Category: Adrian Johnson

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Constructed by: Adrian Johnson & Taylor Johnson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Let Me Repeat

Themed answers each include the letters ME REPEATED side by side:

• 51A “I’ll say it again,” and what 17-, 23-, and 44-Across literally do? : LET ME REPEAT

• 17A Permanent patrons : LIFETIME MEMBERS
• 23A Line at zero degrees longitude : PRIME MERIDIAN
• 44A Drastic actions : EXTREME MEASURES

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

Bill’s time: 6m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 “__! Humbug!” : BAH

The classic 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens has left us with a few famous phrases and words. Firstly, it led to popular use of the phrase “Merry Christmas”, and secondly it gave us the word “scrooge” to describe a miserly person. And thirdly, everyone knows that Ebenezer Scrooge uttered the words “Bah! Humbug!”.

10 Cal. neighbor : ORE

The Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled a dispute between the US and the UK over sovereignty of the Oregon Country. “The Oregon Country” was the name given by the Americans to a large swathe of land west of the Rocky Mountains. That same disputed land was known as the Columbia Department by the British. Oregon became a US state in 1859.

13 1950s prez : 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.

16 Guinea pig or teacup pig : PET

The guinea pig species of rodent is also known as a cavy. Guinea pigs aren’t related to pigs, and they are not from Guinea (in West Africa). They actually come from the Andes. Guinea pigs were used widely for research in the 1800s and 1900s, and as a result we use the term “guinea pig” for a test subject to this day.

Miniature pigs (also “pygmy pigs, teacup pigs) are commonly kept as pets. They are intelligent creatures, and relatively easily house-trained.

20 “Say cheese!” : SMILE!

Photographers often instruct us to say “cheese” to elicit a smile-like expression. Even Japanese photographers use the word “cheese” to achieve the same effect. Bulgarians use the word “zele” meaning “cabbage”. The Chinese say “eggplant”, the Danish “orange”, the Iranians “apple” and many Latin Americans say “whiskey”.

21 In vitro cells : OVA

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the process in which egg cells are fertilized by sperm cells outside of the body in vitro. The phrase “in vitro” translates from Latin as “in glass”. The process is usually carried out in a glass culture dish.

23 Line at zero degrees longitude : PRIME MERIDIAN

A meridian is a line of longitude, and the Prime Meridian is that line of longitude defined as 0 degrees. The Prime Meridian is also called the Greenwich Meridian as it passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in southeast London. Of course the line of longitude that is used to represent 0 degrees is an arbitrary decision. 25 nations formally decided in 1884 to use the Greenwich Meridian as 0 degrees as it was already a popular choice. That is all except the French, who abstained from the vote and used the Paris Meridian as 0 degrees on French charts for several decades.

27 Green vegetable in samosas : PEA

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.

36 “Beef” Emmy winner Wong : ALI

Ali Wong is a stand-up comedian from San Francisco who is a protégé of Chris Rock. She made two very successful Netflix stand-up specials “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife”. She also worked as a writer for the hit sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat”.

“Beef” is a comedy-drama TV show that debuted in 2023. It stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong as two people in a prolonged feud after a road rage and car chase incident. The critics really like this one.

37 Florida home of the Ernest Hemingway House : KEY WEST

Key West in the Florida Keys is the southernmost city in the contiguous US, and is the southern terminus of US Route 1. The southernmost point in the continental US is Whitehead Spit, which is located within the bounds of Naval Air Station Key West.

Ernest Hemingway moved around a lot. He was born in Illinois, and after leaving school headed to the Italian front during WWI. There he served as an ambulance driver, an experience he used as inspiration for “A Farewell to Arms”. He returned to the US after being seriously wounded, but a few years later moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent. He covered the Spanish War as a journalist, from Spain, using this experience for “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. During the thirties and forties he had two permanent residences, one in Key West, Florida and one in Cuba. In the late fifties he moved to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in 1961.

42 Avocado center : PIT

The wonderful avocado comes from a tree that is native to Mexico and Central America. The avocado fruit is sometimes called an avocado pear, because of its shape, even though it is not related to the pear at all. The fruit might also be referred to as an alligator pear, due to the roughness of the green skin of some avocado cultivars.

49 Hummus ingredient : TAHINI

“Tahini” is the Arabic name for a paste made from ground sesame seeds. It is a major ingredient in hummus, one of my favorite dishes.

61 Glissade garb : TUTU

The word “tutu”, used for a ballet dancer’s skirt, is actually a somewhat “naughty” term. It came into English from French in the early 20th century. The French “tutu” is an alteration of the word “cucu”, a childish word meaning “bottom, backside”.

In ballet, a glissade is a gliding step. “Glissade” comes from the French “glisser” meaning “to slip, slide”.

62 Valparaíso’s country : CHILE

Valparaíso is a major seaport in Chile, although the city’s importance has waned somewhat since the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Prior to that event, Valparaíso was a desirable stopoff point for ships rounding the tip of South America. As a result, the city became home to many immigrants from Europe, especially from Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy.

Down

3 Fermented milk drink : KEFIR

Kefir is a fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus region of Eurasia.

4 Evidence of a vampire attack : BITE MARK

Legends about vampires were particularly common in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans in particular. The superstition was that vampires could be killed using a wooden stake, with the preferred type of wood varying from place to place. Superstition also defines where the body should be pierced. Most often, the stake was driven through the heart, but Russians and northern Germans went for the mouth, and northeastern Serbs for the stomach.

7 Quarterback Jackson who was the NFL’s MVP in 2019 and 2023 : LAMAR

NFL player Lamar Jackson was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2018 draft. Prior to turning pro, Jackson won the Heisman Trophy while playing for the Louisville Cardinals. IN his rookie season, when he was just 21 years old, he became the youngest quarterback in NFL history to start a playoff game.

10 “The Phantom of the __” : OPERA

I’m a bit jaded with big stage musicals I must admit, but I will always have time for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece “The Phantom of the Opera”. “Phantom …” is the longest running musical in the history of Broadway, and deservedly so. There is a sequel, titled “Love Never Dies”, that opened in London’s West End in March 2010. But, it hasn’t been well received.

15 “Scream” star Campbell : NEVE

Neve Campbell is a Canadian actress whose big break in the movies came with the “Scream” horror film series, in which she had a leading role. I don’t do horror films, so I haven’t seen any of the “Scream” movies. Nor have I seen the TV series “Party of Five” that launched the acting careers of both Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt in the nineties.

The first installment of the “Scream” franchise of horror films was released in 1996. Each movie features a murderer who adopts the persona of “Ghostface”, a man wearing a mask that resembles the subject in the Edvard Munch painting “The Scream”. Even though the murderer behind the mask changes in each film, the victim is always Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell.

18 Schuyler sister who married Alexander Hamilton : ELIZA

Elizabeth “Eliza” Schuyler Hamilton was the wife of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Eliza was with her husband when he passed away the day after his famous duel with Vice President Aaron Burr.

19 Prickly shrub : BRIAR

“Briar” (sometimes “brier”) is a generic name describing several plants that have thorns or prickles, including the rose. Famously, Br’er Rabbit lives in a briar patch.

25 Some hoppy brews, briefly : IPAS

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

28 “Insert this” symbol : CARET

The character known as a caret (^) was originally a proofreading mark, one used to indicate where a punctuation mark was to be inserted. “Caret” is Latin for “it lacks”.

29 Name often said in a smart home : ALEXA

Alexa is a personal assistant application that is most associated with Amazon Echo smart speakers. Apparently, one reason the name “Alexa” was chosen is because it might remind one of the Library of Alexandria, the “keeper of all knowledge”.

30 Winter Olympian with a rifle : BIATHLETE

A biathlon is an event requiring expertise in two sporting disciplines. The most common biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting. This traditional biathlon was born out of an exercise for Norwegian soldiers.

32 Tennis great Sampras : PETE

Pete Sampras is a retired Greek-American tennis professional. Sampras was rated number one in the world rankings for six years in a row in the nineties.

33 Attachment on the back of a Jeep : SPARE TIRE

The Jeep is the original off-road vehicle. It was developed by the American Bantam Car Company in 1940 at the request of the US government who recognized the upcoming need for the armed forces as American involvement in WWII loomed. The Bantam Company was too small to cope with demand, so the government gave the designs to competing car companies. The design and brand eventually ended up with AMC in the seventies and eighties.

34 “Did I do that?” TV nerd : URKEL

Steve Urkel is a character on the TV show “Family Matters” that originally aired in the late eighties and nineties. The Urkel character was the archetypal “geek”, played by Jaleel White. Urkel was originally written into the show’s storyline for just one episode, but before long, Urkel was the show’s most popular recurring character.

35 Sonnets, odes, and the like : POESY

“Poesy” is an alternative name for poetry, and is often used to mean the “art of poetry”.

A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific structure and rhyming scheme. A popular rhyming scheme for what is known as the Italian sonnet is ABBA, ABBA, CDECDE. Compare this with the Shakespearean sonnet which rhymes as ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG.

38 “Buena Vista Social Club” director Wenders : WIM

Wim Wenders is a German movie director and producer. He served as the president of the European Film Academy in Berlin, starting in 1996.

43 Art collection custodian : CURATOR

The term “curator” is Latin and applies to a manager, guardian or overseer. In English, the original curators were the guardians and overseers of minors and those with mental disease. Today, we use the term “curator” particularly for someone in charge of a museum, zoo or other exhibition.

45 Tonsillitis doc : ENT

The suffix “-itis” is used to denote inflammation, as in laryngitis (inflammation of the larynx), otitis (inflammation of the ear), tendinitis (inflammation of a tendon), tonsillitis (inflammation of the tonsils) and sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses).

The palatine tonsils are located at the back of the human throat. The exact role that tonsils play isn’t completely understood, but it is known that they are in the first line of defense in the body’s immune system. They provide some level of protection against pathogens that are ingested and inhaled.

47 Genius Bar computers : APPLES

The technical support desk found in Apple Retail Stores is rather inventively called the Genius Bar. The certified support technicians are known as “Geniuses”. The trainees are called GYOs: Grow-Your-Own-Geniuses.

53 Banister : RAIL

By some accounts, a banister is a handrail of a stairway. By other accounts, the banister is actually the handrail and the supporting structures (called “newels”).

55 “Just so you know” shorthand : BTW

By the way (BTW)

59 Bic product : PEN

Société Bic is a company based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.