Day: December 4, 2024

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Constructed by: Jay Silverman
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Fast Food

Themed answers are all FOOD items that can be prepared in a relatively FAST manner:

• 41A Speedy meal option, and what the answers to the starred clues literally are? : FAST FOOD

18A *Speedy dinner option? : INSTANT RAMEN

66A *Speedy beverage option? : BRISK ICED TEA

12D *Speedy breakfast option? : QUICK GRITS

31D *Speedy side dish option? : MINUTE RICE

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

Bill’s time: 6m 27s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Whisky, e.g. : SCOTCH

We use the spelling “whiskey” for American and Irish versions of the drink, and “whisky” for scotch, the Scottish version.

7 Business entities : FIRMS

A business is sometimes called a firm. “Firm” comes into English from Latin via the Italian “firma” meaning “signature”. The concept is that business transactions are confirmed, made firm, by applying a signature.

12 HSN alternative : QVC

The QVC shopping channel was founded in 1986 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The company now has operations not only in the US but also in the UK, Germany, Japan and Italy. That means QVC is reaching 200 million households. The QVC initialism stands for Quality, Value and Convenience.

17 Dubai’s fed. : UAE

Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members of the UAE (geographically) are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy.

18 *Speedy dinner option? : INSTANT RAMEN

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

23 Didn’t make the team’s final roster : GOT CUT

Our word “roster”, meaning “list, register”, actually comes from the same root as our word “roast”, would you believe. “Roster” came into English from the Dutch “rooster”, meaning “table, list”. An alternative use of the Dutch “rooster” was “gridiron”, from the “roosten” meaning “to roast”. The connection is that a roster of names is often listed on a sheet of paper that has grid lines resembling the marks left by a gridiron on roasted meat. Quite interesting …

28 Tools for fall guys? : RAKES

Here in the US, we tend to refer to the season following summer as “fall”. This name is short for “fall of the leaf”, referring to the loss of leaves by deciduous trees. The term “autumn” is a more common name used in Britain and Ireland instead of “fall”. However, back before the mid-1600s the term “fall” was in common use on the other side of the pond.

29 Pop in for a scene, say : CAMEO

Even in my day, a cameo role was more than just a short appearance in a movie (or other artistic piece). For the appearance to be a cameo, the actor had to play himself or herself, and be instantly recognizable. With this meaning it’s easy to see the etymology of the term, as a cameo brooch is one with the recognizable carving of the silhouette of a person. Nowadays, a cameo is any minor role played by a celebrity or famous actor, regardless of the character played.

32 Hip-hop’s __ Clan : WU-TANG

Hip hop’s Wu-Tang Clan isn’t really a band, but rather a musical collective in which members rotate in and out quite freely. The group formed in 1992 in Staten Island, New York. They became the first hip-hop act to get a Las Vegas residency.

34 Dover landmarks : CLIFFS

Dover is a town and port in the county of Kent on the south coast of England. Dover lies just 25 miles from the coast of France, and is a terminus on the much-used Dover-Calais ferry service. The town is also famous for its magnificent chalk cliffs that are known as the White Cliffs of Dover.

36 Wistful sound : SIGH

“Wistful” is a lovely word, I think, one that can mean “pensively sad, melancholy”.

37 Singer Kristofferson : KRIS

Singer Kris Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas and was the son of a USAF Major General. Indeed, Kristofferson’s paternal grandfather was also a military officer, but in the Swedish Army. Kristofferson himself went into the US Army and served in West Germany, achieving the rank of Captain.

44 Texter’s “No clue” : IDK

I don’t know (IDK)

45 Two, in Trois-Rivières : DEUX

Trois-Rivières (French for “Three Rivers”) is a city in Quebec. The name is a little incongruous in that the city is located at the confluence of only two rivers, the Saint-Maurice and the Saint Lawrence. The name dates back to the late 1700s and refers to three channels in the Saint-Maurice formed by two islands in the river as it meets the Saint Lawrence.

48 Strength of character : METTLE

“Mettle” is such a lovely word. It means “courage, fortitude, spirit”. “Mettle” is simply a variant spelling of the word “metal”.

52 Checked out before a heist : CASED

The phrase “to case the joint” is American slang meaning “to examine a location with the intent of robbing it”. The origins of the phrase are apparently unknown, although it dates back at least to 1915.

61 “Just joshing!” : I KID!

When the verb “to josh”, meaning “to kid”, was coined in the 1840s as an American slang term, it was written with a capital J. It is likely that the term somehow comes from the proper name “Joshua”, but no one seems to remember why.

62 Pampering place : SPA

Back in the late 1500s. The verb “to pamper” meant “to cram with food”. Over time, the usage evolved to mean “to overindulge”.

65 Japanese sash : OBI

The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied at the back in what is called a butterfly knot. The term “obi” is also used for the thick cotton belts that are an essential part of the outfits worn by practitioners of many martial arts. The color of the martial arts obi signifies the wearer’s skill level.

66 *Speedy beverage option? : BRISK ICED TEA

Brisk is a brand of iced tea that was introduced in 1991 by Pepsico, partnered with Unilever. The brand was positioned under the Lipton name, owned by Unilever, using the longstanding reputation of Lipton as “the brisk tea”.

70 __-A-Fella Records: Jay-Z label : ROC

Roc-a-Fella Records was founded in 1996 by three rap artists: Jay-Z, Damon Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke.

Jay-Z, as well as being a successful and very rich rap artist, is married to singer Beyoncé. Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter in Brooklyn, New York. As Carter was growing up, he was nicknamed “Jazzy”, a reference to his interest in music. “Jazzy” evolved into the stage name “Jay-Z”. Jay-Z and Beyoncé have a daughter named Blue Ivy Carter, and twins named Rumi and Sir Carter.

71 Goose-bumps-causing : EERIE

The terms “goose bumps” and “goose flesh” come from the fact that skin which is cold can look like the flesh of a plucked goose. On the other side of the Atlantic, the term “goose pimples” was used to describe the same phenomenon. The influence of North American TV and movies is showing though, as “goose bumps” is more common these days.

72 Minolta partner : KONICA

Konica was a Japanese manufacturer of photographic film and film cameras, as well as related photographic and photocopying equipment. The company was founded in 1873, and was in the photography business before Kodak. Konica merged with Minolta in 2003 to form Konica Minolta.

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras and related products. Minolta was founded in 1928 to make cameras using imported German technology. One of the company’s most memorable products was the world’s first integrated autofocus 35mm SLR camera. Minolta merged with Konica in 2003 to form Konica Minolta.

74 Pedometer units : STEPS

A pedometer is an instrument worn by a runner or walker that measures the number of steps taken. The name of the device comes from “pes”, the Latin for “foot”.

75 Makes catty comments : SNARKS

“Snark” is a term that was coined by Lewis Carroll in his fabulous 1876 nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark”. Somehow, the term “snarky” came to mean “irritable, short-tempered” in the early 1900s, and from there “snark” became “sarcastic rhetoric” at the beginning of the 21st century.

Down

2 Gelato receptacle : CONE

Gelato (plural “gelati”) is the Italian version of American ice cream, differing in that it has a lower butterfat content than its US counterpart.

7 Iranian tongue : FARSI

Farsi (also known as Persian) is a language spoken by about 62 million people as a first language, and another 50 million or more as a second language. It is the official language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.

8 Polish tennis star Swiatek : IGA

Iga Swiatek is a professional tennis player, and the first from Poland to win a major singles title (the French Open in 2020).

10 Video file format : MPEG

The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) was established in 1988 to set standards for audio and video compression. The standards they’ve come up with use the acronym “MPEG”.

12 *Speedy breakfast option? : QUICK GRITS

When grain has been separated from its chaff, to prepare it for grinding, it is called “grist”. Indeed, the word “grist” is derived from the word “grind”. Grist can be ground into a relatively coarse meal, or into a fine flour. The names can be confusing though. For example, the grist from maize when ground to a coarse consistency is called “grits”, and when ground to a fine consistency is called “corn meal”. There is an idiomatic phrase “grist for one’s mill”, meaning something used to one’s advantage. The grinding mechanism, or the building that holds the mechanism, is known as a “gristmill”.

14 Boston NBA team, colloquially : CELTS

The Boston Celtics NBA basketball team was founded just after WWII, in 1946. The Celtics won eight league championships in a row from 1958 to 1966. That’s the longest consecutive championship winning streak of any professional sports team in North America.

24 Scuba necessity : TANK

The self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) was co-invented by celebrated French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau.

26 Taylor who was Time’s 2023 Person of the Year : SWIFT

Singer Taylor Swift had one of her first gigs at the US Open tennis tournament when she was in her early teens. There she sang the national anthem and received a lot of favorable attention for the performance.

“Time” magazine started naming a “Man of the Year” in 1927, only changing the concept to “Person of the Year” in 1999. Prior to 1999, the magazine did recognize four females as “Woman of the Year”: Wallis Simpson (1936), Soong May-ling a.k.a. Madame Chiang Kai-shek (1937), Queen Elizabeth II (1952) and Corazon Aquino (1986). “Time” named Albert Einstein as Person of the Century in 1999, with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi as runners-up.

27 “Les Misérables” novelist Victor : HUGO

Victor Hugo was a French writer who is known in his native country mainly for his poetry. Outside of France, Hugo is perhaps more closely associated with his novels such as “Les Misérables” and “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”.

Victor Hugo’s famous 1862 novel “Les Misérables” has been translated into English several times. However, the title is usually left in the original French as a successful translation of “les misérables” seems to be elusive. Some suggestions for an English title are “The Wretched”, “The Victims” and “The Dispossessed”. The novel follows the lives of several characters including an ex-convict Jean Valjean, a fanatic police inspector Javert, a beautiful prostitute Fantine, and Fantine’s illegitimate daughter Cosette.

31 *Speedy side dish option? : MINUTE RICE

Minute Rice is a brand of “instant rice”, rice that has been pre-cooked and dehydrated. Using instant rice saves about ten minutes and cooking time, but many of the rice’s natural nutrients have been lost in the factory dehydration process.

33 Yorke of Radiohead : THOM

Thom Yorke is the lead vocalist and songwriter for the English rock band Radiohead. He is a little unusual as a lead vocalist, singing in the falsetto register.

Radiohead is an alternative rock band from England that formed in 1985. When the band self-released their 2007 studio album “In Rainbows”, it was a big deal for the music industry. Radiohead offered a digital version of the album using a pay-what-you-want pricing model. Reportedly, most fans paid what would be a normal retail price for the download version of the album. That’s not bad, considering the relatively low cost to produce a download compared to the cost of producing a CD.

35 __ dollar : SAND

A sand dollar is a burrowing sea urchin found just below the low water line of sandy or muddy beaches. They have hard skeletons, which are often found washed up on beaches.

36 Comic strip reporter Brenda : STARR

“Brenda Starr” is a comic strip created by Dale Messick. The strip is somewhat unique in the world of syndicated comics in that it was created by a woman, and has been drawn by women ever since Messick retired in 1980. The storyline features Brenda Starr, who lives through exciting and exotic adventures and romances.

46 Dentist’s procedure : X-RAY

X-rays were first studied comprehensively by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (also “Roentgen”), and it was he who gave the name “X-rays” to this particular type of radiation. Paradoxically, in Röntgen’s native language of German, X-rays are routinely referred to as “Röntgen rays”. In 1901, Röntgen’s work on X-rays won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics that was ever awarded.

49 Khaki kin : TAN

“Khaki” is an Urdu word that translates literally as “dusty”. The word was adopted for its current use as the name of a fabric by the British cavalry in India in the mid-1800s.

51 Some haciendas : ADOBES

The building material known as adobe has been around a long time, and has been used in dry climates all over the world. The original form of the word “adobe” dates back to Middle Egyptian times, about 2000 BC. The original spelling is “dj-b-t”, and translates as mud (sun-dried) brick.

In Spanish, the term “hacienda” is often used for a large estate.

53 Excalibur, for one : SWORD

Excalibur is the legendary sword of the legendary King Arthur of Great Britain. In some accounts, Arthur was given the sword by the Lady of the Lake. There is sometimes confusion about the origin of Excalibur, as Arthur famously is said to have pulled a sword from a stone, hence proving him to be a true king. The Sword in the Stone is a different sword, and not Excalibur.

58 Sneakers, informally : KICKS

“Sneaker” is a common name for an athletic shoe, one that is now used as everyday casual wear. The term “sneaker” is used widely across the US. Back in my homeland of Ireland, the terms “trainer” and “tennis shoe” are more common.

60 Guitar part : FRET

A fret is a metal strip embedded in the neck of a stringed instrument, a guitar perhaps. The fingers press on the frets, shortening a string and hence changing the note played. The note increases by one semitone as a finger shortens a string by one fret.