Category: Emily Biegas

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Constructed by: Sala Wanetick & Emily Biegas
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Cover Songs

Themed answers are all SONGS, and each features something giving COVER as a title:

• 63A Musical remakes, and what 17-, 26-, 40-, and 50-Across all are, in a way: COVER SONGS

• 17A Fleetwood Mac hit with the lyric “I’ll settle for one day to believe in you”: LITTLE LIES
• 26A Taylor Swift hit that features a sweater metaphor: CARDIGAN
• 40A Elvis Presley hit about someone who only looks like an angel: DEVIL IN DISGUISE
• 50A Rihanna hit about friends who stick together rain or shine: UMBRELLA

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

Bill’s time: 6m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Enlighten: EDIFY

To edify is to provide instruction in order to improve spiritually, morally or intellectually. The intent is to “build up” someone’s faith or morality, and so “edify” comes from the Latin “aedificare” meaning “to build, construct”. This Latin root also gives us our word “edifice”, meaning “massive building”.

15 Crooner Paul: ANKA

Canadian-born Paul Anka’s big hit was in 1957, the song entitled “Diana”. Anka was the subject of a much-lauded documentary film in 1962 called “Lonely Boy”.

16 Novela introduction?: TELE-

A telenovela is a “television novel”, a form of programming that is very popular in Latin America. It is somewhat like a soap opera that has an end in sight, and that runs for less than a year. I like this quote from an executive at Telemundo:

A telenovela is all about a couple who wants to kiss and a scriptwriter who stands in their way for 150 episodes.

17 Fleetwood Mac hit with the lyric “I’ll settle for one day to believe in you”: LITTLE LIES

“Little Lies” is a song by the British-American band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1987 on the album “Tango in the Night”. The song, written mainly by band member Christine McVie, became one of Fleetwood Mac’s most successful singles, and the last to make it into the Top Ten in the US.

21 Ingrid’s “Casablanca” role: ILSA

The movie “Casablanca” was released in January of 1943, timed to coincide with the Casablanca Conference, the high-level meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. The film wasn’t a box-office hit, but gained critical acclaim, winning three Oscars including Best Picture. The signature song “As Time Goes By” was written many years earlier for a 1931 Broadway musical called “Everybody’s Welcome”, and was a hit in 1931 for Rudy Vallee. But today we all remember the Casablanca version, sung by Dooley Wilson (who played “Sam” in the film). Poor Dooley didn’t get to record it as a single, due to a musician’s strike in 1943. The 1931 Rudy Vallee version was re-released that year and became an even bigger hit second time round.

26 Taylor Swift hit that features a sweater metaphor: CARDIGAN

“Cardigan” is a 2020 song co-written and released by Taylor Swift. The lyrics describe a woman named Betty recalling a relationship with a man named James. As with many Swift recordings, it broke a few records. For example, it had the biggest opening day for a song on Spotify.

28 Milwaukee team: BREWERS

The Milwaukee Brewers Major League Baseball (MLB) team was founded in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots. The Pilots only played one season in Seattle before going bankrupt, relocating to Milwaukee and adopting the “Brewers” name. At that time, the Brewers were playing in the American League, and joined the National League in 1998. Only two MLB teams have switched leagues, the other being the Houston Astros.

31 “The Daily” podcast producer, briefly: NYT

“The Daily” is a very popular daily news podcast produced by “The New York Times” that first aired in 2017. The main feature of the show is interviews with journalists and people involved in the big stories of the day.

33 Paul of “The Batman”: DANO

Paul Dano is an actor and musician from New York City. I best know him for playing Brian Wilson in “Love & Mercy”, a fascinating film about the Beach Boys.

“The Batman” is a 2022 film, and a reboot of the “Batman” film franchise. It stars Robert Pattinson as the title character (aka Bruce Wayne), and Paul Dano as the Riddler, the antagonist of the piece.

35 Venomous snake: ADDER

The adder, a snake in the viper family, is the only venomous snake found on the island of Great Britain. Adders are also found in Norway and Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle.

40 Elvis Presley hit about someone who only looks like an angel: DEVIL IN DISGUISE

“Devil in Disguise”, released by Elvis Presley in 1963, is a classic rock and roll hit. He sings about a seemingly angelic lover who he suspects is secretly a “devil in disguise”. John Lennon’s 1963 appearance on the UK show “Juke Box Jury” featured his dismissal of Elvis Presley’s “Devil in Disguise” as a “miss”, i.e. not a “hit”. Lennon famously said that Elvis was starting to sound like Bing Crosby, shifting away from rock and roll’s raw energy.

44 __ Point, California: DANA

Dana Point is a city in Southern California that was named for the nearby headland of Dana Point. The headland was in turn named for Richard Henry Dana, Jr., author of the famous memoir “Two Years Before the Mast”. In his memoir, Dana described the area around the headland as “the only romantic spot on the coast”.

50 Rihanna hit about friends who stick together rain or shine: UMBRELLA

“Umbrella” is a 2007 song released by Rihanna as the lead single from the album “Good Girl Gone Bad”. It features rap artist Jay-Z, who also co-wrote the song. The song was a huge hit, and topped charts all over the world. While “Umbrella” was at number-one in the UK, the nation was pounded with unseasonal rain storms and flooding. One British newspaper dubbed the event the “Rihanna Curse”. The “Curse” moved around the planet, with the number-one spot coinciding with storms in New Zealand and Romania.

59 Alley-___: OOP

An alley-oop is a play in basketball in which one player lobs the ball close to the basket for a teammate who usually scores with a slam dunk.

62 Actor Alda: ALAN

Even though actor Alan Alda is the son of fellow actor Robert Alda, both were born with the family name “D’Abruzzo”. Alan is a vocal advocate for science education. He is a founder of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, where he became a visiting professor. He also hosted the TV show “Scientific American Frontiers” for 14 years.

68 Verdi work: OPERA

Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian composer, mainly of operas, who was active during the Romantic era. Equally as famous as Verdi’s operas, are arias and choruses from those operas such as “La donna è mobile” from “Rigoletto”, “The Drinking Song” from “La Traviata” and “The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” from “Nabucco”. Verdi was a big fan of William Shakespeare and wrote three operas based on the Bard’s plays: “Macbeth”, “Otello” and “Falstaff”.

70 “The Voice” host Carson: DALY

Carson Daly is a radio and television personality who is perhaps best known today as host of the reality show “The Voice”. If you stay up late enough on New Year’s Eve, you might also know him from NBC’s “New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly”.

Down

2 Actress Falco: EDIE

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

7 Pioneering computer: ENIAC

The acronym ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (although many folks insist that the C was for “Computer”). ENIAC was introduced at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946, at which time it was the first general-purpose electronic computer, and dubbed “Giant Brain” by the press. Its original purpose was the calculation of artillery firing tables, but it ended up being used early on to make calculations necessary for the development of the hydrogen bomb. Given its uses, it’s not surprising to hear that development of ENIAC was funded by the US Army during WWII.

9 Danish, e.g.: PASTRY

The Danish pastry that we know so well over here in the US is indeed a Danish specialty, although the recipe was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers. A “Danish” is called “Viennese bread” in Denmark.

10 Pong platform: ATARI

Do you remember the arcade video game that is like a game of tennis, with paddles moving up and down to hit what looks like a ball, over what looks like a net? Well, that is Pong. The arcade version of Pong was introduced in 1972, with Atari selling a home version through Sears for the Christmas market in 1975.

11 Former baseball commissioner Bud: SELIG

Bud Selig was the Commissioner of Baseball for Major League Baseball from 1998 to 2015. Selig became acting commissioner in 1992 after the resignation of Fay Vincent. The team owners searched for a new commissioner for six years, and finally gave the permanent job to Selig in 1998.

12 Glazer of “Broad City”: ILANA

Ilana Glazer is a comedian from Long Island, New York. Along with comedian Abbi Jacobson, she is the co-creator of the Comedy Central sitcom “Broad City”.

18 “Euphoria” actor Jacob: ELORDI

Jacob Elordi is an Australian actor who gained widespread recognition for his role as Noah Flynn in “The Kissing Booth” film trilogy. More recently, he took on the iconic role of Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s 2023 film “Priscilla”.

28 Grammy winner Erykah: BADU

“Erykah Badu” is the stage name of Erica Wright, an American “neo-soul” singer. Badu gained some notoriety in March of 2010 when she shot a scene for a music video in Dallas. In the scene, she walks to the spot where President Kennedy was assassinated, removing her clothes until she is nude, and then falls to the ground as if she has been shot in the head. For that stunt she was charged with disorderly conduct.

34 Confidentiality contract, for short: NDA

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

38 “Twilight” vampire Cullen: ESME

I don’t do vampires …

49 Black out: CENSOR

The original “censor” was an officer in ancient Rome who had responsibility for taking the “census”, as well as supervising public morality.

50 With 56-Across, grilled eel dish: UNAGI …
56 See 50-Down: … NIGIRI

Nigirizushi (“hand-pressed sushi”) is prepared by pressing a mound of rice into a ball and then draping seafood over the top.

51 Odometer units: MILES

An odometer measures distance traveled. “Odometer comes from the Greek “hodos” meaning “path” and “metron” meaning “measure”.

61 Unpaid ads: PSAS

Public service announcement (PSA)

65 Maker of Lincoln Park After Dark nail polish: OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film.