Category: Jackson Musker

Advertisement

Constructed by: Jackson Musker

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Baby Steps

Themed answers start with a STEP in the progression of BABY graduating from sitting to walking:

• 57A Slow-but-steady progress, or the progression found at the starts of 18-, 23-, 36-, and 51-Across : BABY STEPS

• 18A Enjoy a prime position : SIT PRETTY
• 23A Cramped areas under some houses : CRAWL SPACES
• 36A Ben E. King hit that begins “When the night has come / And the land is dark” : STAND BY ME
• 51A Biopic about Johnny Cash and June Carter : WALK THE LINE

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

Bill’s time: 5m 36s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15A Puzzle cube creator Rubik : ERNO

What was originally called the “Magic Cube” became better known as “Rubik’s Cube”, and was named for its inventor Ernő Rubik. Rubik’s Cube is the world’s biggest selling puzzle game, with over 350 million sold in just over 30 years.

17A Long-lived desert plants : CACTI

The cactus (plural “cacti”) is a member of a family of plants that are particularly well-adapted to extremely dry environments. Almost all cacti are native to the Americas, although some succulent plants from the old world are similar in appearance and are often mislabeled as “cacti”.

22A “America’s Got Talent” judge Mandel : HOWIE

Howie Mandel is a Canadian comic. He was a regular on TV a few years ago as host of “Deal or No Deal”, and more recently as a judge on “America’s Got Talent”. I remember Mandel from “St. Elsewhere” in the eighties, which was the first American TV show that I watched regularly when I moved to the US …

27A African antelope : GNU

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch word meaning “wild beast”.

32A Grill briquettes : COALS

The term “briquette”, French for “small brick”, describes a compacted mass of fine material usually used as fuel for a fire. In North America, the most common briquettes are compressed wood charcoal, often used in charcoal grills. Back in Ireland, we see a lot of peat briquettes, which we use in fireplaces to heat our homes.

33A Ukraine’s capital : KYIV

Kyiv is located on the Dnieper River, and is the capital of Ukraine. We still seem to use the spelling “Kiev” sometimes, but the Ukrainian government decided in 1995 to refer to the city as “Kyiv” when using Roman/Latin script.

35A Be a bookworm : READ

A bookworm is someone devoted to reading and study. The term “bookworm” refers to insect larvae prone to eating holes in the bindings and paper of old books.

36A Ben E. King hit that begins “When the night has come / And the land is dark” : STAND BY ME

“Stand By Me” is a marvelous song co-written and first recorded in 1961 by Ben E. King. King and his partners actually wrote “Stand by Me” for the Drifters, but they passed on it. Over 400 cover versions have been recorded, including one by Muhammad Ali (when he was using the name Cassius Clay) and even one by Stephen King!

39A Danish shoe company : ECCO

I have to say, after owning several pairs, that ECCO shoes are the most comfortable in the world. The company is headquartered in Denmark.

47A Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York : CORNELL

Ezra Cornell was an associate of Samuel Morse and made his money in the telegraph business. After he retired he co-founded Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He provided a generous endowment and donated his farm as a site for the school, and was then rewarded by having the institute named after him.

50A Classic Pontiac muscle car : GTO

The initialism “GTO” was used on several touring cars (including a famous Pontiac) and stands for “Gran Turismo Omologato”. Italian car manufacturers started the tradition of calling their luxury performance cars “Gran Turismo”, and calling those cars they approved for racing “Gran Turismo Omologato”. The phrase “gran turismo omologato” translates as “grand touring homologated”, “homologated” being a technical term signifying official approval.

51A Biopic about Johnny Cash and June Carter : WALK THE LINE

“Walk the Line” is a 2005 biopic based on a pair of autobiographies by singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. Joaquin Phoenix portrays Cash and Reese Witherspoon plays June Carter, the woman who eventually became Cash’s second wife. For their performances, Phoenix was nominated for that season’s Best Actor Oscar, and Witherspoon won the Best Actress Oscar.

I must admit that I am not a big country music fan, but who doesn’t love Johnny Cash? The man had such a unique voice, and indeed unique songs. I think that his biopic, “Walk the Line”, is very cool, as is the title song itself. Recorded back in 1956, “I Walk the Line” is relatively creative for “popular” music. The basic rhythm of the song emulates the sound of a freight train, the “boom-chicka-boom” sound. Cash’s guitar has a unique tone to it as it plays this rhythm, achieved by threading a piece of paper between the guitar strings giving the rhythm a bit of a “buzz”. Above the rhythm line, each of the five verses is sung in three unique keys. You can actually hear Cash hum a note signifying the key change at the start of each verse. A remarkable tune …

June Carter is best-remembered as a singer-songwriter, and was the second wife of Johnny Cash. June performed with Cash for many years as a member of the Carter Family. Cash proposed to June on stage in London, Ontario in 1968. Both Cash and Carter maintained a friendship with President Jimmy Carter, who was a distant cousin of June.

56A Actress Tyler who voices Lana Kane on “Archer” : AISHA

Aisha Tyler is an actor and comedian who was a co-host on “The Talk” for several years starting in 2011. She began hosting a reboot of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” in 2013.

“Archer” is an animated espionage comedy TV series that debuted in 2009. The title character is a narcissistic and highly dysfunctional secret agent named Sterling Archer, voiced by H. Jon Benjamin. In its early seasons, the protagonists operated out of a fictional New York-based intelligence agency called ISIS (International Secret Intelligence Service). The writers retired that acronym in season six to avoid association with the real-world militant group.

63A Petri dish gelatin : AGAR

Julius Richard Petri was a German bacteriologist and was the man after whom the Petri dish is named. The petri dish can have an agar gel on the bottom which acts as a nutrient source for the specimen being grown and studied, in which case the dish plus agar is referred to as an “agar plate”.

64A Stratford’s river : AVON

There are actually four rivers called the Avon in England, but “Shakespeare’s Avon” lies mainly in Warwickshire, and so is sometimes known as the Warwickshire Avon. The name “Avon” comes from an ancient Celtic word “abona” meaning “river”. Stratford-upon-Avon was the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

67A Colorful amphibian : NEWT

Newts wouldn’t be my favorite animals. They are found all over the world living on land or in water depending on the species, but always associated with water even if it is only for breeding. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental stages during their lives. Fertilized eggs develop into larvae, an immature form that often clings to aquatic plants. The larvae hatch into tadpoles, the first developmental form of the newt. After living some months as tadpoles swimming around in the water, they undergo another metamorphosis, sprouting legs and replacing their external gills with lungs. At this juvenile stage they are known as efts, and leave the water to live on land. A more gradual transition takes place then, as the eft takes on the lizard-like appearance of the adult newt.

68A Future JDs’ exams : LSATS

The law degree that is abbreviated to “J.D.” stands for “Juris Doctor” or “Doctor of Jurisprudence”.

Down

1D List of chapters at the front of a book: Abbr. : TOC

Table of contents (TOC)

4D Actress and philanthropist who has co-produced films with Tom Hanks : RITA WILSON

Actress Rita Wilson is also a producer. She produced the 2002 movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, which was destined to become the highest-grossing independent movie of all time. Wilson married fellow actor Tom Hanks in 1988.

6D Greek fable writer : AESOP

Aesop is remembered today as a fabulist, a writer of fables. He lived in ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

7D Water filter brand : BRITA

Brita is a German company that specializes in water filtration products. Brita products do a great job of filtering tap water, but they don’t “purify” it as they don’t remove microbes. That job is usually done by a municipality before the water gets to the faucet.

8D Sinus MD : ENT

Ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT)

13D “You Got It” singer Orbison : ROY

The 1989 hit song “You Got It” represented a comeback for rock and roll legend Roy Orbison. It gave him his first appearance in the US Top 10 in nearly twenty-five years, breaking a dry spell that dated back to his 1964 smash “Oh, Pretty Woman”. Tragically, Orbison never lived to see the song’s success, having died of a sudden heart attack at age 52 just weeks before its release.

21D Psychedelics study subj. : LSD

The term “psychedelic” was coined in 1956 by British-born psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. He proposed the term to describe the effects of taking the drugs LSD and mescaline. He suggested that “psychedelic” be defined as “mind-manifesting”, from the Greek “psyche” (mind) and “delos” (manifest).

23D Public health agcy. : CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

24D __ Speedwagon : REO

REO Speedwagon is an American rock band that formed in 1967, and is still going strong. The band’s biggest hits are “Keep On Loving You” (1980) and “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (1985). The founding members chose the name for the REO Speed Wagon flatbed truck. Note that the band’s name is one word “Speedwagon”, whereas the vehicle’s name uses two words “Speed Wagon”.

25D “Knives Out” actress de Armas : ANA

Ana de Armas is an actress from Cuba. Having attended the National Theater School of Cuba, she moved to Spain at the age of 18. There, she made a name for herself in a Spanish TV series called “El Internado”. De Armas moved to Los Angeles in 2014, after which her performance opposite Ryan Gosling in 2017’s “Blade Runner 2049” earned her critical acclaim.

In the 2019 mystery movie “Knives Out”, actress Ana de Armas makes her breakout Hollywood performance as the empathetic nurse Marta Cabrera. De Armas’s performance earned widespread critical acclaim, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress

31D North American quintet depicted on the Michigan quarter : GREAT LAKES

The Michigan state quarter was issued in 2004, on January 26, exactly on the 167th anniversary of the state’s admission into the Union. The coin’s reverse features an outline of the state, surrounded by the Great Lakes system. Michigan has the geographical distinction of being the only US state to border four of the five Great Lakes.

37D Many a fan of the Hawks and the Dream : ATLANTAN

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks started out as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946, although after only a few months the team was moved to Moline, Illinois as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were one of the 17 original teams playing at the founding of the National Basketball Association. There was another move in 1951 and a renaming to the Milwaukee Hawks, and yet again in 1955 when the team became the St. Louis Hawks. The latest move was to Atlanta, in 1968.

The Atlanta Dream is a WNBA team that joined the league for the 2008 season. After moving around a little, the Dream settled into the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia starting with the 2021 season.

38D Bump that indicates a lawn infestation : MOLEHILL

One of the more commonly known facts about my native Ireland is that there are no snakes in the country (outside of politics, that is). A lesser known fact is that there are no moles either. There are plenty of snakes and moles in Britain, just a few miles away. Over a pint, we tend to give the credit to Saint Patrick, but the last ice age is more likely the responsible party …

39D Heartbeat check, for short : ECG

Electrocardiogram (ECG)

41D Prying tool : CROWBAR

A crowbar is a wonderful tool, one that can be used to pry open things, and to remove nails. The claw at one or both ends of the tool aids in that nail removal, and it is likely this iron claw was said to resemble the claw of a crow, giving us the name “crowbar”. Back in Elizabethan times, the same tool was called an “iron crow”. There’s a line in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” that reads “Get me an iron crow and bring it straight/Unto my cell.”

45D Chewie’s co-pilot : HAN

Wookiees are a biped race featured in “Star Wars”. The most notable Wookiee is Chewbacca (aka “Chewie”), the loyal friend and associate of Han Solo who serves as co-pilot on the Millennium Falcon spaceship.

55D Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane __” : EYRE

In Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel “Jane Eyre”, the title character has a grim educational experience at the fictional Lowood Institution. This reflects the author’s own traumatic time at the Clergy Daughters’ School in the north of England. In the book, a deadly typhus epidemic sweeps through Lowood, again mimicking Charlotte’s own experience, as an outbreak at her school claimed the lives of her two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth.