Category: Josh M. Kaufmann

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Constructed by: Josh Kaufmann & Katie Hale
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Paradise Lost

Themed answers are common phrases with a letter LOST at the end. The LOST letters spell out a paradisiac EDEN, reading the answers from top to bottom of the grid:

• 58A John Milton epic, and a hint to how four long answers in this puzzle were formed : PARADISE LOST

• 19A Victory that has a real shine to it? : SPARKLING WIN (E from “sparkling wine”)
• 29A Environmental law that targets hair ties? : ELASTIC BAN (D from “elastic band”)
• 37A Fish that’s only on an unofficial menu? : SECRET COD (E from “secret code”)
• 49A Provide spiced tea? : SUPPLY CHAI (N from “supply chain”)

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

Bill’s time: 8m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Mork’s planet : ORK

The sitcom “Mork & Mindy” was broadcast from 1978 to 1982. We were first introduced to Mork (played by Robin Williams) in a special episode of “Happy Days”. The particular episode in question has a bizarre storyline culminating in Fonzie and Mork having a thumb-to-finger duel. Eventually Richie wakes up in bed, and alien Mork was just part of a dream! Oh, and “Nanu Nanu” means both “hello” and “goodbye” back on the planet Ork. “I am Mork from Ork, Nanu Nanu”. Great stuff …

9 Pacific resort, popularly : CABO

Cabo San Lucas is a major tourist destination at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. “Cabo” is sometimes referred to as the “Fort Lauderdale of Mexico”.

13 Burning : FERVID

Our word “fervid”, meaning “heated in spirit, burning”, derives ultimately from the Latin “fervere”, meaning “to boil”.

15 Mammal also called a scaly anteater : PANGOLIN

The pangolin is also known as the scaly anteater. It is the only mammal that has a layer of protective scales made from keratin that covers the skin. Pangolins are highly prized by hunters, for their meat and their armor. They are in danger of extinction, and yet there is no more highly-trafficked species on the planet.

19 Victory that has a real shine to it? : SPARKLING WIN (E from “sparkling wine”)

Sparkling wines can be classified according to sweetness. These classifications are, from driest to sweetest:

• Brut Nature
• Extra Brut
• Brut
• Extra Dry
• Dry
• Semi-Dry
• Sweet

22 Knee surgery target, for short : ACL

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee. It is located in the center of the knee and connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone).

23 Hula or hora : DANCE

The hula is a native dance of Hawaii that uses arm movements to relate a story. The hula can be performed while sitting (a noho dance) or while standing (a luna dance).

The hora is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans. It was brought to Israel by Romanian settlers, and is often performed to traditional, Israeli folk songs. The hora (also “horah”) is a regular sight at Jewish weddings. Sometimes the honoree at an event is raised on a chair during the dance.

27 “Ten __ Commandments”: “Hamilton” song : DUEL

“Ten Duel Commandments” is a song from the musical “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The “commandments” are the rules to be applied to a duel. The song does not relate (directly) to the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, but rather a duel between John Laurens and Charles Lee for which Hamilton acted as a second.

35 Yarn spinner : LIAR

The phrase “to spin a yarn”, meaning “to tell a tall tale”, originated in the early 1800s with seamen. The idea was that sailors would tell stories to each other while engaged in mindless work such as twisting yarn.

37 Fish that’s only on an unofficial menu? : SECRET COD (E from “secret code”)

In Britain and Ireland, the most common fish that is used in traditional “fish and chips” is Atlantic cod. Cod has been overfished all over the world, and is now considered to be an endangered species by many international bodies. Confrontations over fishing rights in the North Atlantic led to conflicts called “the Cod Wars” between Iceland and the UK in the 1950s and the 1970s, with fishing fleets being protected by naval vessels and even shots being fired.

41 Boho-chic boot brand : UGG

Uggs are sheepskin boots that were first produced in Australia and New Zealand. The original Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. “Ugg” is a generic term Down Under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.

Boho-chic is a style of fashion that grew out of the bohemian and hippie looks.

45 __ Pole : NORTH

The geographic North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, although there is almost always a covering of sea ice at that location. The geographic South Pole is located on land, on the continent of Antarctica.

49 Provide spiced tea? : SUPPLY CHAI (N from “supply chain”)

Chai is a drink made from spiced black tea, honey and milk, with “chai” being the Hindi word for “tea”. We often called tea “a cup of char” growing up in Ireland, with “char” being our slang word for tea, derived from “chai”.

53 iPhone assistant : SIRI

Siri was originally developed as a standalone app by a startup company of the same name. Apple acquired the company in 2010 and integrated the technology into their operating system.

54 Jia Tolentino piece : ESSAY

Jia Tolentino is a Canadian-American writer and editor. One of her higher-profile pieces of reporting was on the conservatorship of Britney Spears, which she co-authored with Ronan Farrow.

58 John Milton epic, and a hint to how four long answers in this puzzle were formed : PARADISE LOST

“Paradise Lost” is an epic poem written by Englishman John Milton. It is indeed an epic work, published originally in ten volumes with over ten thousand lines of verse. The “paradise” that is “lost” is the Garden of Eden, from which Adam and Eve were expelled by God in the “Fall of Man”.

English poet John Milton is best known for his epic poem “Paradise Lost”. Milton also wrote several sonnets, the most famous of which is probably “On His Blindness”. The poet developed glaucoma which rendered him completely blind so he had to dictate a lot of his work, including the whole of “Paradise Lost”.

63 Painting featured in Marcel Duchamp’s “L.H.O.O.Q.” : MONA LISA

“L.H.O.O.Q.” is a series of works by French artist Marcel Duchamp. All of the versions of “L.H.O.O.Q.” feature a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”, but with the subject masculinized by adding a mustache and beard. The title of the work is an oblique inference that the lady in the painting is sexually restless.

68 One working in beta : TESTER

In the world of software development, the first tested issue of a new program is usually called the alpha version. Expected to have a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, the alpha release is usually distributed to a small number of testers. After reported bugs have been eliminated, the refined version is called a beta and is released to a wider audience, but with the program clearly labeled as “beta”. The users generally check functionality and report further bugs that are encountered. The beta version feeds into a release candidate, the version that is tested just prior to the software being sold into the market, hopefully bug-free.

69 SpongeBob’s pet snail : GARY

Gary the Snail is a pet sea snail who lives with SpongeBob in his “pineapple under the sea”. Gary may be a sea snail, but he meows like a cat.

Down

1 Soccer ref’s ruling : OFFSIDE

In soccer, the offside rule prevents players from gaining an unfair advantage by standing in front of the opposing team’s goal and waiting for the ball to be passed to them. A player is in an offside position if they are in the opponent’s half of the field and closer to the opponent’s goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent.

4 Roger follower, at times : OVER

The term “roger”, meaning “yes” or “acknowledged”, comes from the world of radiotelephony. The British military used a phonetic alphabet in the fifties that included “Roger” to represent the letter “R”. As such, it became customary to say “Roger” when acknowledging a message, with R (Roger) standing for “received”.

In radiotelephony, the word “OVER” is used to indicate the end of a transmission from one party, handing over the airwaves to another party to respond.

5 Former Bears coach : DITKA

Mike Ditka is a retired NFL player, and retired coach of the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints. Ditka and Tom Flores are the only people to have won Super Bowls as a player, an assistant coach, and as a head coach.

9 After-dinner brandy : COGNAC

Cognac is a famous variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac in the very west of France. To be called “Cognac”, the brandy must be distilled twice in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in very specific French oak barrels.

10 Wong of “Baby Cobra” : ALI

Ali Wong is a stand-up comedian from San Francisco who is a protégé of Chris Rock. She made two very successful Netflix stand-up specials “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife”. She also worked as a writer for the hit sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat”.

14 Fellini’s “La __ Vita” : DOLCE

The title of the celebrated 1960 Federico Fellini film “La Dolce Vita” translates from Italian as “The Good Life”. There is a character in the film called Paparazzo who is a news photographer. It is this character who gives us our word “Paparazzi”, a term used for photographers who make careers out of taking candid shots of celebrities.

16 Football field : GRIDIRON

We never used the word “gridiron” when I was growing up in Ireland (meaning a grill used for cooking food over an open fire). So, maybe I am excused for taking two decades living in the US to work out that a football field gridiron is so called because the layout of yard lines over the field looks like a gridiron used in cooking.

24 Org. with a February All-Star Weekend : NBA

The NBA’s All-Star Weekend takes place every February during the middle of the NBA regular season. The weekend features the NBA All-Star Game, the Rising Stars Challenge, the Skills Challenge, the Three-Point Contest, and the Slam Dunk Contest. The NBA All-Star Game is the main event, and is a game between the best players in the Eastern and Western Conferences.

25 Coke holder : CAN

The exact formula for Coca-Cola is a trade secret. The secret recipe is locked in a vault. That vault is on public display in the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, Georgia.

26 Coda : END

In music, a coda is primarily a passage that brings a movement to a conclusion. “Coda” is Italian for “tail”.

28 “__ Misérables” : LES

Victor Hugo’s famous 1862 novel “Les Misérables” has been translated into English several times. However, the title is usually left in the original French as a successful translation of “les misérables” seems to be elusive. Some suggestions for an English title are “The Wretched”, “The Victims” and “The Dispossessed”. The novel follows the lives of several characters including an ex-convict Jean Valjean, a fanatic police inspector Javert, a beautiful prostitute Fantine, and Fantine’s illegitimate daughter Cosette.

30 First Hebrew letter : ALEPH

Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and beth is the second.

31 “Stay” preceder, perhaps : SIT

Woof!

32 Tic-__-toe : TAC

When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

39 TiVo button : REC

TiVo is a digital video recorder (DVR) that revolutionized the way we watch television. The first TiVo devices were installed in homes in 1999, when they were the first consumer DVRs to hit the market. TiVo was originally marketed as a way to “pause live TV.” It quickly became known for its ability to record TV shows and movies, allowing viewers to watch them at their convenience.

40 __ Equis beer : DOS

Dos Equis lager was originally brewed in 1897, and back then was called “Siglo XX” (20th century) to celebrate the arrival of the new century. The name was changed later to simply “Dos Equis” (two exes).

42 Director Van Sant : GUS

Gus Van Sant is a movie director (among other things) who has been nominated twice for an Oscar, for “Good Will Hunting” in 1997 and for “Milk” in 2008.

43 Route-finding app : GPS

The modern Global Positioning System (GPS) system that we use today was built by the US military who received the massive funding needed because of fears during the Cold War of the use of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. We civilians, all round the world, owe a lot to President Ronald Reagan because he directed the military to make GPS technology available to the public for the common good. President Reagan was moved to do so after the Soviet Union shot down KAL flight 007 carrying 269 people, just because the plane strayed accidentally into Soviet airspace.

46 Witty retort to an insult : RIPOSTE

“Riposte” is a fencing term, one describing a quick thrust after having parried a lunge from one’s opponent. We also use the term to describe a sharp verbal retort.

50 Vatican City office : PAPACY

Vatican City is a sovereign city-state that is walled off within the city of Rome. Vatican City is about 110 acres in area, and so is the smallest independent state in the world. With about 800 residents, it is also the smallest state in terms of population. Although the Holy See dates back to early Christianity, Vatican City only came into being in 1929. At that time, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed a treaty with the Holy See on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy that established the city-state.

51 Yellowfin tuna : AHI

Yellowfin and bigeye tuna are usually marketed as “ahi”, the Hawaiian name. They are both big fish, with yellowfish tuna often weighing over 300 pounds, and bigeye tuna getting up to 400 pounds.

56 Spoke Siamese? : MEWED

The exact origins of the Siamese cat aren’t very clear, but it is believed to be from Southeast Asia. The Siamese takes its name from the sacred temple cats of Thailand (a nation once called “Siam”).

59 “Poker Face” creator Johnson : RIAN

Filmmaker Rian Johnson wrote and directed quite a few major films, including “Looper” (2012), “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017) and “Knives Out” (2019).

“Poker Face” is a murder-mystery TV show created by Rian Johnson that premiered in 2023. Star of the show is actress Natasha Lyonne, who plays a casino worker with an uncanny ability to determine when someone is lying. Critics and audiences alike seem to enjoy this one …

60 China setting : ASIA

Until overtaken recently by India, the world’s most populous country was the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Republic of China (ROC) is the official name of the sovereign state that we usually call Taiwan.

63 Fuel efficiency letters : MPG

Miles per gallon (mpg)

64 “You for Me” singer Rita : ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

65 Scand. land : NOR

Strictly speaking, Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe that covers the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The broader region that includes Finland and Iceland is referred to locally as “the Nordic countries”.