Category: Catherine Cetta

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Constructed by: Catherine Cetta
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Rise and Fall

Themed answers are all in the down-direction and each contains a hidden word. That hidden word is a palindrome, reads the same in the RISING- and FALLING-directions:

• 17D Move like tides and stock prices, or what the hidden words do in the answers to the starred clues? : RISE AND FALL

• 3D *Forensic expert on many a crime drama : DNA ANALYST (hiding “NAAN”)
• 8D *”Is this a smile on my face?” : HOW MAD AM I? (hiding “MADAM”)
• 29D *Warning from the paranoid : TRUST NO ONE (hiding “NOON”)
• 33D *Like Viola and Sebastian’s ship at the start of “Twelfth Night” : LOST AT SEA (hiding “STATS”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 40s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Remove for security reasons, say : REDACT

Our word “redact”, meaning to revise or edit, comes from the past participle of the Latin “redigere” meaning “to reduce”.

13 “Atlas Shrugged” author : AYN RAND

Russian-born American author Ayn Rand considered 1957’s “Atlas Shrugged” her magnum opus. It is a dystopian novel set in a US without a Congress or president, and instead a National Legislature and Head of State.

15 Roster newbie : ROOKIE

The term “rookie”, used for a raw recruit, first appeared in Rudyard Kipling’s collection of songs and poems called the “Barrack-Room Ballads”, which was originally published in 1892.

16 Trucker in a union : TEAMSTER

Originally, a teamster was a person who drove a team of animals that pulled a wagon. Over time, “teamster” became a synonym for “truck driver”. The term became more prevalent as the trade union called the International Brotherhood of Teamsters grew in importance during the Depression.

19 Five dollar face, for short : ABE

The US five-dollar bill is often called an “Abe”, as President Abraham Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a “fin”, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.

20 Olive center : PIT

The olive tree developed in and around the Mediterranean Basin, but has been cultivated in many locations around the world for thousands of years. The fruit of the olive tree is prized as a foodstuff, as well as a source of olive oil. Our word “oil” ultimately derives from the Greek “elaia” meaning “olive”.

27 Tony-winning musical “Dear __ Hansen” : EVAN

“Dear Evan Hansen” is a 2015 stage musical about a young man with awkward social skills and his efforts to make friends. The show was inspired by real-life events: The show’s writer, Steven Levenson, was inspired to write the musical after the suicide of a high school student in his hometown.

29 Some ESPN highlights : TDS

Touchdown (TD)

34 “True Blood” star Paquin : ANNA

Anna Paquin is an actress from New Zealand who won an Oscar as an 11-year-old for her role in “The Piano”. In the HBO series “True Blood” she plays Sookie Stackhouse, a role for which she won a Golden Globe. Paquin married her “True Blood” co-star Stephen Moyer in 2010.

“True Blood” is a television drama made by HBO. The series is based on a series of novels written by Charlaine Harris that describe human and vampires co-existing in a small town in Louisiana. I don’t do vampires …

35 Sleep cycle letters : REM

“REM” is an acronym standing for “rapid eye movement”. REM sleep takes up 20-25% of the sleeping hours and is the period associated with one’s most vivid dreams.

37 Clinic staffers: Abbr. : RNS

Registered nurse (RN)

38 Lab rodent : MOUSE

Our term “laboratory”, often shortened to “lab”, comes from the Medieval Latin word “laboratorium” meaning “place for labor, work”. This in turn comes from the Latin verb “laborare” meaning “to work”.

40 Tiebreaker periods, briefly : OTS

Overtime (OT)

43 Strands in a tree : TINSEL

Back in the mid-1400s, the word “tinsel” applied to cloth into which was woven gold or silver thread. The term came from the Middle French word “estincelle” meaning “spark, spangle”, which ultimately derived from the Latin “scintilla” meaning “spark”. By the end of the 1500s, “tinsel” described thin strips of shiny metal. The word “Tinseltown” wasn’t applied to Hollywood until 1972.

45 Skor bar center : TOFFEE

The candy bar named “Skor” is produced by Hershey’s. “Skor” is Swedish for “shoes”, and the candy bar’s wrapping features a crown that is identical to that found in the Swedish national emblem. What shoes have to do with candy, I don’t know …

47 Key in a PC reboot combo : CTRL

Ctrl-Alt-Delete is a keyboard command on IBM PC compatible systems used for a soft reboot, or more recently to bring up the task manager in the Windows operating system. Bill Gates tells us that the command was originally just a device to be used during development and was never meant to “go live”. He once said that “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” was a mistake, and that he would have preferred a dedicated key on the keyboard that carried out the same function.

The verb “to boot”, as used in the world of computers, comes from the phrase “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”. The idea is that the software that has to be loaded before a computer can do anything useful is called a “bootstrap load”.

48 Taxi money : CAB FARE

A hansom cab is a very specific design of horse and buggy that was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834 in England. The “cab” in the name is short for “cabriolet”, an earlier design of carriage on which the hansom was based. It’s from “hansom cab” that we get our modern term “cab”.

49 Tolkien tree creatures : ENTS

Ents are tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”. “Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.

53 Pro’s 35mm camera, maybe : SLR

At the beginning of the 20th century, 35mm was chosen as a standard size for film used in still cameras. 35mm was selected as it was already the standard film size used in motion pictures.

54 Pigeon sound : COO

Taxonomically, doves and pigeons are the only members of the order Columbidae. The terms “dove” and “pigeon” are often used interchangeably. Scientifically speaking, dove species tend to be smaller than pigeon species. Colloquially though, many refer to doves as the white or nearly white species in the family.

55 “Spider-Man: __ the Spider-Verse” : ACROSS

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is a 2023 sequel to 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”. Both are computer-animated films that were very well received by audiences and critics alike. There is a third movie in the series planned for release in 2024: “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse”.

57 Neighborhood diner? : LOCAVORE

A locavore is someone who limits his or her diet to food that is produced locally, often within 100 miles of its point of purchase. There’s a great memoir by the author Barbara Kingsolver that discusses the experiences of her and her family with the locavore lifestyle called “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” An excellent read …

Down

2 Hurricane center : EYE

A severe tropical storm is called a hurricane when it occurs in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, a typhoon in the Northwest Pacific, and a cyclone in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Tropical storms form over warm water, picking up energy from the evaporation from the ocean surface.

3 *Forensic expert on many a crime drama : DNA ANALYST (hiding “NAAN”)

I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that the DNA of living things is so very similar across different species. Human DNA is almost exactly the same for every individual (to the degree of 99.9%). However, those small differences are sufficient to distinguish one individual from another, and to determine whether or not individuals are close family relatives.

Naan bread is a type of leavened bread that is a staple in Indian cuisine. The word “naan” comes from the Persian word “non,” which means bread.

6 Explosive initials : TNT

“TNT” is an abbreviation for “trinitrotoluene”. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

9 Baklava sweetener : HONEY

Baklava is a very sweet and rich (and delicious) dessert pastry made from layers of filo dough filled with nuts and sweetened with honey or syrup. The name “baklava” comes from the Ottoman Turkish name for the pastry.

11 Old Italian bread? : LIRA

The word “lira” is used in a number of countries for currency. “Lira” comes from the Latin for “pound” and is derived from the British pound sterling, the value of a Troy pound of silver. For example, the lira (plural “lire”) was the official currency of Italy before the country changed over to the euro in 2002.

17 Move like tides and stock prices, or what the hidden words do in the answers to the starred clues? : RISE AND FALL

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

23 California governor Gavin : NEWSOM

Gavin Newson is a former Mayor of San Francisco (2004-2011) who took over as the Governor of California in 2019. Newson is a member of the Democratic Party, and a very outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump. From 2001 to 2006, Newson was married to Kimberley Guilfoyle, a former attorney and fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. Guilfoyle is a very outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump.

26 “Detective Pikachu” actor Watanabe : KEN

Ken Watanabe is an actor from Japan known mainly for his roles in the films “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “The Last Samurai”. My favorite of Watanabe’s movies though, is “Inception”. Great film …

“Detective Pikachu” is a 2019 live-action film adaptation of the 2016 video game of the same name. Pikachu is a Pokémon character, and is portrayed in the movie by Ryan Reynolds. I’m probably way too old and cranky to see this one …

29 *Warning from the paranoid : TRUST NO ONE (hiding “NOON”)

Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

30 Climate for much of Nevada : DESERT

The driest state in the Union is Nevada, if one considers average precipitation for the whole year. When considering seasonal precipitation, the driest state in the winter is North Dakota, and in the summer is California.

31 Requires Febreze, maybe : SMELLS

The odor-eliminating product we know today as Febreze was developed in England in the early nineties. It is now produced by Procter & Gamble.

33 *Like Viola and Sebastian’s ship at the start of “Twelfth Night” : LOST AT SEA (hiding “STATS”)

At the start of William Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”, Viola is shipwrecked and separated from her twin brother Sebastian, whom she believes has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a young man named Cesario. Later in the play, Sebastian turns up alive, and the identical looking “Cesario” and Sebastian appear together in the same scene. Viola reveals her true identity, and several plot lines resolve themselves very happily.

37 Jazz licks : RIFFS

A riff is a short rhythmic phrase in music, especially one improvised on a guitar.

42 High tennis shot : LOB

Our modern sport of tennis evolved from the much older racquet sport known as real tennis. Originally just called “tennis”, the older game was labeled “real tennis” when the modern version began to hold sway. Real tennis is played in a closed court, with the ball frequently bounced off the walls.

46 CBS News correspondent Barnett : ERROL

Errol Barnett was a CNN anchor based in Johannesburg, South Africa and then Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Washington, D.C to work for CBS News in 2016. Barnett was born in England, but was educated in Phoenix, Arizona.

51 Envelope opened with a click, e.g. : ICON

That would be an envelope icon linked to an email app.

52 Sudoku diagram : GRID

Number puzzles similar to our modern-day Sudoku first appeared in French newspapers in the late 1800s. The format that we use today was created by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old freelance puzzle constructor from Connersville, Indiana and first published in 1979. The format was introduced in Japan in 1984 and given the title of “Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru”, which translates to “the digits are limited to one occurrence”. The rather elaborate Japanese title was eventually shortened to Sudoku. No doubt many of you are fans of Sudoku puzzles. I know I am …

56 Abbreviation on old Russian maps : SSR

The former Soviet Union (officially “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” or “USSR”) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and comprised fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).

58 Prefix with gender : CIS-

The term “cisgender” is used as the opposite of “transgender”. Cisgender people have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth. A transgender person is someone with a gender identity that is different from that assigned at birth.

59 Driver’s “Star Wars” role : REN

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.