Category: Ella Dershowitz

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Constructed by: Ella Dershowitz
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Imaginary Friend

Themed answers each include a synonym of “FRIEND”. For down-answers, we must IMAGINE that the FRIEND has disappeared from the grid. Clever …

18A Second on a ticket : RUNNING (MATE)

10D Server’s edge, in tennis : AD IN (ADMIN – M)

11D Law enforcement org. : PD (PDA – A)

12D __ and behold : LO (LOT – T)

13D Dash used in date ranges : EN (ENE – E)

• 23A “Bring it in, dude” embrace : (BRO) HUG
• 1D Wedding __ : BAND (“B AND B” – B)
• 2D Hindi word for “tea” : CHAI (CHAIR – R)
• 3D Showed up : CAME (CAMEO – O)

• 38A Childhood companion depicted five times in this puzzle, thanks to some Down clues : IMAGINARY (FRIEND)
• 40D __ of luxury : LAP (FLAP – F)
• 41D Number of candles, perhaps : AGE (RAGE – R)
• 37D Twist, as a wet rag : WRING (WIRING – I)
• 27D Web store icon : CART (CARET – E)
• 28D 12/24 and 12/31 : EVE (EVENS – N)
• 29D __ Antonio : SAN (SAND – D)

• 52A Overseas correspondent? : PEN (PAL)
• 53D Finished perfectly : ACED (PACED – P)
• 54D Musical pitch : TONE (ATONE – A)
• 55D Historic British school : ETON (“LET ON” – L)

• 59A “Booksmart” or “Dumb and Dumber” : (BUDDY) COMEDY
• 59D USN officer : LT (BLT – B)
• 60D “How cute!” : AW! (UAW – U)
• 61D Do, __, mi : RE (DRE – D)
• 50D Batting __ : CAGE (CADGE – D)
• 45D Big name in cameras : CANON (CANYON – Y)

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

Bill’s time: 11m 13s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Email option that protects privacy : BCC

A blind carbon copy (bcc) is a copy of a document or message that is sent to someone without other recipients of the message knowing about that extra copy.

9 Syrup source : MAPLE

About 75% of the world’s maple syrup comes from the province of Quebec. The US’s biggest producer is the state of Vermont, which produces 5-6% of the world’s supply.

15 Compact cosmetic : ROUGE

Although the cosmetic called rouge (also “blush”) uses the French word for “red”, modern “rouge” might be brown, pink or perhaps orange. Contemporary rouge is usually a talcum-based, colored powder.

17 “Da 5 Bloods” setting, for short : ‘NAM

“Da 5 Bloods” is a 2020 Spike Lee film about four aging veterans of the Vietnam War who go back to Vietnam. Their mission is to find the remains of their fallen squad leader, and to find a stash of gold bars they hid during the conflict. I haven’t seen this one, but am putting it on “the list” …

22 North America’s tallest peak : DENALI

Denali’s summit stands at 20,310 feet, making it the highest mountain peak in North America. Denali means “the high one” in the native Athabaskan language. The peak was known as Mount McKinley for many years, named in 1896 for future president William McKinley. The state of Alaska changed the name back to Denali in 1975, and the federal government followed suit in 2015.

23 “Bring it in, dude” embrace : (BRO) HUG

Our term “dude” arose as slang in New York City in the 1880s, when it was used to describe a fastidious man. In the early 1900s, the term was extended to mean “city slickers”, easterners who vacationed in the West. The first use of the term “dude ranch” was recorded in 1921.

32 Pt. of USNA : NAV

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is located in Annapolis, Maryland. It was founded in 1845 and educates officers for both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. The motto of the USNA is “Ex Scientia Tridens”, which translates as “From Knowledge, Sea Power”.

33 “Selma” director DuVernay : AVA

“Selma” is a 2014 film about the Selma-to-Montgomery marches of 1965. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson.

34 “Selma” actor David : OYELOWO

British actor David Oyelowo really hit the big time when he landed the role of Martin Luther King in the 2014 film “Selma”. Oyelowo was born to Nigerian parents, and he spent much of his youth living in Lagos. He comes from royalty, and is an “omoba” (prince) of the Yoruba people from West Africa.

37 Small bird with a big voice : WREN

The wren is a small songbird belonging to the family troglodytidae and the genus troglodytes. Wrens are known for making dome-shaped nests. Despite their small size, they are known for their loud and complex songs. Male wrens often sing to attract mates and to establish territory, They have been known to attack much larger birds that get too close to their nests.

42 Helgenberger of “CSI” : MARG

Marg Helgenberger is an actress best known for roles she plays on television. She played investigator Catherine Willows on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”. Helgenberger also played drug-addicted prostitute K.C. Koloski in the Vietnam War drama “China Beach”.

43 West Coast sch. whose application process may include an audition : CALARTS

The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private school located in Santa Clarita, California. CalArts was founded in 1961 by merging the Chouinard Art Institute and the Los Angeles conservatory, a merger that was very much sponsored by Walt Disney.

45 Cynical start? : CEE

The start of the word “cynical” is a letter C (cee).

48 Epiphany trio : MAGI

“Magi” is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, “magi” is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus soon after he was born. In Western Christianity, the three Biblical Magi are:

• Melchior: a scholar from Persia
• Caspar (also “Gaspar”): a scholar from India
• Balthazar: a scholar from Arabia

The holiday in the Christian tradition known as the Epiphany falls on January 6th. In some Spanish-speaking countries, the Epiphany is known as “Día de los Reyes”, and in others as “Día de Reyes” (Day of Kings).

49 Finishes a gin rummy turn, e.g. : DISCARDS

Gin rummy is a faster variant of standard rummy. It was introduced in 1909 by one Elwood Baker and his son.

56 Aye-aye or dik-dik : ANIMAL

The aye-aye is a lemur that is native to Madagascar. It is the largest nocturnal primate in the world, and has an unusual way of feeding. The aye-aye taps on trees to find grubs, rather like a woodpecker. Having located its meal, it then uses its rodent-like teeth to gnaw into the wood and uses a specially-adapted long and narrow middle finger to pull out the grubs.

Dik-diks are a species of small antelopes that are native to eastern and southern Africa. They are usually less than 15 inches tall at the shoulder. The name “dik-dik” is onomatopoeic, and mimics the sound made by the female of the species when they feel threatened.

59 “Booksmart” or “Dumb and Dumber” : (BUDDY) COMEDY

“Booksmart” is a 2019 comedy film about two high school students breaking out of their relatively bookish ways just prior to graduation. The movie was actress Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, and apparently, the critics loved it.

“Dumb and Dumber” is a 1994 comedy starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as two pretty dumb guys, Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne. There was a prequel released in 2003 titled “Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd”, and a sequel in 2011 called “Dumb and Dumber To”.

65 Slow tempo : LARGO

Largo is an instruction to play a piece of music with a very slow tempo. “Largo” is an Italian word meaning “broadly”. The instruction “larghetto” means “play broadly”, and “Larghissimo” means “play very, very slowly”.

66 Future esposa, perhaps : NOVIA

“Novia” is Spanish for “bride, a newly married woman”.

“Esposa” is Spanish for “wife”.

67 Roxy Music name : ENO

Roxy Music is a British band formed by Bryan Ferry, who also served as the lead singer. One of the group’s more famous former band members was Brian Eno, someone who turns up in crosswords far too often …

68 12-year-old, e.g. : TWEEN

The term “tween” is used to describe preadolescence, the years “between” 8 and 12 years of age.

69 Ridley of the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy : DAISY

British actress Daisy Ridley hit the big time when she landed the role of Rey in the movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, a role that she reprised in several subsequent “Star Wars” films. Some might recognize the family name “Ridley”. Daisy’s great-uncle was Arnold Ridley, who played Private Godfrey in the hit Britcom “Dad’s Army”.

Down

4 Exclamation during a polar bear plunge : BRR!

A polar bear plunge is a winter event in which participants plunge into really, really cold bodies of water. Such swims are a New Year’s Day tradition in Canada, and in the US are often used to raise money for charity.

7 Moorehead of “Bewitched” : AGNES

Agnes Moorehead was an actress best remembered for her role as Endora, Samantha’s mother on the sitcom “Bewitched”. Moorehead died in 1974 from uterine cancer. She was one of over 90 out of 220 cast and crew members of the 1956 movie “The Conqueror” who all died from cancer, including co-stars Susan Hayward and John Wayne. There is wide speculation that the people working on the film were affected by radiation from eleven nuclear explosions that had taken place the prior year at the Yucca Flats Nevada Test Site that was located nearby, and upwind.

9 Bullet train technology : MAGLEV

Maglev (magnetic levitation) trains have two sets of electromagnets at the heart of their propulsion systems. One set lifts (repels) the train up off the track. The second set moves the train forward.

Although rail transportation started out its life in Europe, it really came into its own across the vast United States. However, it was the Japanese who developed rail transportation into the exceptional service it is today. A bullet train is any high-speed train that resembles the locomotives developed by the Japanese in the fifties and sixties.

10 Server’s edge, in tennis : AD IN (ADMIN – M)

In tennis, if the score reaches deuce (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the advantage. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. The player calling out the score announces “ad in”, or more formally “advantage in”, if he/she has the advantage. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

11 Law enforcement org. : PD (PDA – A)

Police department (PD)

Public display of affection (PDA)

13 Dash used in date ranges : EN (ENE – E)

In typography, there are em dashes and en dashes. The em dash is about the width of an “m” character, and an en dash about half that, the width of an “n’ character. An en dash is used, for example, to separate numbers designating a range, as in 5-10 years. The em dash seems to be going out of style, and indeed the application I am using to write this paragraph won’t let me show you one!

19 “The Lion King” lion : NALA

In “The Lion King”, Nala is a lioness and the childhood friend of Simba. By the end of the story, Nala and Simba become wedded. “The Lion King” is inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, with Simba representing the title character, and Nala representing Hamlet’s love interest Ophelia.

21 Option in a classic paradoxical dilemma : THE EGG

What came first? The chicken or the egg?

24 Wrinkled tangelo : UGLI

The ugli fruit is a hybrid of an orange and a tangerine that was first discovered growing wild in Jamaica where most ugli fruit comes from today. “UGLI” is a trademark name that is a variant of “ugly”, a nod to the fruit’s unsightly wrinkled rind.

The fruit called a tangelo is a hybrid between a tangerine and either a grapefruit or a pomelo (which gives it the name). A pomelo is a very large, pear-shaped citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia. The Jamaican form of tangelo is known as the ugli fruit.

25 Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit From the __ Squad” : GOON

Jennifer Egan is an author who grew up in San Francisco. Egan’s 2010 work “A Visit from the Goon Squad” won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Usually termed a novel, “A Visit from the Goon Squad” is structured in such a way that it is sometimes described as a collection of linked short stories.

27 Web store icon : CART (CARET – E)

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 __ Antonio : SAN (SAND – D)

The city of San Antonio, Texas was named by Spanish explorers. They came upon a Native American settlement in the area on 13 June 1631, the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua.

31 Budget carrier HQ’d in Dallas : SWA

Southwest Airlines (SWA) is the world’s largest low-cost passenger airline. I’ve always admired the Southwest operation and found that the company knows how to keep costs under control while maintaining a high level of customer service. One strategy the company used for decades was only to operate Boeing 737 aircraft, which kept maintenance and operating costs to a minimum. Southwest has over 700 Boeing 737s in service, with each plane making about six flights per day.

34 Muscat resident : OMANI

Muscat is the capital of Oman. The city lies on the northeast coast of the state on the Gulf of Oman, a branch of the Persian Gulf.

36 Tolkien monster : ORC

Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction as well as in fantasy video games.

38 Cyberchatted with, briefly : IM’ED

Instant message (IM)

39 Orange tuber : YAM

Although in the US we sometimes refer to sweet potatoes as “yams”, the yam is actually a completely different family of plants. True yams are more common in other parts of the world than they are in this country, and are especially common in Africa.

45 Big name in cameras : CANON (CANYON – Y)

The Japanese company Canon is largely known in the US for producing quality cameras. The company started out as Precision Optical Industry Laboratory in 1937 making camera bodies. The name was changed in 1947 to Canon.

46 Actor Bana : ERIC

Eric Bana is an Australian actor who enjoyed a successful career in his home country before breaking into Hollywood playing an American Delta Force sergeant in “Black Hawk Down”. A couple of years later he played the lead in Ang Lee’s 2003 movie “Hulk”, the role of Dr Bruce Banner. More recently he played the Romulan villain Nero, in the 2009 “Star Trek” movie.

47 Astronomer Halley : EDMOND

Edmond Halley was an English astronomer who lived at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1705 he declared that comet sightings recorded in 1456, 1531, 1607 and 1682 were in fact observations of the same comet returning to fly by Earth at regular intervals. He predicted that this comet would return in 1758. Hally was right, and so the comet was named after him. Sadly, Halley didn’t live long enough to see that his prediction came true.

50 Batting __ : CAGE (CADGE – D)

To cadge is to get something by begging.

51 South Pacific island group : SAMOA

The official name for the South Pacific nation formerly known as Western Samoa is the Independent State of Samoa. Samoa is the western part of the island group, with American Samoa lying to the southeast. The whole group of islands used to be known as Navigators Island, a name given by European explorers in recognition of the seafaring skills of the native Samoans.

55 Historic British school : ETON (“LET ON” – L)

Eton College near Windsor in the south of England was founded way back in 1440 by King Henry VI. Originally known as “The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor”, the school was intended to provide free education to poor boys. Free education today at Eton? Not so much …

57 __ Strauss & Co. : LEVI

Levi Strauss was the founder of the first company in the world to manufacture blue jeans. Levi Strauss & Co. opened in 1853 in San Francisco. Strauss and his business partner were awarded a patent in 1873 for the use of copper rivets to strengthen points of strain on working pants.

59 USN officer : LT (BLT – B)

One might become a lieutenant (lt.) in the US Navy (USN).

60 “How cute!” : AW! (UAW – U)

The United Auto Workers (UAW) was founded to represent workers in auto plants in the Detroit area in 1935. Nowadays the UAW’s membership extends into aerospace, agriculture and other industries.

61 Do, __, mi : RE (DRE – D)

“Dr. Dre” is the stage name of rapper Andre Romelle Young. Dr. Dre is known for his own singing career as well as for producing records and starting the careers of others such as Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

62 Knock : DIS

“Dis” (also “diss”) is a slang term meaning “insult” that originated in the eighties. It is a shortened form of “disrespect” or “dismiss”.

63 “Huzzah!” : YAY!

“Huzzah” is a cheer, originally a sailor’s interjection, possibly accompanying the hoisting of a sail.