Category: Joe Deeney

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Constructed by: Joe Deeney
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Financing

Themed answers are common FINANCING terms, all clued in a “punny” way:

• 16A The landscaping startup was financed via … : … HEDGE FUND
• 21A The extreme tourism startup was financed via … : … VENTURE CAPITAL
• 31A The shrink-ray startup was financed via … : … MICROLOANS
• 41A The religious iconography startup was financed via … : … ANGEL INVESTORS
• 49A The agriculture startup was financed via … : … SEED MONEY

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

Bill’s time: 5m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Nile reptile : ASP

The venomous snake called an asp was a symbol of royalty in ancient Egypt.

12 Michael who plays Allan in “Barbie” : CERA

Michael Cera is a Canadian actor who played great characters on the TV show “Arrested Development”, and in the 2007 comedy-drama “Juno”. Cera is also quite the musician. He released an indie folk album titled “True That” in 2014.

The 2023 fantasy comedy movie “Barbie” stars Margo Robbie in the title role and Ryan Gosling as Ken. It was directed by Greta Gerwig, who also co-wrote the script with her partner Noah Baumbach. I highly recommend this one …

13 Physics and chemistry Nobelist Marie : CURIE

Marie Curie lived a life of firsts. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and indeed was the first person to win two Nobel prizes (in Physics in 1903, and in Chemistry in 1911). Most of Curie’s work was in the field of radioactivity, and was carried out in the days when the impact of excessive radiation on the human body was not understood. She died from aplastic anemia, caused by high exposure to radiation. To this day, Curie’s personal papers are kept preserved in lead-lined boxes as they are highly radioactive, even her personal cookbook.

16 The landscaping startup was financed via … : … HEDGE FUND

Originally, a hedge fund was a fund that paired long and short positions in a strategy designed to hedge market risk, to avoid major losses. That’s far from the case today, as hedge funds are now relatively high risk/reward investments that are not available to the general public as they avoid or partially avoid regulatory oversight.

18 Boxer Muhammad : ALI

Boxer Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky. Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. Who can forget Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame for the 1996 games in Atlanta?

19 Gas observed by 13-Across : RADON
[13A Physics and chemistry Nobelist Marie : CURIE]

The element radon (Rn) is a radioactive gas, and a byproduct produced when uranium decays naturally in the earth. Radon gas can collect and accumulate in buildings and rooms that are particularly well insulated with very little air exchange. The danger is very real, as radon is listed as the second most frequent cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoke.

20 “Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself” memoirist Alan : ALDA

“Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself” is a 2008 memoir by actor Alan Alda, his second (after 2005’s “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: and Other Things I’ve Learned”). Alda narrated the audiobook version of the memoir himself, for which he earned a Grammy Award.

25 Conditional programming word : ELSE

In computer programming, an ELSE-IF conditional statement is used to create a chain of IF statements. The chain starts with an IF statement. When that IF statement is false, the ELSE-IF statement is evaluated. When that ELSE-IF statement is false, a second ELSE-IF statement can be used as a further option; and so on down the chain.

26 Gillette brand : ATRA

Fortunately for crossword constructors, the Atra was introduced by Gillette in 1977, as the first razor with a pivoting head. The Atra was sold as the Contour in some markets and its derivative products are still around today.

27 Clicking sound? : SHORT I

The letters I in the word “clicking” are both short letters I.

35 Desert in northern China : GOBI

The Gobi, the large desert in Asia, lies in northern China and southern Mongolia. It is growing at an alarming rate, particularly towards the south. This “desertification” is caused by increased human activity. The Chinese government is trying to halt the desert’s forward progress by planting great swaths of new forest, the so-called “Green Wall of China”. The name “Gobi” is Mongolian for “waterless place, semidesert”.

38 Social satirist Mort : SAHL

Mort Sahl is a Canadian-born actor and comedian who moved to the US with his family when he was a child. Sahl became friends with John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy became president, Sahl wrote a lot of jokes for the President’s speeches, although he also told a lot of Kennedy jokes in his acts. After the President was assassinated in 1963, Sahl was intensely interested in finding out who was behind the crime and even got himself deputized as a member of one of the investigating teams. He was very outspoken against the results of the Warren Commission report on the assassination, and soon found himself out of favor with the public. It took a few years for him to make his comeback, and come back he did.

40 “The West Wing” creator Sorkin : AARON

The wonderful screenwriter Aaron Sorkin got his big break when his stage play “A Few Good Men” was picked up by a Hollywood producer. Since then Sorkin has written great films including “The American President”, “The Social Network”, “Charlie Wilson’s War”, “Moneyball” and the excellent “The West Wing” and “The Newsroom” television series.

41 The religious iconography startup was financed via … : … ANGEL INVESTORS

An angel investor is one who provides capital very early in a business’s life cycle. The term “angel” is borrowed from Broadway, where angels are wealthy people who provide funds to stage theatrical productions.

47 West Yorkshire home of Kirkstall Abbey : LEEDS

Kirkstall Abbey is a ruined monastery on the banks of the River Aire in a suburb of Leeds in Yorkshire, in the north of England. It was built by the Cistercians, a Roman Catholic religious order, in the 12th century.

48 On Soc. Sec., perhaps : RET

The Social Security Administration (SSA) was set up as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The first person to receive a monthly retirement benefit was Ida May Fuller of Vermont who received her first check for the sum of $22.54 after having contributed for three years through payroll taxes. The New Deal turned out to be a good deal for Ms. Fuller, as she lived to be 100 years of age and received a total benefit of almost $23,000, whereas her three years of contributions added up to just $24.75.

55 Ed.’s stack : MSS

An editor (ed.) might read or edit a manuscript (ms).

57 Workout spots : GYMS

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

Down

1 “Parable of the Talents” author Butler : OCTAVIA

Octavia E. Butler’s 1998 sci-fi novel “Parable of the Talents” is a sequel to “Parable of the Sower”. It is set in a dystopian US controlled by Christian fundamentalists that came to power after a presidential campaign that used the slogan “Make America Great Again”.

5 Soft glove material : SUEDE

Suede is leather made from the underside of an animal’s skin, usually the skin from a lamb. As such it is very soft, although not as durable as leather made from the exterior skin. The soft leather was, and is still used for making gloves. Back in 1859 these gloves were called “gants de Suede” in France, or “gloves of Sweden”. So, the name “suede” comes from the French word for Sweden.

7 Health insurance giant : CIGNA

The health care management company known as Cigna was formed in 1982 by a merger of two insurance companies. One was Connecticut General (CG) and the other was the Insurance Company of North America (INA).

9 Accomplishes mundane tasks, facetiously : ADULTS

“Adulting” is an informal, tongue-in-cheek term used, mainly by millennials, to describe the act of doing the mundane things that adults are expected to do. Those things can range from doing the laundry to having a job.

10 Dessert with toppings : SUNDAE

A sundae made with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge and caramel sauces, and toasted pecans is known as a turtle sundae. The name comes from the Turtles brand of candy, which are turtle-shaped and made with pecans and caramel dipped in chocolate.

23 Org. with a white rabbit in its logo : PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a large animal rights organization, with about 300 employees and two million members and supporters worldwide. Although the group campaigns for animal rights across a broad spectrum of issues, it has a stated focus in opposition of four practices:

• Factory farming
• Fur farming
• Animal testing
• Use of animals in entertainment

27 Mme., across the Pyrenees : SRA

The Pyrenees is a mountain range that runs along the border between Spain and France. Nestled between the two countries, high in the mountains, is the lovely country of Andorra, an old haunt of my family during skiing season …

29 La Liga chant : OLE!

The premier division of Spanish club soccer is the “Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División”, or more usually “La Liga” (The League).

30 Word after hot or lightning : … ROD

A hot rod is an American car that has been modified for speed by installing a larger than normal engine. A street rod is generally a more comfortable type of hot rod, with the emphasis less on the engine and more on custom paint jobs and interiors. By definition, a street rod must be based on an automobile design that originated prior to 1949.

A lightning rod is a metal rod placed atop a structure to attract lightning strikes, preferentially over the building itself. The electrical energy in the strike passes from the rod through metal wire to the ground, hence by passing the structure. It was Benjamin Franklin who first demonstrated the viability of lightning rods, in 1755.

40 Burro : ASS

Our word “burro”, meaning “donkey”, comes from the Spanish word for the same animal, namely “burrico”.

41 Breakfast tea variety : ASSAM

Assam, located in northeastern India, is the largest tea-producing state in the country. It is also famous for its silk production, particularly the golden muga silk.

50 Not saying anything : MUM

The phrase “mum’s the word” has been around since the early 1700s. “Mum” has been used to mean “silent” for centuries, the idea being that “mum” is the sound made when the lips are tightly sealed.