Day: September 12, 2024

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Constructed by: Jeanne D. Breen
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Count Me Out

Themed answers are common phrases with “ME” taken OUT:

• 60A “I’m absolutely not interested,” and an apt title for this puzzle : COUNT ME OUT

• 18A Fuel for Greek gods? : OLYMPIC GAS (“Olympic Games” – ME)
• 24A Dirty sheets? : OFFENSIVE LINEN (“offensive linemen” – ME)
• 37A Really obnoxious infants? : BABY BOORS (“baby boomers” – ME)
• 54A Commit to eating leafy greens exclusively? : LEAD A CHARD LIFE (“lead a charmed life” – ME)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 28s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 News magazine whose cover has a red border : TIME

“TIME” was the first weekly news magazine in the US. It was founded in 1923 by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce. Hadden and Luce had previously worked together as chairman and managing editor of the “Yale Daily News”.

5 Last year’s frosh : SOPH

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”.

16 Kansas governor Kelly : LAURA

Democrat Laura Kelly assumed the office of governor of Kansas in 2019.

17 Gumdrops brand in a yellow box : DOTS

Dots are a brand of gumdrops. Apparently, four billion Dots are produced annually.

18 Fuel for Greek gods? : OLYMPIC GAS (“Olympic Games” – ME)

The ancient Olympic Games were held in a sanctuary called Olympia, which was located in a valley on the Peloponnesus peninsula in southern Greece. The games took their name from Olympia, and not Mount Olympus (a common misconception). Mount Olympus was home to Zeus and the other Olympian gods, and is located in central Greece.

20 Present, as an idea : POSIT

To “posit” is to assume as fact, to lay down as a “position”.

23 Mystery Hunt sch. : MIT

The MIT Mystery Hunt is an annual event involving teams of students competing to solve extremely complex puzzles. The puzzles are arranged in a series, all pointing to the location of a coin hidden on the MIT campus. The team winning in one year sets the puzzles in the following year.

30 1990s girl group : TLC

The girl band called TLC is from Atlanta, Georgia. The band’s name comes from the trio’s original members:

• Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins
• Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes
• Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas

31 Fillet : DEBONE

A fillet is a boneless cut of meat or fish. The term “fillet” comes from the Old French “filet” meaning “small thread, filament”. Apparently, we applied the term to food because the piece of fish or meat was tied up with string after it was boned. Here in the US, we tend to use the French spelling “filet”.

32 “The Little Red Chairs” novelist O’Brien : EDNA

“The Little Red Chairs” is a 2015 novel by Irish author Edna O’Brien. It tells the story of immigrant healer Dr. Vladimir Dragan who captivates the hearts of several women in an Irish village. The villagers must eventually deal with Dr. Vlad’s secret, that he is an escaped Balkan war criminal. Veteran novelist O’Brien was 85 years old when “The Little Red Chairs” was published.

36 Commedia dell’__ : ARTE

“Commedia dell’arte” translates literally from Italian as “comedy of craft”. It is a style of theater that started out in Italy in the mid-1500s. The commedia featured a cast of stock characters such as devious servants and foolish old men, most of whom wore distinctive and recognizable masks. Some of the better known characters are Harlequin (a foolish but acrobatic servant), and Pantalone (a lascivious old merchant).

37 Really obnoxious infants? : BABY BOORS (“baby boomers” – ME)

A baby boomer is someone who was born in the post-WWII baby boom. The rate of births had been falling fairly steadily in the US at least since 1900, but this trend was sharply reversed in 1946 after WWII. The higher birth rate continued until 1964, when it returned to pre-war levels. Since then the birth rate has continued to decline, although at a slower pace. The period between 1946 and 1964 is often defined as the “baby boom”.

41 Fruit tree in a Christmas carol : PEAR

The fabulous Christmas carol called “The Twelve Days of Christmas” dates back at least to 1780 when it was first published in England, though it may be French in origin. The concept of twelve days of Christmas comes from the tradition that the three kings came to visit the Christ Child twelve days after he was born. This same tradition is the origin of the title to Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”.

44 Ireland, to a native speaker : EIRE

“Éire” is the Irish name for Ireland, coming from “Ériu”. Ériu was the matron goddess of Ireland in Irish mythology.

48 U-shaped river bends : OXBOWS

The term “oxbow” can describe both a meander in the course of a river as well as the lake that forms if such a meander gets cut off from the main flow.

53 First name of two Spice Girls : MEL

“Mel B” is the stage name of Melanie Brown, who came to fame as a member of the Spice Girls musical group. She took the name Mel B to distinguish herself from fellow band member Melanie Chisholm (Melanie C). Mel B was also known as “Scary Spice”, a nickname given to her by the media. American viewers saw Mel B on the TV show “America’s Got Talent” from 2013 through 2019, on which show she served as a judge.

Melanie C (Chisholm) is a member of the English girl band the Spice Girls, with whom she has the nickname “Sporty Spice”. “Mel C” got the gig with the Spice Girls by replying to an ad in “The Stage” magazine, and auditioning alongside about 40 women who responded to the same ad. Sporty Spice really is quite sporty, and has completed the London Triathlon … twice.

54 Commit to eating leafy greens exclusively? : LEAD A CHARD LIFE (“lead a charmed life” – ME)

Chard is a lovely leafy vegetable, in my humble opinion. It is the same species as the garden beet, but chard is grown for the leaves and beet is grown for the roots. Chard also goes by the names Swiss chard, silver beet and mangold. In some parts of Australia, it’s even known as spinach.

57 Pt. of ABV : ALC

Alcoholic proof is a measure of the alcoholic strength of a beverage. In the US, alcoholic proof is twice the alcohol by volume (ABV), and ABV is simply the volume of alcohol in a the beverage compared to its total volume, and expressed as a percentage. Therefore a liquor that is 50% ABV, is 100 proof. The concept of “proof” dates back to the days of British sailors being paid partly with rations of rum. A “proof spirit” was the most dilute spirit that would sustain combustion of gunpowder. Simply stated, if the rum that a sailor was given was so dilute that it doused burning gunpowder, then it was unacceptable to the sailor. The person providing the rum had to give “proof” that the rum would catch light, proving it was strong enough to be used as payment. It was found experimentally that rum of 57.15% ABV was the lowest concentration that could sustain a flame, so this was named as 100 degrees proof. But nowadays we round down to 50% ABV.

58 Letter after pi : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R. It is the 17th letter in the Greek alphabet.

59 Fast-food chain with retro flair : SONIC

SONIC Drive-In is a fast-food restaurant chain that is noted for its carhops who serve patrons on roller skates. SONIC was founded in Shawnee, Oklahoma in 1953 as Top Hat Drive-In. The restaurant introduced curbside speakers to hasten the ordering process. This led to the adoption of the slogan “Service at the Speed of Sound”, and renaming of the chain to SONIC.

66 When “The Room Where It Happens” happens : ACT II

“The Room Where It Happens” is a song from the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Sung by Aaron Burr, the title is a reference to being in the room when Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison negotiated the Compromise of 1790. Burr is lamenting that he was not in “the room” when the decision was made to have the national government cover the debts of the states, in return for locating the nation’s permanent capital on the Virginia-Maryland border.

68 Decorative pitcher : EWER

A pitcher is a container for liquid that has a handle, mouth and spout. The term “jug” is used for the same container in other English-speaking countries. “Ewer” is an older term describing a pitcher/jug. Today, a ewer is a highly decorative pitcher, often with a base and flared spout.

Down

1 Pond youngster : TADPOLE

A tadpole is an intermediate stage in the life cycle of some amphibians (like frogs and toads), between embryo and adult. Tadpoles are also known as pollywogs. The term “tadpole” comes from “tadde” meaning “toad” and “pol” meaning “head”.

3 Many a baseball enthusiast in Queens : METS FAN

Queens is the largest borough in New York City, and is today coterminous with Queens County. Queens is an amazingly diverse location in terms of ethnicity. There is a population of over 2 million people, with almost 50% of that population being foreign-born. Apparently there are over 130 native languages spoken in the area. Queens was named for Catherine of Braganza (from Portugal), Queen consort of King Charles II of England.

4 OPI rival : ESSIE

Essie Cosmetics is a company that was founded by Essie Weingarten, and which is now owned by L’Oreal. Apparently, Queen Elizabeth II would only wear Essie’s Ballet Slippers color nail polish. Well, that’s what Wikipedia claims …

5 Bay Area hub, for short : SFO

The San Francisco Bay Area is served by three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC).

6 Fla. NBA team : 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 …

10 French body of water : LAC

In French, a “lac” (lake) is a body of “eau” (water).

21 Demo letters : TNT

Trinitrotoluene (TNT)

28 Viking tongue : NORSE

The Vikings were a Germanic people from northern Europe who were noted as great seafarers. Key to the success of the Vikings was the design of their famous “longships”. Made from wood, the longship was long and narrow with a shallow hull, It was also light, so that the crew would actually carry it small distances over land and around obstacles. Longships were designed to be propelled by both sail and oars.

33 Addis __, Ethiopia : ABABA

Addis Ababa, which means “new flower” in Amharic, is the capital city of Ethiopia and one of the highest capital cities in the world, situated at an altitude of 2,400 meters above sea level. It is also home to the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and other international organizations.

35 Judicial org. : ABA

American Bar Association (ABA)

38 Nickname of the slugger who was the youngest player to hit 600 home runs : A-ROD

Baseball player Alex Rodriguez, nicknamed “A-Rod”, hit his 600th home run on August 4th, 2010. He had hit his 500th home run exactly three years earlier, on August 4th, 2007, when he became the youngest player in Major League history to join the 500-home run club.

40 Actor Epps : OMAR

Actor Omar Epps was originally a rapper and was a member of a group called “Wolfpack” before he pursued acting full-time. His really big break came in the form of a recurring role on the popular medical drama series “ER”, followed by a recurring role in the TV series “House” as Dr. Eric Foreman.

41 Painter nicknamed “Jack the Dripper” : POLLOCK

Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist painter who famously used a “drip painting” style. Pollock was married to Lee Krasner, herself an influential abstract expressionist.

46 Like some sugar : REFINED

Up until the late 1800s, refined sugar was produced and sold as a tall cone with a rounded top called a sugarloaf. Pieces of sugar were then broken off in pieces using a tool called sugar nips.

47 High-voltage enemy of Spider-Man : ELECTRO

“Electro” is the supervillain alter ego of Maxwell Dillon, and an adversary of Spider-Man in the Marvel Universe. Dillon is an electrical engineer who had a freak lightning accident while repairing a power line. That led to him mutating into a living electrical capacitor. On the big screen. Electro has been portrayed by Jamie Foxx.

55 Bunk : HOOEY

The word “bunk” is short for “bunkum”, the phonetic spelling of “Buncombe”, which is a county in North Carolina. Supposedly, a state representative made a dull and irrelevant speech that was directed to his home county of Buncombe, bringing the term “bunkum” into the language with the meaning of “nonsense”. The derivative word “debunk” first appeared in a novel by William Woodward in 1923, when he used it to describe “taking the bunk out of things”.

61 Actress/director Vardalos : NIA

Nia Vardalos is an actress and screenwriter whose biggest break came with the 2002 film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, which she wrote and in which she starred. The film tells the story of a Greek-American woman marrying a non-Greek Caucasian American who converts to the Greek Orthodox Church to facilitate the marriage. The storyline reflects the actual experiences of Vardalos and her husband, actor Ian Gomez. Vardalos and Gomez appeared together as hosts for two seasons of the reality competition “The Great American Baking Show”.

62 “__ better to have loved and lost … ” : ‘TIS

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the Poet Laureate for much of the reign of Queen Victoria. There are many phrases we use today that were first penned by Tennyson, including:

• ‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all
• Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die

64 Some grad students, for short : TAS

Teaching assistant (TA)