Category: Devon Moffat

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Constructed by: Elizabeth Duker-Gold & Devon Moffat

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Garden Variety

Themed answers all sound like common phrases, but are a VARIETY of GARDEN-related terms:

• 52A Unexceptional, or an apt description of 20-, 30-, and 40-Across? : GARDEN VARIETY

• 20A Herbal medicines? : THYME CAPSULES (sounds like “time capsules”)
• 30A Veggie dogs? : BEET BOXERS (sounds like “beatboxers”)
• 40A Green new deal? : PEAS TREATY (sounds like “peace treaty”)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 49s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A The big screen? : IMAX

The IMAX Corporation, which is behind the IMAX film format, is a Canadian company. The impetus for developing the system came after Expo ’67 in Montreal. Back then large format screenings were accomplished using multiple projectors with multiple screens, with images basically stitched together. The team behind the IMAX technology set out to simplify things, and developed a single-camera, single-projector system.

15A Burrowing rodent : VOLE

Vole populations can increase very rapidly. Mama vole is pregnant for just three weeks before giving birth to litters of 5-10 baby voles. Then, the young voles become sexually mature in just one month! If you have one pregnant vole in your yard, within a year you could have over a hundred of the little critters.

16A Vinegary sauce : ADOBO

In Spanish and Mexican cuisine, a dish prepared adobo-style has been marinated in a mixture containing paprika, oregano, salt, garlic and vinegar. “Adobo” is Spanish for “marinade, seasoning”.

17A Southern region of South America : PATAGONIA

Patagonia is a very sparsely populated region at the very southern tip of South America that is divided administratively between Chile and Argentina. The area is named for the Patagons, a race of giant humans that were rumored to live there.

20A Herbal medicines? : THYME CAPSULES (sounds like “time capsules”)

In Britain and Ireland, thyme is listed as one of the four essential herbs. And those would be “parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme”.

A time capsule is a container of items chosen to help someone in the future understand society at the time the container is sealed. Although time capsules have been around at least from the 18th century, the term “time capsule” wasn’t coined until 1938.

24A Obscure to protect privacy, perhaps : REDACT

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

27A Amer. capital : USD

The US dollar (USD) became the nation’s official currency in 1785. However, it took the Coinage Act of 1792 to tie the USD to the precise value of pure silver and gold, and formally establish a decimal currency.

28A Affectionate text : ILY

I love you (ILY)

29A Glasgow refusal : NAE

Glasgow sits on the River Clyde, and is the largest city in Scotland. Back in the Victorian Era, Glasgow earned a reputation for excellence in shipbuilding and was known as “Second City of the British Empire”. Glasgow shipyards were the birthplaces of such famous vessels as the Lusitania, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. People from Glasgow are known as Glaswegians.

30A Veggie dogs? : BEET BOXERS (sounds like “beatboxers”)

Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion in which a performer primarily mimics a drum machine. Today, beatboxing is largely associated with hip-hop music, although similar forms of vocal percussion have been around for a while. Actor Gert Fröbe, famous for playing Bond villain Auric Goldfinger, did some pseudo-beatboxing in the 1965 movie “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines”.

36A Chabert of the “Crossword Mysteries” series : LACEY

Lacey Chabert is an actress who has become a staple of Hallmark Channel movies. She has earned the title of “Queen of Hallmark Christmas Movies”. I must admit that’s how I know of Chabert, as my wife and I do dip into offerings from the Hallmark channel coming up to Christmas …

The Hallmark Channel was a cable channel owned by Hallmark Cards. The channel had Christian roots, and was launched as the Faith and Values Channel in 1992. It was renamed to the Hallmark Channel in 2001. A spin-off sister network, the Hallmark Movie Channel, was launched in 2004 and later renamed to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries in 2014. Crossword fans might want to check out that channel as it features a “Crossword Mysteries” series of films.

37A Hosp. scan : MRI

MRI scans can be daunting for many people as they usually involve the patient lying inside a tube with the imaging magnet surrounding the body. Additionally, the scan can take up to 40 minutes in some cases. There are some open MRI scanners available that help prevent a feeling of claustrophobia. However, the images produced by open scanners are of lower quality as they operate at lower magnetic fields.

38A Dancer and choreographer Ailey : ALVIN

Alvin Ailey was a dancer who formed his own troupe in New York in 1958, naming it “the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater”. The most famous work that Ailey choreographed was called “Revelations”. President Barack Obama awarded Ailey the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously, in 2014.

39A Olympic archer? : EROS

In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love, desire, and sexual attraction. He is often depicted as a winged youth carrying a bow and arrows, with which he shoots either golden arrows to inspire love or leaden ones to inspire aversion. His Roman counterpart is Cupid.

42A NLE rival of NYM : ATL

The Atlanta Braves are the only team to have won baseball’s World Series in three different home cities. They won as the Boston Braves in 1914, the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and the Atlanta Braves in 1995.

43A Any of the Tetons: Abbr. : MTN

The Teton Range is located just to the south of Yellowstone National Park, and is part of the Rocky Mountains. The origins of the name “Teton” are not very clear, although one story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French is a slang term meaning “breasts”.

45A The “T” of T.S. Eliot : THOMAS

The author T. S. Eliot was the son of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Champe Stearns, so his full name was Thomas Stearns Eliot (TSE).

49A System of connected PCs, for short : LAN

Local area network (LAN)

55A Energy-channeling healing technique : REIKI

The Japanese practice of hands-on healing called “reiki” was developed by Mikao Usui in 1922. “Reiki” is a Japanese term meaning “universal energy”. Practitioners of reiki believe that they are transferring this universal energy through the palms of the hand into the patient’s body.

58A “WandaVision” star Elizabeth : OLSEN

Elizabeth Olsen is the younger sister of famous actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who rose to fame as child stars on the TV show “Full House”. Elizabeth starred in several critically acclaimed films, and is also known for her role as Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“WandaVision” is a TV miniseries featuring characters from Marvel Comics. The title characters are Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) played by Elizabeth Olsen and Vision played by Paul Bettany. I am by no means a fan of screen adaptations of comic characters, but I might take a look at “WandaVision”. Wanda and Vision are living in suburbia, trying to conceal their superhero identities. Each episode progresses the storyline through several decades, using situations encountered in TV shows of the day. Episodes use the format of shows such as:

• The Dick Van Dyke Show
• I Love Lucy
• Bewitched
• I Dream of Jeannie
• The Brady Bunch
• Good Times
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• Full House
• Malcolm in the Middle
• Modern Family
• Out of this World
• The Twilight Zone

Sounds very intriguing …

59A “Dibs!” : MINE!

The phrase “to have dibs on” expresses a claim on something. Apparently, the term “dibs” is a contraction of “dibstone”, which was a knucklebone or jack used in a children’s game.

Down

2D Nebraska home of the College World Series : OMAHA

Back in 1947/48, the College World Series (CWS) was held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and then in 1949 in Wichita, Kansas. Since 1950, the CWS has been held every year in Omaha, Nebraska.

3D Forest figure of myth : SATYR

The satyrs of Greek mythology came with a very high sex drive. They are the “rude” male subjects drawn on the side of old Greek vases. The nubile maidens known as nymphs were often an object of attention for the satyrs.

5D State fruit of California : AVOCADO

The Hass avocado was named for amateur horticulturist Rudolph Hass who developed the cultivar. He discovered the mother tree in his backyard in Southern California, and had it patented in 1935, making it one of the early plant patents issued in the US. Over 90% of the nation’s avocados are now produced in California, largely dominated by the ubiquitous Hass variety. The avocado officially became the state fruit of California in 2013

6D Ocean waves? : SONAR

The British developed the first underwater detection system that used sound waves. Research was driven by defense demands during WWI, leading to production of working units in 1922. This new sound detection system was described as using “supersonics”, but for the purpose of secrecy the term was dropped in favor of an acronym. The work was done under the auspices of the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Division, so ASD was combined with the “IC” from “superson-ic-s” to create the name ASDIC. The navy even went as far as renaming the quartz material at the heart of the technology “ASDivite”. By the time WWII came along, the Americans were producing their own systems and coined the term SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging), playing off the related application, RADAR. And so, the name ASDIC was deep-sixed …

9D Silicon __ : VALLEY

The Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, is better known as “Silicon Valley”. The term “Silicon Valley” dates back to 1971 when it was apparently first used in a weekly trade newspaper called “Electronic News” in articles written by journalist Don Hoefler.

11D Brazilian music genre : BOSSA NOVA

Bossa nova is a style of music from Brazil that evolved from samba. The most famous piece in the genre is the song “The Girl from Ipanema”. The term “bossa nova” translates from Portuguese as “new trend”, or more colloquially as “new wave”.

12D SNAP system : EBT

Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) is a system that allows government benefit recipients to access their funds through a debit-like card. It is primarily used for programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is still known colloquially as “food stamps”. Food stamps is an initiative that traces its roots back to a 1939 pilot program where participants used actual orange and blue paper coupons. The program adopted its modern SNAP acronym as part of the 2008 Farm Bill, emphasizing a broader mission of nutritional health over simple caloric intake.

13D “Mayday!” letters : SOS

The term “Mayday” is an emergency codeword that is used internationally as a distress signal, especially when making a radio transmission. “Mayday” comes from the French phrase “venez m’aider” meaning “come to help me”. When used properly, the term is repeated three times in a row: “Mayday Mayday Mayday”.

21D Browser links : URLS

A web browser is a piece of software used to access the World Wide Web. The first web browser was called “WorldWideWeb” and was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the World Wide Web. The browser known as Mosaic came out in 1993, and it was this browser that drove so much interest in the World Wide Web, and indeed in the Internet in general. Marc Andreessen led the team that created Mosaic, and he then set up his own company called Netscape. Netscape created the Netscape Navigator browser that further popularized the use of the Web starting in 1994. Microsoft responded by introducing Internet Explorer in 1995, which sparked the so-called “browser war”, a war that Microsoft clearly won. As Netscape floundered, the company launched the open-source Mozilla project which eventually led to the Firefox browser. Apple then came out with its own Safari browser in 2003. Google’s Chrome browser, introduced in 2008, is by far the most popular way to view the Web today.

27D Four Corners Natives : UTES

The Four Corners region of the US surrounds the meeting point of the four states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. It is the only point in the US that is shared by four states.

28D Colorful ring : IRIS

The iris is the colored part of the eye. It has an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

33D Wolverine’s cohort : X-MEN

In the Marvel Comics universe, Wolverine is a mutant with keen animal-like senses and an ability to regenerate body parts after injury. He usually appears as a member of the X-Men superhero team. On the big screen, Wolverine is regularly played by Australian actor Hugh Jackman.

“Cohort” can be used as a collective noun, meaning “group, company”. The term can also apply to an individual supporter or companion, although usually in a derogatory sense. “Cohort” comes from the Latin “cohors”, which was an infantry company in the Roman army, one tenth of a legion.

35D “Wichita Lineman” singer Campbell : GLEN

I went to a Glen Campbell concert in Reno many, many years ago, and I was surprised by how many hits the man had over the years. He really was one of the original crossover artists between country and popular music, as evidenced by his winning Grammy Awards in both categories in 1967. That year, he won the country award for “Gentle on My Mind” and the pop award for “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”.

A lineman is a worker who specializes in the rigging and maintenance of telephone and electric power lines. According to the Glen Campbell hit “Wichita Lineman” from 1968, a lonely lineman can be missing his loved one that he hears “singing in the wire”. Presumably, the absent lover can be heard in the vibration caused by the wind blowing through the wires.

40D Condition that may be treated with SSRIs : PTSD

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a category of drugs that are usually prescribed as antidepressants.

41D Medicinal 8-Down : TISANES

“Tisane” is another word for herbal tea. “Tisane” comes into English via French from the Greek “ptisane”, the word for crushed barley.

47D SpongeBob’s pet, for one : SNAIL

Gary the Snail is a pet sea snail who lives with SpongeBob in his “pineapple under the sea”. Gary may be a sea snail, but he meows like a cat.

48D Just like ewe : OVINE

The Latin word for “sheep” is “ovis”, giving us the adjective “ovine” meaning “like a sheep”.

49D Currency in West Africa : LEONE

Leones are the currency of Sierra Leone. The Leone was introduced in 1964 to replace the British West African pound. The move was a practical one, as the Leone is a decimal currency and replaces the old British system of pounds, shillings and pence.

51D Forest figure of myth : NYMPH

In Greek and Roman mythology, nymphs were divine female spirits associated with a particular location or landform in nature.

53D Humorist Bombeck : ERMA

Erma Bombeck wrote for newspapers for about 35 years. She produced more than 4,000 witty and humorous columns under the title “At Wit’s End”, with all describing her home life in suburbia.

55D “This Is Us” Emmy winner __ Cephas Jones : RON

Actor Ron Cephas Jones was perhaps best known for portraying chess master Bobby Fish on the Netflix superhero series “Luke Cage”, and Randall Pearson’s biological father William “Shakespeare” Hill on the TV drama “This Is Us”. Jones was the father of actress Jasmine Cephas Jones, who originated the dual roles of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in the Broadway stage musical “Hamilton”.

“This Is Us” is a television drama that debuted in 2016. The storyline centers on three siblings Kevin, Kate and Randall Pearson and their parents Jack and Rebecca Pearson. Kevin and Kate are the surviving members of a triplet pregnancy. Jack and Rebecca decide to adopt Randall, a child born on the same day as the surviving siblings. The adopting family is white, and the adopted child is black.

56D “Evil Woman” rock gp. : ELO

The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) recorded the song “Evil Woman” in 1975. It was written by the band’s lead vocalist Jeff Lynne, in just thirty minutes!