Day: February 12, 2025

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Constructed by: Hoang-Kim Vu
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Halftime Shows

Themed answers are all SHOWS (films), with HALF of each title being a length of TIME:

• 58A Highlights of many bowl games, and an apt description of 20-, 35-, and 42-Across? : HALFTIME SHOWS

• 20A Olsen twins teen comedy set in the Big Apple : NEW YORK MINUTE
• 35A Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker buddy cop film with two sequels : RUSH HOUR
• 42A Amy Adams rom-com about a February 29 tradition : LEAP YEAR

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

Bill’s time: 5m 26s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Instrument in Hindi cinema : SITAR

The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. It is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

14 Engage in costumed gaming, slangily : LARP

Live action role-playing (LARP)

15 The Big Easy, for short : NOLA

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana has the nickname “The Big Easy”. This name might come from the early 1900s when musicians found it relatively “easy” to find work there. The city is also known by the acronym NOLA, standing for New Orleans (NO), Louisiana (LA).

17 Omnia vincit __ : AMOR

“Omnia vincit amor” is a line from Eclogue X, one of the major works of the Latin poet Virgil. We know the phrase in English as “love conquers all”.

20 Olsen twins teen comedy set in the Big Apple : NEW YORK MINUTE

“New York Minute” is a 2004 teen comedy film starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as two teenage twin sisters, Jane and Roxy Ryan, who have contrasting personalities and goals. The film also features a cameo appearance by Bob Saget, who played the twins’ father on the sitcom “Full House”.

The expression “in a New York minute” is used to indicate that something happens very quickly. It is based on the idea that everything moves faster in the Big Apple, which I suppose is true!

30 Inca Trail to Machu Picchu locale : PERU

The Incas built almost 25,000 miles of road, and much of that roadway system persists to this day. The most famous section is known as the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The backbone of the system is formed by two north-south routes, one running along the west coast of the continent, and the other running relatively parallel, further inland.

35 Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker buddy cop film with two sequels : RUSH HOUR

“Rush Hour” (1998) is a buddy cop action-comedy film about two mismatched detectives: James Carter (Chris Tucker), a fast-talking LAPD detective, and Lee (Jackie Chan), a disciplined and skilled Hong Kong inspector. Beyond the movie’s success with audiences, “Rush Hour” played a pivotal role in the creation of the popular movie review website Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s founder, Senh Duong, was a dedicated Jackie Chan fan and created the website as a way to gather reviews of Chan’s films, with “Rush Hour” serving as the catalyst for its launch.

42 Amy Adams rom-com about a February 29 tradition : LEAP YEAR

“Leap Year” is a 2010 romantic comedy film that follows the journey of Anna Brady (Amy Adams), a woman who travels to Ireland to propose to her boyfriend on Leap Day, a tradition that allows women to propose to men on February 29th. I sort of had to watch this one, as it was set in Ireland. I enjoyed recognizing many of the filming locations, but that’s about it. Not a great movie …

44 Syst. in which “A” is a closed fist : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)

45 Ga. capital : ATL

The city of Atlanta, Georgia (A-Town) had its beginnings in the late 1830s when the location was chosen as the terminus for a new railroad to be built connecting Georgia with the Midwestern United States. The city’s name was chosen by the Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, apparently after the middle name of the daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin: “Atalanta”.

61 Animal also called the zebra giraffe : OKAPI

The okapi is closely related to the giraffe, although it does have markings on its legs and haunches that resemble those of a zebra. The okapi’s tongue is long enough to reach back and wash its eyeballs, and can go back even further to clean its ears inside and out.

66 Astronauts’ org. : NASA

The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite towards the end of 1957 in a development that shocked the establishment in the US. Within months, President Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now DARPA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Space Race had begun …

68 “Fun, Fun, Fun” car : T-BIRD

“Fun, Fun, Fun” is a 1964 song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for the Beach Boys. The English rock band Status Quo released a great cover version of “Fun, Fun, Fun” in 1996, which featured the Beach Boys on backup vocals.

70 Ore deposit : LODE

A lode is a metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure. The mother lode is the principal deposit in a mine, usually of gold or silver. “Mother lode” is probably a translation of “veta madre”, an expression used in mining in Mexico.

Down

1 “Jagged Little Pill” singer Morissette : ALANIS

Alanis Morissette is a Canadian singer-songwriter. After releasing two pop albums in Canada, in 1995 she recorded her first album to be distributed internationally. Called “Jagged Little Pill”, it is a collection of songs with more of a rock influence. The album was a huge success, the highest-selling album of the 1990s, and the highest-selling debut album by any artist at any time (selling over 30 million units).

2 Kodak innovation : CAMERA

George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company, which he named after the Kodak camera that he had invented four years earlier. He came up with the name of Kodak after careful consideration. Firstly he was a big fan of the letter “K”, calling it “strong, incisive”. He also wanted a word that was short, easy to pronounce and difficult to mispronounce, and a word that was clearly unique with no prior associations. “Kodak” fit the bill.

5 “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” Oscar nominee Day : ANDRA

Andra Day is a singer/songwriter who grew up in San Diego. Day’s singing career got a lift in 2010 when Stevie Wonder’s wife heard Day performing at a strip mall. Stevie Wonder reached out to Day, and so is at least partly credited with her discovery.

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” is a 2021 biopic based on a 2015 book by Johann Hari called “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs”. The film mainly deals with her performances of the song “Strange Fruit”, with its references to racial prejudice and lynching, and Holiday’s arrest and incarceration for drug possession. Soul singer and actress Andra Day plays Holiday, for which performance she won a Golden Globe.

9 South Korean capital : SEOUL

Seoul is the capital city of South Korea. The Seoul National Capital Area is home to over 25 million people and is the second largest metropolitan area in the world, second only to Tokyo, Japan.

10 Apoplectic : IRATE

In non-medical usage, the term “apoplexy” describes a state of intense anger. “Apoplexy” was once used medically to mean “stroke”.

22 Queasy feeling : NAUSEA

Nausea is a sick feeling in the stomach. The term “nausea” derives from the Greek “naus” meaning “ship”. Originally, nausea was associated only with seasickness.

27 __ La Table: cookware retailer : SUR

Sur La Table is a chain of retail stores selling high-end kitchenware products. The company name translates from French as “on the table”. The first Sur La Table store opened in 1972 in Seattle’s celebrated Pike Place Market. Today, Sur La Table is the main competitor to Williams-Sonoma.

37 Polynesian dance : HULA

The hula is a native dance of Hawaii that uses arm movements to relate a story. The hula can be performed while sitting (a noho dance) or while standing (a luna dance).

38 MacFarlane of “Family Guy” : SETH

“Family Guy” is a very successful animated television show. It was created by Seth MacFarlane, the same guy who came up with “American Dad!”. My kids love them both. Me? I can’t stand ‘em …

39 Desert that covers much of Botswana : KALAHARI

The Kalahari is a vast desert region in southern Africa that covers much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. The desert is located within a larger lowland known as the Kalahari Basin, which covers almost a million square miles. The name “Kalahari” comes from one of two Tswana words, meaning either “the great thirst” or “a waterless place”.

Botswana is an African country that is located just north of South Africa. Someone from Botswana is called a “Motswana” (yes, with an M), with the plural being “Batswana” (yes, with a B).

42 Murphy’s __ : LAW

Murphy’s Law can be stated as, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. The concept behind the “law” has been around for eons, but the first association with the name “Murphy” appeared in print in 1952.

47 Appetizer before a curry, maybe : SAMOSA

A samosa is quite the tasty appetizer. It is usually a triangular-shaped savory that often has a vegetarian filling. The word “samosa” is primarily used on Indian menus, and the name comes from “sanbosag”, the name for the dish in Persia.

51 Proctor’s charge : TESTEE

A proctor is a supervisor, and especially a person overseeing a school examination or a dormitory. The word “proctor” originated in the late 1500s, and is a contraction of the word “procurator”, the name given to an official agent of a church.

53 Dwindle (down) : TAPER

I used to think that the word “taper” was used for a slender candle because said candle was “tapered” in shape, but it’s exactly the opposite. It turns out that our word “tapered” comes from the candle. “Taper” and “tapur” are Old English words meaning “candle”. From these nouns arose the verb “to taper” meaning “shoot up like flame”. This meaning evolved into “become slender” from the idea that a candle’s flame has such a shape.

59 Basks in the sun : TANS

Our verb “to bask”, meaning “to expose one to pleasant warmth”, is derived from the gruesome, 14th-century term “basken”, meaning “to wallow in blood”. The contemporary usage apparently originated with Shakespeare, who employed “bask” with reference to sunshine in “As You Like It”.

60 Webpage medium : HTML

The initialism “HTML” stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the language used to write most Internet web pages (including this one).

61 Muesli morsel : OAT

“Muesli” is a Swiss-German term describing a breakfast serving of rolled oats, nuts, fruit and milk. The dish can be soaked overnight in milk before serving (“overnight oats”). “Muesli” is a diminutive of the German word “Mues” meaning “puree”. Delicious …

62 Old CIA foe : KGB

The “Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti” (KGB) was the national security agency of the Soviet Union until 1991. The KGB was dissolved after the agency’s chairman led a failed attempt at a coup d’état designed to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.