Category: August Miller

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Constructed by: August Miller
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Hidden Valley

Themed answers each include a kind of VALLEY as a HIDDEN word, spelled out in circled letters in the grid:

• 53A Salad dressing brand, and a feature of 19-, 29-, and 47-Across? : HIDDEN VALLEY

• 19A High price to pay, metaphorically : AN ARM AND A LEG (hidden DALE)
• 29A Star cluster that resembles a bird of prey : EAGLE NEBULA (hidden GLEN)
• 47A Health regimen modeled on the cuisine of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands : OKINAWA DIET (hidden WADI)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 17s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Athletic brand that shares its name with a big cat : PUMA

Puma is a German company that sells athletic shoes worldwide. The company is most famous for its line of soccer boots.

5 Cold desert in Asia : GOBI

The Gobi, the large desert in Asia, lies in northern China and southern Mongolia. It is growing at an alarming rate, particularly towards the south. This “desertification” is caused by increased human activity. The Chinese government is trying to halt the desert’s forward progress by planting great swaths of new forest, the so-called “Green Wall of China”. The name “Gobi” is Mongolian for “waterless place, semidesert”.

15 “Let’s Dance” singer David : BOWIE

David Bowie’s great hit “Let’s Dance” was released in 1983, and was his only record to make it to number one on both sides of the Atlantic.

17 Semester : TERM

“Semester” is a German word from the Latin “semestris”, an adjective meaning “of six months”. We use the term in a system that divides an academic year into two roughly equal parts. A trimester-system has three parts, and a quarter-system has four.

18 Super cool digs? : IGLOO

The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”. The walls of igloos are tremendous insulators, due to the air pockets in the blocks of snow.

22 Bell bottoms option : LEES

Bell-bottom pants have legs that flare out from the knees downwards. It is common knowledge that bell-bottoms originated as a style worn by sailors. They were standard uniform wear in the British Royal Navy starting in the mid-19th century. American sailors, however, were wearing bell-bottoms in the very early 1800s. The wide pant leg allows bell-bottoms to double as a life-saving device. Sailors are trained to remove the pants (without the need to remove shoes), tie a knot in the end of each leg, and then inflate the pants with air so that they can be used to aid flotation.

27 Eclectic musician Brian : ENO

Brian Eno started his musical career with Roxy Music. His most oft-played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “startup jingle”, the 6-second sound you (used to) hear when the Windows operating system is booting up. Eno might have annoyed the Microsoft folks when he stated on a BBC radio show:

I wrote it on a Mac. I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them.

29 Star cluster that resembles a bird of prey : EAGLE NEBULA (hidden GLEN)

The Eagle Nebula is a cluster of stars found in the Serpens constellation. It is home to the famous “Pillars of Creation”, three spires of interstellar gas and dust that resemble elephant trunks. The name “Pillars of Creation” was given to the spires when they were photographed in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope. That’s a really beautiful image that’s worth a look if you haven’t seen it.

32 Oscar nod, briefly : NOM

Nomination (nom.)

37 Part of the “Law & Order” franchise, familiarly : SVU

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is a spin-off from the TV crime drama “Law & Order”. “SVU” has been on the air since 1999, and is set in New York City. Interestingly (to me), there is a very successful Russian adaptation of the show that is set in Moscow.

40 Mediterranean microstate : MONACO

The Principality of Monaco is on the Mediterranean coast, and is otherwise surrounded by France, even though it is just under 10 miles from the Italian border. Monaco is the world’s most densely populated country, and the world’s second smallest country (the smallest being Vatican City). The principality has been very prosperous since the late 1800s, with the economy given a tremendous boost with the opening of several gambling casinos.

43 One-named Irish singer : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

47 Health regimen modeled on the cuisine of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands : OKINAWA DIET (hidden WADI)

The people of Okinawa, and the rest of the Ryukyu Island chain, used to be known for living longer than other Japanese, and indeed most peoples in the world. Sadly, with the growing influence of a Western diet, that longevity has been waning in recent years. The original “Okinawa diet” is light on meat and fish, and heavy on vegetables, soy foods and sweet potatoes.

“Wadi” is an Arabic term referring to a valley, or perhaps a (mostly) dry riverbed. In English we might call this a wash, or use the Spanish word “arroyo”.

53 Salad dressing brand, and a feature of 19-, 29-, and 47-Across? : HIDDEN VALLEY

Ranch dressing has been the best-selling salad dressing in the country since 1992. The recipe was developed by Steve Henson who introduced it in the fifties to guests on his dude ranch, the Hidden Valley Ranch in Northern California. His Hidden Valley ranch dressing became so popular that he opened a factory to produce packets of ranch seasoning that could be mixed with mayonnaise and buttermilk. Henson sold the brand for $8 million in 1972.

58 Guiding belief : CREDO

A creed or credo is a profession of faith, or a system of belief or principles. “Credo” is Latin for “I believe”.

63 “Hadestown” playwright Mitchell : ANAIS

Anaïs Mitchell is a Vermont-based singer-songwriter. One of Mitchell’s more famous works is a 2010 concept album titled “Hadestown” that is based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. She adapted the album into a stage musical that opened Off-Broadway in 2016 as “Hadestown: The Myth. The Musical”.

64 Lawsuit basis : TORT

“Tort” is a French word meaning “mischief, injury or wrong”. In common law, a tort is a civil wrong that results in the injured party suffering loss or harm, and the injuring party having a legal liability. Tort law differs from criminal law in that torts may result from negligence and not just intentional actions. Also, tort lawsuits may be decided on a preponderance of evidence, without the need of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Down

1 Bread with tzatziki : PITA

Tzatziki (also “tarator”) is a sauce made from cucumbers mixed into yogurt with other flavorings. It is primarily associated with Greece, although variants are found in cuisines of other parts of Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.

7 Avon product? : BARD

William Shakespeare is referred to as the Bard of Avon, as he was born and raised in the lovely town of Stratford-upon-Avon in the English Midlands.

8 Third No. 1 hit for the Black Eyed Peas : IMMA BE

“Imma Be” is a 2010 song co-written and recorded by the Black Eyed Peas. The song’s title is a slang term meaning “I am going to be”.

9 Stuffed diner’s request : DOGGY BAG

Doggie bags are commonly requested here in North America, but the practice is often frowned upon in parts of Europe. Personally, I love my doggy bags …

11 Kia model : RIO

The Kia Rio is a subcompact that has been in production since 1999, and has undergone several updates and redesigns over the years. The Rio was designed by Kia’s chief design officer, Peter Schreyer, who previously worked for Audi and is credited with designing the iconic Audi TT.

15 “Sorry” singer Justin : BIEBER

Justin Bieber is a pop singer from London, Ontario. Bieber was actually discovered on YouTube by talent manager Scooter Brown. Fans of Bieber call themselves “Beliebers”.

25 Brie of “Community” : ALISON

Alison Brie is an actress best known for playing Trudy Campbell, the wife of Pete Campbell on the TV drama “Mad Men”.

38 College, to Brits : UNI

In Australia (Down Under), and in Britain and Ireland, the term “uni” is used routinely for “university”.

41 Open-air enclosures for some pets : CATIOS

A catio is an enclosed, outdoor space accessible to an “indoor cat”. It gives the cat safe access to the outdoors, while at the same time protecting wildlife.

45 Poori flour : ATTA

Puri (also “poori”) is a deep-fried, unleavened bread from Indian cuisine.

52 Yosemite peak, familiarly : EL CAP

El Capitan is a stunning vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park in California. The top of El Capitan has been used as the take-off point for many BASE jumps, parachute jumps made by diving off the top of the rock face. The National Park Service put a stop to the practice in 1999. Soon afterwards, a BASE jumper made an illegal jump to protest the ban. She died …

54 DIY site : EHOW

eHow is a how-to website that was founded in 1999. eHow has an awful lot of content but doesn’t do a great job of assessing the value of that content. I wouldn’t recommend it …

55 Tuna roll wrap : NORI

Nori is an edible seaweed that we used to know as “laver” when we were living in Wales. Nori is usually dried into thin sheets. Here in the US, we are most familiar with nori as the seaweed used as a wrap for sushi.

56 911 responders: Abbr. : EMTS

The first use of a national emergency phone number was in 1937 in the UK, where the number 999 was introduced to call emergency services. If you need emergency services in the UK or Ireland to this day, you have to dial 999. It’s not really clear why 911 became the emergency number in the US. The most credible suggestion (to me) is that when it was introduced by the FCC in 1967, it was a number that “fit” with the numbers already used by AT&T for free services (211-long distance; 411-information; 611-repair service).

57 Chuck, slangily : YEET

In contemporary slang, to yeet is to throw away, discard. “To yeet” usually implies the use of force and a general disregard for what is being discarded. As in, “I really want to yeet the word ‘yeet’ …”

59 Molecule in some vaccines : RNA

Traditional vaccines typically use weakened or inactivated viruses, or pieces of the virus, to stimulate an immune response. mRNA vaccines use a small piece of genetic material from the virus, called messenger RNA (mRNA), to instruct cells in the body to produce a harmless piece of the virus to trigger the immune response. mRNA vaccines are developed more quickly than traditional vaccines. This was demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, where mRNA vaccines were developed and authorized for emergency use within months of the emergence of the novel coronavirus.