Category: Doug Peterson

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Constructed by: Doug Peterson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Advance Teams

Themed answers are professional sports TEAMS, but with the TEAM name ADVANCED, placed in front of the host city NAME:

• 47A Groups that do prep work ahead of an event, and a directive followed by this puzzle’s theme answers? : ADVANCE TEAMS

• 20A Sends an invoice to an upstate New York municipality? : BILLS BUFFALO
• 28A Makes hostile comments online about Alberta’s biggest city? : FLAMES CALGARY
• 42A Gamely faces the heat and humidity in Georgia’s capital? : BRAVES ATLANTA

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

Bill’s time: 7m 28s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Bonobo relative : CHIMP

The common chimpanzee is a species of great ape, i.e. a member of the Hominidae family (along with gorillas, humans and orangutans). The human and chimpanzee branches of the Hominidae family tree diverged 4-6 million years ago, making the chimp our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom. There is a common misconception that chimps are monkeys, but they aren’t …

The bonobo used to be called the pygmy chimpanzee, and is a cousin of the common chimpanzee. The bonobo is an endangered species that is now found in the wild only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. Along with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest species to humans genetically.

6 Salazar of “Alita: Battle Angel” : ROSA

Rosa Salazar is an actress best known on the small screen for her roles in the shows “Parenthood” and “American Horror Story: Murder House”. On the big screen, she played Lynn in “The Divergent Series” movies and Brenda in the “Maze Runner” films.

“Alita: Battle Angel” is a 2019 American action film based on the Japanese manga series “Battle Angel Alita” (“Gunm” in Japanese, meaning “Gun Dream”). Rosa Salazar plays the title character, a cyborg suffering from amnesia. James Cameron co-produced the movie, and co-wrote the screenplay.

14 Zellweger who played Judy Garland : RENEE

Renée Zellweger’s big break came with the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire”. A few years later, Zellweger followed that up with a string of successes in “Bridget Jones’ Diary” (2001), “Chicago” (2002) and “Cold Mountain” (2003). My wife and I love watching her play Bridget Jones, and as someone coming from Britain and Ireland, I have to say that Zellweger does a remarkable job with the accent. She worked hard to perfect that accent, and of course she had a voice coach. She also went “undercover” and worked as a temp in an office for three weeks fine-tuning her skills.

The 2019 movie “Judy” is a biopic about singer and actress Judy Garland. The film is an adaptation of the 2005 Peter Quilter play “End of the Rainbow”. “Judy” focuses on the last year of Garland’s life, with Renée Zellweger in the title role.

16 “Revenge of the Sith” mentor : YODA

“Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” was the sixth film made in the “Star Wars” series. The much anticipated film broke many records at the box office. Midnight screening alone on opening day brought in over $16 million.

18 Indiana steel city : GARY

The city of Gary, Indiana is located just 25 miles from downtown Chicago and falls within the Chicago metropolitan area (also known as “Chicagoland”). Gary was founded by US Steel in 1906, as the company selected it as the site for a new steel plant. The name “Gary” was chosen in honor of Elbert H. Gary, who was the key player in setting up US Steel in 1901.

20 Sends an invoice to an upstate New York municipality? : BILLS BUFFALO

Buffalo is the second-most populous city in the state of New York. The city takes its name from Buffalo Creek that runs through the metropolis (although the waterway is called Buffalo River within the city). The source of the name Buffalo Creek is the subject of much speculation, but one thing is clear, there were never any bison in the area.

The Buffalo Bills NFL team, founded in 1959, was named after an earlier team with the same name that had merged with the Cleveland Browns back in 1950. The “Bills” name was obviously popular with fans, as the name was chosen in a public contest. The older team had been named for “Buffalo Bill” Cody. The team mascot is Billy Buffalo, and the cheerleaders are known as the Buffalo Jills.

23 Actress Zadora : PIA

Pia Zadora is an American actress and singer. Zadora’s most famous role was in the 1982 film “Butterfly” in which she worked with Orson Welles and Stacey Keach. The film was based on the novel “The Butterfly” by James M. Cain and deals with the difficult subject of father-daughter incest.

28 Makes hostile comments online about Alberta’s biggest city? : FLAMES CALGARY

Calgary, the largest city in the Canadian province of Alberta, is named for Calgary on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. Canada’s Calgary hosted the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.

The Flames are a professional hockey team based in the Alberta city of Calgary. The team has been in Calgary since 1980, but was founded in 1972 in the US as the Atlanta Flames.

32 Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jerry : SLOAN

Jerry Sloan is a former NBA player and head coach. He is the only coach in NBA history to reach 1,000 wins with the same club, and that team was the Utah Jazz.

34 High-altitude herd animal : LLAMA

The llama is a camelid mammal very much associated with the Andean cultures. Despite the association with South America, it is thought that the ancestors of the modern llama migrated south from the Great Plains of North America about 40 million years ago.

37 Rajma masala ingredient : BEANS

Rajma is a popular vegetarian dish from Indian cuisine featuring red kidney beans simmered in a rich gravy. “Rajma masala” refers to the spice blend used to create the gravy, which typically includes ingredients like cumin, coriander, garam masala, and chili powder.

39 Hurricane spirit : RUM

The hurricane is a daiquiri-like cocktail that is very much associated with the French Quarter in New Orleans. It comprises rum, lemon juice and passion fruit syrup and is traditionally served in what’s now known as a hurricane glass. Supposedly, the drink was created in the 1940s by a bar owner who wanted to sell off some overstocked rum. He mixed up the drink and sold it to sailors in glass shaped like hurricane lamps, hence the name of the cocktail.

40 Ryan’s “Wheel of Fortune” co-host : VANNA

Vanna White is the lady who turns the letters on the “Wheel of Fortune” game show. White is big into knitting and crochet, and has her own line of yarns called “Vanna’s Choice”.

Radio and television personality Ryan Seacrest is best known as the host of the talent show “American Idol”. He also started hosting “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC in 2005, and co-hosting “Live with Kelly and Ryan” in 2017. Seacrest also took over as host of “Wheel of Fortune” from Pat Sajak in 2024. As a producer, Seacrest is the man behind the show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (so, he has a lot to answer for …).

41 Superman’s adoptive parents : KENTS

Superman was sent to Earth in a rocket as a child by his parents, who remained on the doomed planet of Krypton. On Earth, the child was discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent, farmers who lived near the fictional town of Smallville. The Kents raised the infant as their own, giving him the name Clark, which was Ma Kent’s maiden name.

42 Gamely faces the heat and humidity in Georgia’s capital? : BRAVES ATLANTA

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”.

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.

45 Gown fabrics : SATINS

The material known as “satin” takes its name from “Zayton”, the medieval Arabic name for the Chinese port city of Quanzhou. Quanzhou was used for the export of large amounts of silk to Europe.

46 Dot on a domino : PIP

White masks with black spots were commonly seen in the old Venetian Carnival. The masks were known as “domini”. The domini loaned their name to the game of dominoes, due to the similarity in appearance between the mask and a domino tile.

57 Classic Camaro : IROC

The IROC-Z is a model of Camaro that was introduced by Chevrolet in 1978. The IROC-Z takes its name from a famous stock car race, the International Race of Champions.

58 Rosalind’s cousin in “As You Like It” : CELIA

“As You Like It” is one of Shakespeare’s comedies. It tells the tale of Rosalind fleeing from her Uncle’s court along with her cousin Celia and the court jester Touchstone. Rosalind lives in exile in the Forest of Arden, disguised as a male shepherd called Ganymede. The play is perhaps most memorable for an oft-quoted monologue that starts with:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players …

61 “Hold it,” from the bridge : AVAST

“Avast” is a nautical term used to tell someone to stop or desist from what they are doing. The word comes from the Dutch “hou vast” meaning “hold fast”.

62 Civic shaft : AXLE

Introduced in 1972, the Honda Civic is the second-oldest brand of Japanese car made for the US today (only the Toyota Corolla has been around longer). Today’s Civic is a compact car, but the original was smaller, and classed as a sub-compact. The first design had a transverse-mounted engine and front-wheel drive to save on space, copying the configuration introduced with the British Mini.

63 Dishwasherful : LOAD

The first mechanical dishwasher to be described as practical and reliable was invented by Josephine Cochrane of Ohio. Cochrane didn’t wash dishes herself, as she had servants for that task, so the main purpose of her invention was not to save effort. Rather, she wanted a device that washed dishes without chipping them, something her household help was liable to do.

64 Buenos Aires cash : PESOS

Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina, and is located on the estuary of the Ria de la Plata. As it is a port city, the people of Buenos Aires are known as porteños (“people of the port”). The name “Buenos Aires” can be translated from Spanish as “fair winds”.

Down

1 Beach creature : CRAB

Crabs really do range in size from species to species. At the smaller end of the spectrum, there are pea crabs, some of which are only a few millimeters across, and often living symbiotically within the shells of mollusks. On the other hand, the Japanese spider crab is the largest species, with a leg span that can exceed 12 feet.

5 Iran’s official language : PERSIAN

Before 1935, the country we know today as Iran was referred to as Persia by the Western world. The official name of the country since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is the “Islamic Republic of Iran”.

6 Classico competitor : RAGU

The Ragú brand of pasta sauce was introduced in 1937. The name ”Ragù” is the Italian word for a sauce used to dress pasta, however the spelling is a little off in the name of the sauce. In Italian, the word is “Ragù” with a grave accent over the “u”, but if you look at a jar of the sauce on the supermarket shelf it is spelled “Ragú” on the label, with an acute accent. Sometimes I think we just don’t try …

Classico is a brand of pasta sauce. One of Classico’s marketing techniques is to sell its products in Mason jars.

7 Snowman who sings “In Summer” : OLAF

“In Summer” is a song from the 2013 animated hit film “Frozen”. It is sung by the snowman Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad), and expresses Olaf’s desire to experience the summer season. The irony is that warm weather makes the snowman disappear.

9 “Arrival” star : AMY ADAMS

Amy Adams is an American actress, although she was actually born in Vicenza, Italy while her father was a US serviceman stationed on an Italian base. My favorite Amy Adams film so far is the outstanding “Julie & Julia” in which she acted alongside Meryl Streep. I highly recommend this truly delightful movie.

2016’s “Arrival” is a very entertaining sci-fi film that is based on a short story by Ted Chiang called “Story of Your Life”. Amy Adams plays a linguist who is called upon to communicate with aliens that have arrived on Earth.

10 “Teen Titans Go!” character who’s part robot : CYBORG

“Cyborg” is an abbreviation for “cybernetic organism”, a being that is made up of both organic and synthetic parts.

“Teen Titans Go!” is an animated TV show based on the Team Titans superhero team created by DC Comics. It is also a spin-off of “Team Titans”, another animated superhero show. Although “Team Titans” is known for its humor, “Team Titans Go!” is considered crazily comical, and parodic.

12 Wallet items : IDS

Identity document (ID)

25 Samurai sword : KATANA

A katana is a curved sword worn by the samurai of Japan. It is sometimes referred to as a “samurai sword”.

29 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina : ELENA

Elena Rybakina is a Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis player. She made history by capturing the 2022 Wimbledon ladies’ singles title, becoming the first Kazakhstani player to win a major championship.

30 Italics feature : SLANT

Italic type leans to the right, and is often used to provide emphasis in text. The style is known as “italic” because the stylized calligraphic form of writing originated in Italy, probably in the Vatican.

32 Some Slavs : SERBS

The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

• the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
• the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
• the South Slavic (including Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs)

33 Actress Dern : LAURA

Actress Laura Dern is the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. Among her many notable roles, Laura Dern played the Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the 2008 movie “Recount”, and Dr. Ellie Sattler in the 1993 blockbuster “Jurassic Park”.

37 Instrument often paired with a harpsichord : BASS VIOL

The viola da gamba (also called simply “viol”) is a bass instrument in what is known as the viol family, with a tonal range that about matches that of the modern-day cello. It is the second largest of all the viols, so it is played resting on the floor between the legs. In fact, “viola da gamba” is Italian translating into “viol for the leg”.

The harpsichord is a keyboard instrument that predates the piano. Unlike the piano, where hammers strike the strings, the harpsichord’s strings are plucked by quills or small plectra. The harpsichord was a staple of Baroque and early Classical music, and is closely associated with composers like Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti.

38 Knuckle cracking, for some : PET PEEVE

The phrase “pet peeve”, meaning “thing that provokes one most”, seems to be somewhat ironic. A “peeve” is a source of irritation, and the adjective “pet” means “especially cherished”.

40 Peddle : VEND

In its purest sense, a peddler is someone who sells his or her wares on the street or from door to door. The term probably comes from the Latin “pedarius” meaning “one who goes on foot”.

41 Topper topped with a pom-pom : KNIT CAP

The French call a ball made of tufted wool a “pompon”, a word that we imported into English directly as “pompon”. We use “pompon” to describe perhaps bobbles on some hats, or the tufted balls that are shaken by cheerleaders at sports events. Over time, the spelling “pompom” has become common in English, probably due to mishearing. To confuse matters a little, we also use the word “pom-pom”, which is a nickname for a British autocannon used mainly as an anti-aircraft weapon, particularly during WWII.

48 Mythical vessel built in Thessaly : ARGO

In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts set sail on the Argo from the city of Iolcos in search of the Golden Fleece. Jason’s vessel was called the “Argo” in honor of a man named Argus, who designed and constructed it with the help of the goddess Athena.

Thessaly is a region in central Greece. It was considered the homeland of mythical figures like Achilles and Jason, and was believed to be the dwelling place of centaurs and other mythical creatures. Thessaly used to be called Aeolia, and appears in Homer’s “Odyssey” under the latter name.

49 Comedian Dunn : NORA

Nora Dunn is a comedian best known as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live”. She is the sister of actor Kevin Dunn, who is known for many supporting roles including Chief of Staff Ben Cafferty in TV’s “Veep”.

52 High-protein paste : MISO

Miso is the name of the seasoning that makes miso soup. Basic miso seasoning is made by fermenting rice, barley and soybeans with salt and a fungus to produce a paste. The paste can be added to stock to make miso soup, or perhaps to flavor tofu.