for the family name. “Big Ike” was Edgar, the second oldest boy. “Little/Young Ike” was Dwight, who was the third son born. Dwight had no sisters.

68 Doolittle of “My Fair Lady” : ELIZA

Eliza Doolittle is Professor Henry Higgins’ speech student in George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”. “Pygmalion” was adapted by Lerner and Loewe to become the Broadway musical “My Fair Lady”. The musical spun off the wonderful 1964 film of the same name starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. To cockney Eliza Doolittle, Professor Henry Higgins was “‘Enry ‘Iggins”.

71 Freezing rain : SLEET

Apparently, “sleet” is a term used to describe two different weather conditions. One is a shower of ice pellets that are smaller than hail, and the second is a mixture of rain and snow, with the snow melting as it falls.

Down

1 “One __ at a Time” (Jordin Sparks song) : STEP

“One Step at a Time” is a 2008 song released by singer Jordin Sparks. Sparks won the sixth season of “American Idol”, and returned to the show at the end of season seven, performing “One Step at a Time”.

3 “Head, shoulders, knees, and __” : TOES

“Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” is a children’s song that dates back to the early 1900s. The lyrics are usually sung to the older folk song “There Is a Tavern in the Town”.

4 Open, as a wine bottle : UNCORK

Cork, as in the material used to make wine stoppers, comes from the bark of cork oak trees. The bark of a cork oak is very thick and rugged and can be harvested every 7-10 years, without harming the trees.

8 Green vegetable in aloo matar : PEA

Aloo mutter (also “all matar”) is a very delicious dish from Indian cuisine comprising potatoes and peas in a spicy, creamy, tomato-based sauce. The dish’s name translates as “potatoes and peas”.

9 Interesting bit of trivia : FUN FACT

Trivia are things of little consequence. “Trivia” is the plural of the Latin word “trivium” which means “a place where three roads meet”. Now that’s what I call a trivial fact …

10 Scott Turow book set at Harvard : ONE L

“One L” is a name used in general for first-year law students, especially those attending Harvard.

Scott Turow is an author and lawyer from Chicago. Turow has had several bestselling novels including “Presumed Innocent”, “The Burden of Proof” and “Reversible Errors”, all three of which were made into films. He also wrote the autobiographical book “One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School”.

12 “Star Wars” rebel leader : LEIA

Princess Leia is Luke Skywalker’s twin sister in the original “Star Wars” trilogy and was played by Carrie Fisher. Carrie Fisher has stated that she hated the famous “cinnamon bun hairstyle” that she had to wear in the films, as she felt it made her face look too round. She also had to sit for two hours every day just to get her hair styled. Two hours to get your hair done? It takes me just two seconds …

19 Temerity : GALL

Today, we use the verb “to gall” to mean “to vex, irritate”. This is a figurative usage of the same verb that arose mid-1400s, when it meant “to make sore by chafing”. Back then, a gall was a sore on the skin caused by rubbing or chafing.

24 Mont Blanc, e.g. : ALP

Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps. The name “Mont Blanc” translates from French into “white mountain”. The mountain lies on the border between France and Italy, and it has been generally accepted for decades that the summit lies within French territory. However, there have been official claims that the summit does in fact fall within the borders of Italy.

28 Gemstone weight : CARAT

The carat is a unit of mass equal to 200 mg (0.2 grams). It is used in sizing gemstones.

30 Video game pioneer : ATARI

Atari was founded in 1972, and was one of the pioneers in the video game industry. One of the company’s early employees was Steve Jobs, who was hired to work on the game design for the arcade game “Breakout”. Jobs was tasked with reducing the number of chips needed for the game and he recruited his friend, Steve Wozniak, to help with the project. Wozniak designed a circuit board that used only 46 chips, a significant improvement over the original design that had over 100 chips.

32 Taste quality of soy sauce and miso : UMAMI

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. Umami was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

34 Lionel product : TRAIN

Lionel is the brand name most associated with toy trains in the US. The first Lionel trains rolled off the production line in 1901 and they are still produced today, although the original Lionel Corporation is long gone. In 1995, the brand was bought by an investment company that included train enthusiast Neil Young (the singer), and operated as Lionel, LLC. Neil Young’s financial involvement ended after a 2008 reorganization of the company following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, but the company is still producing and selling.

39 Tire fig. : PSI

Pounds per square inch (PSI) is a measure of pressure.

44 Wall-mounted light fixtures : SCONCES

A sconce is a light fixture that today uses electric bulbs, but in the past used candles and torches. The defining feature of a sconce is that it is supported by a wall and does not have a base that stands on the ground. Usually the light is indirect, projected upwards towards the ceiling.

53 Great __: big dog : DANE

The Great Dane breed of dog isn’t actually from Denmark, and rather is from Germany. Great danes were originally bred to hunt wild boar, and were also used for protection and as guard dogs.

60 New York canal : ERIE

The Erie Canal runs from Albany to Buffalo in the state of New York. What the canal does is allow shipping to proceed from New York Harbor right up the Hudson River, through the canal and into the Great Lakes. When it was opened in 1825, the Erie Canal had an immediate impact on the economy of New York City and locations along its route. It was the first means of “cheap” transportation from a port on the Atlantic seaboard into the interior of the United States. Arguably it was the most important factor contributing to the growth of New York City over competing ports such as Baltimore and Philadelphia. It was largely because of the Erie Canal that New York became such an economic powerhouse, earning it the nickname of “the Empire State”. Paradoxically, one of the project’s main proponents was severely criticized. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton received so much ridicule that the canal was nicknamed “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Ditch”.

61 Wood-shaping tool : ADZE

An adze (also “adz”) is similar to an ax, but is different in that the blade of an adze is set at right angles to the tool’s shaft. An ax blade is set in line with the shaft.

62 College Board exam for sophs : PSAT

The term “sophomore” has been used since the 1680s for a student in the second year of university. The original meaning of the word was “arguer”. The term has Greek roots, from two Greek words that have been artificially combined in English. The Greek “sophos” means “wise”, and “moros” means “foolish”.

64 Vinaigrette base : OIL

A vinaigrette is a mixture of oil with an acid such as vinegar or lemon juice. A traditional mixture of 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar forms a stable emulsion that is commonly used as a salad dressing. The term “vinaigrette” is a diminutive form of the French word “vinaigre” (meaning “vinegar”). Back in the 1800s, such a mixture was referred to as “French dressing”, a term that has evolved to describe a creamy dressing in contemporary American cuisine.

65 “Fantastic Mr. Fox” director Anderson : WES

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a children’s novel by Roald Dahl. It was adapted into a 2006 animated film directed by Wes Anderson.