Category: Emily Biegas

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

Today’s Reveal Answer: Sticky Subject

Themed answers each start with something that is “STICKY”:

• 52A Complicated discussion topic, and an apt description of the start of 20-, 35-, or 40-Across? : “STICKY” SUBJECT

• 20A Specialized curriculum in a public school : MAGNET PROGRAM
• 35A Expand one’s horizons : BRANCH OUT
• 40A Pet with separation anxiety, perhaps : VELCRO DOG

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

Bill’s time: 6m 27s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Joni Mitchell’s “Both __ Now” : SIDES

“Both Sides, Now” is a very successful 1968 song written by Joni Mitchell, and most famously recorded by Judy Collins. It has been recorded many times by many different artists, including Leonard Nimoy would you believe?

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

6 Dano of “The Fabelmans” : PAUL

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 Fabelmans” is a 2022 coming-of-age drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tony Kushner. The movie is a semi-autobiographical story loosely based on Spielberg’s adolescence and first years as a filmmaker. The plot is told through an original story of the fictional Sammy Fabelman, a young aspiring filmmaker who explores how the power of films can help him see the truth about his dysfunctional family and those around him.

15 Cuatro y cuatro : OCHO

In Spanish, “ocho” (eight) is the sum of “cuatro y cuatro” (four plus four).

16 Pad see ew cuisine : THAI

Pad see ew is also known as Phat si io, and is a stir-fried noodle dish in Thai cuisine. “Phat si io” means “fried with soy sauce”. I love Thai food …

17 Breathable fabric : LINEN

The textile known as linen is made from flax fibers. The name “linen” probably comes from “linum”, which is Latin for both “flax” and “textile made from flax”.

18 Wharton biz school home : PENN

Wharton is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. The school was established in 1881 largely due to a donation from industrialist Joseph Wharton, co-founder of Bethlehem Steel.

20 Specialized curriculum in a public school : MAGNET PROGRAM

Magnet schools are public schools that offer students education in specific areas of interest. They are an alternative to local schools, and may focus on programs such as performing arts, world languages or science and technology.

25 Mahalia Jackson’s genre : GOSPEL

Mahalia Jackson was an African-American gospel singer who was known as the first Queen of Gospel Music. She recorded many records, including 12 that went gold, i.e. sold more than a million copies each.

31 Quartz suffix : -ITE

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock. When sandstone is subject to heat and pressure it can turn into metamorphic rock called quartzite.

32 Conspiring clique : CABAL

A cabal is a small group of plotters acting in secret, perhaps scheming against a government or an individual. The use of “cabal” in this way dates back to the mid-1600s. It is suggested that the term gained some popularity, particularly in a sinister sense, during the reign of Charles II in the 1670s. At that time, it was applied as an acronym standing for “Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale”, a group of ministers known for their plots and schemes.

A clique is a small, exclusive group of people. The term “clique” comes to us from France, where it has the same meaning. In French, it somehow evolved in meaning from the original “clique” meaning a sharp noise, or as we would say today, “click”.

38 Sir Michael of acting : CAINE

There have been only two actors who have been nominated for an Academy Award in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. One is Jack Nicholson, and the other is Michael Caine. Caine is now known as Sir Michael Caine, as he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the year 2000.

40 Pet with separation anxiety, perhaps : VELCRO DOG

The hook-and-loop fastener that we now call “Velcro” was invented in 1941 by Georges de Mestral, a Swiss engineer. Mestral noticed that the seeds of the burdock plant (burrs or burs) stuck to his clothes. Under the microscope he found hooks on the burrs that grabbed hold of loops in his clothing. After years of development, he came up with a way of simulating the natural hook using man-made materials, and Velcro was born.

42 “A Doll’s House” playwright Henrik : IBSEN

“A Doll’s House” is probably the most famous play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play deals with the feminist awakening of the lead character, Nora Helmer. “A Doll’s House” is sometimes referred to as the “first true feminist play”.

43 Class for some immigrants: Abbr. : ESL

English as a Second Language (ESL)

44 Masterpiece : OPUS

“Magnum opus” is a Latin term meaning “great work”. The magnum opus (sometimes just “opus”) of a writer or composer perhaps, is his or her greatest work.

45 Coast Guard rank: Abbr. : ENS

Ensign (ens.)

The US Coast Guard (USCG) has the distinction of being the country’s oldest continuous seagoing service. The USCG was founded as the Revenue Cutter Service by Alexander Hamilton in 1790.

48 Texter’s “No idea” : IDK

I don’t know (IDK)

49 Uno y uno : DOS

In Spanish, “dos” (two) is “uno y uno” (one plus one).

56 Fuzzy fruit : KIWI

What we call kiwifruit today (and sometimes just “kiwi”) used to be called a Chinese gooseberry. Marketing folks in the fifties decided to call it a “melonette”, and then New Zealand producers adopted the name “kiwifruit”.

58 AFB truant : AWOL

“Truant” is such a lovely word. We have been using it to describe someone who wanders from an appointed place since the mid-1400s. Prior to that, a truant was a beggar or a vagabond.

59 Bass of ‘N Sync : LANCE

Lance Bass sang with the very successful boy band NSYNC. As luck would have it, Bass’s voice type is a bass.

63 NBA two-pointer : DUNK

In basketball, a player makes a slam dunk by jumping up and powering the ball downward into the basket with his or her hands over the rim. The term “slam dunk” was coined by Chick Hearn, an announcer for the L.A. Lakers. The NBA even holds an annual Slam Dunk Contest.

64 SimCity console, in brief : SNES

The name “Super NES” (or “SNES”) stands for “Super Nintendo Entertainment System”.

SimCity is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. SimCity was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.

Down

1 Actress Hayek Pinault : SALMA

Salma Hayek is a Mexican actress. Hayek was the first Mexican national to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, earning that nomination with her portrayal of artist Frida Kahlo in the 2002 movie “Frida”.

2 Trojan War epic by Homer : ILIAD

The ancient city of Troy was located on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. The Trojan War of Greek mythology was precipitated by the elopement of Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, with Paris of Troy. The war itself largely consisted of a nine-year siege of Troy by the Greeks. We know most about the final year of that siege, as it is described extensively in Homer’s “Iliad”. The city eventually fell when the Greeks hid soldiers inside the Trojan Horse, which the Trojans brought inside the city’s walls. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts …

5 Westernmost country of continental Africa : SENEGAL

The Republic of Senegal is a country on the far western coast of Africa. For many years Senegal was a French colony, gaining independence in 1960. The capital of Senegal is Dakar. Dakar is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, thus making it the westernmost capital on the African mainland.

6 California’s state flower : POPPY

The California poppy is also known as the golden poppy, and is native to the US and Mexico. It was named the state flower of California in 1903.

10 Geography book : ATLAS

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas” that is used for a book of maps.

26 Piano exercise : ETUDE

An étude is a short instrumental composition that is usually quite hard to play and is intended to help the performer master a particular technique. “Étude” is the French word for “study”. Études are commonly performed on the piano.

34 Edward Cullen’s love interest in the “Twilight” series : BELLA SWAN

The reference is to a character (Bella Swan) in “The Twilight” series of books by Stephenie Meyer. “The Twilight Saga” is a series of films based on the books. “The Twilight” books feature vampires, and I don’t do vampires …

35 “Queen of Neo Soul” 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.

42 Rorschach pattern : INKBLOT

The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which a subject is asked to interpret a series of inkblots. The test was created by Swiss Freudian psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s.

48 Tahiti and Bora Bora : ISLES

Captain Cook landed in Tahiti in 1769, although he wasn’t the first European to do so. But Cook’s visit to Tahiti was the most significant in that it heralded a whole spate of European visitors, who brought with them prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol. Paradoxically, they also brought Christianity. Included among the subsequent visitors was the famous HMS Bounty under the charge of Captain Bligh.

Bora Bora is one of the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The name “Bora Bora” is imitative of the Tahitian name for the island and should really be pronounced “pora pora”. “Bora bora” translates as “first born”.

49 Al __: firm, as pasta : DENTE

The Italian expression “al dente” literally means “to the tooth” or “to the bite” and is used to describe not only pasta, but also vegetables that are cooked so that they are tender and yet still crisp.

50 Philosopher who espoused simple explanations : OCCAM

Ockham’s (also “Occam’s”) razor is a principle in philosophy and science that basically states that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. This explanation is a corollary to the more exact statement of the principle, that one shouldn’t needlessly use assumptions in explaining something. The principle is referred to as “lex parsimoniae” in Latin, or “the law of parsimony”. Parsimony is being thrifty with money or resources. The principle was developed by 14th-century logician and Franciscan Friar William of Ockham (or “Occam” in Latin). The principle is dubbed a “razor” as it is used as a philosophical tool used to cut out absurd and spurious reasoning in an argument.

53 “Rich People Problems” novelist Kevin : KWAN

American novelist Kevin Kwan was born in Singapore and raised there until the age of 11. Kwan’s most famous book is 2013’s “Crazy Rich Asians”, which was adapted into a hugely successful 2018 movie of the same name. Kwan was paid just one dollar for the film rights, but did serve as an executive producer. Kwan wrote two more novels in the “Crazy Rich Asians” series: “China Rich Girlfriend” (2015) and “Rich People Problems” (2017).

54 Oxen harness : YOKE

A yoke is a wooden beam used between a pair of animals so that they are forced to work together.

55 Actress Fonda : JANE

Jane Fonda is the daughter of Henry Fonda, sister of Peter Fonda, and aunt of Bridget Fonda, making the Fondas quite the acting family. Jane Fonda had many memorable screen performances, but is equally memorable for her anti-war activism. Most famously she was outspoken against the Vietnam War, going so far as to visit North Vietnam during the height of the conflict in 1972, posing for photographs and making radio broadcasts denouncing American leaders as “war criminals”. For her stance, Fonda was nicknamed “Hanoi Jane”.