Category: MaryEllen Uthlaut

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Constructed by: MaryEllen Uthlaut
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): How Did It Get Here?

Themed answers are all common phrases reinterpreted as descriptions of how things (cited in the clue) ARRIVED:

• 20A The ice cream truck arrived __ : LICKETY-SPLIT
• 33A The food truck arrived __ : IN SHORT ORDER
• 42A The newspaper delivery van arrived __ : WITH DISPATCH
• 58A The race car arrived __ : STRAIGHTAWAY

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

Bill’s time: 6m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Rotisserie rods : SPITS

We use the term “rotisserie” to describe a cooking device used to roast meat. The French word “rôtisserie” describes a shop selling cooked meats (“rôti” is French for “roasted”). We first absorbed the French term into English in the 1800s, when “rotisserie” described a similar establishment. It was only in the 1950s that we started to describe the home-cooking apparatus as a rotisserie.

14 Gaelic tongue : ERSE

There are three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be “Gaeilge” (in Ireland), “Gaelg” (on the Isle of Man) and “Gaidhlig” (in Scotland).

15 Forearm bones : ULNAE

The radius and ulna are bones in the forearm. If you hold the palm of your hand up in front of you, the radius is the bone on the “thumb-side” of the arm, and the ulna is the bone on the “pinky-side”.

16 Little of this, little of that : OLIO

“Olio” is a term meaning “hodgepodge, mixture” that comes from the mixed stew of the same name. The stew in turn takes its name from the Spanish “olla”, the clay pot used for cooking.

17 Eyelid affliction : STYE

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

18 Former first lady Bush : LAURA

Laura Bush, wife of President George W. Bush, had her memoir “Spoken from the Heart” published in 2010. Born Laura Lane Welch, the former First Lady has a Master’s degree in Library Science (as does my wife, my own First Lady!). Given that background, it’s not surprising that two causes that Laura Bush focused on while in the White House were education and literacy. She established the annual National Book Festival, first held in Washington, D.C. in 2001, after having co-founded the Texas Book Festival in her home state.

19 Voice above tenor : ALTO

The voice types soprano, alto, tenor and bass can be abbreviated to the initialism “SATB”.

20 The ice cream truck arrived __ : LICKETY-SPLIT

“Lickety-split” is the latest in a line of terms that come from the word “lick”, which was used in the sense of a “fast sprint in a race” back in the early 1800s. From “lick” there evolved “licketie”, “lickety-click”, “lickety-cut” and finally “lickety-split”, all just colorful ways to say “fast”.

24 Stop on the way home? : BASE

That might be baseball.

31 Echidna snack : ANT

The echidna is also called the spiny anteater. Just like the platypus, the echidna is a mammal that lays eggs.

32 Cultural org. with annual Jazz Master Fellowships : NEA

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) honors several jazz musicians each year with a Jazz Master Award. The list of recipients is impressive, and includes Count Basie (1983), Miles Davis (1984), Ella Fitzgerald (1985) and Dave Brubeck (1999).

37 Not ajar : SHUT

Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.

40 Chest-beating beast : APE

Apes and monkeys both belong to the order of primates. The most obvious way to distinguish apes from monkeys is by the presence or lack of a tail. Almost all apes have no tail, and almost all monkeys have tails.

41 Meat inspector’s org. : USDA

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) classifies meat into eight different grades:

• Prime
• Choice
• Select
• Standard
• Commercial
• Utility
• Cutter
• Canner

47 Part of IPA : ALE

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

48 Baseball official : UMP

Back in the 15th century, “an umpire” was referred to as “a noumpere”, which was misheard and hence causing the dropping of the initial letter N. The term “noumpere” came from Old French “nonper” meaning “not even, odd number”. The idea was that the original umpire was a third person called on to arbitrate between two, providing that “odd number” needed to decide the dispute.

49 Listening aid : EARBUD

Earbuds are small headphones that plug directly into the user’s ear canals.

53 Girl with a missing flock : BO-PEEP

The lines that are most commonly quoted from the rhyme about “Little Bo Peep” are:

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.

But, there are actually four more verses, including this one:

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

55 Alternative to fries : TOTS

Ore-Ida’s founders came up with the idea for Tater Tots when they were deciding what to do with residual cuts of potato. They chopped up the leftovers, added flour and seasoning, and extruded the mix through a large hole making a sausage that they cut into small cylinders. We eat 70 million pounds of this extruded potato every year!

58 The race car arrived __ : STRAIGHTAWAY

A straightaway if the straight part of a racecourse.

61 Seats for the congregation : PEWS

A pew is a church bench, usually one with a high back. The original pews were raised and sometimes enclosed seats in the church used by women and important men or families. “Pew” comes from the Old French “puie” meaning “balcony, elevation”.

66 Diva’s solo : ARIA

The term “diva” comes to us from Latin via Italian. It is the feminine form of “divus” meaning “divine one”. The word is used in Italy to mean “goddess” or “fine lady”, and especially is applied to the prima donna in an opera. We often use the term to describe a singer with a big ego.

68 Lakefront city between Cleveland and Buffalo : ERIE

Erie is a port city in the very north of Pennsylvania, sitting on the southern shore of Lake Erie. The city takes its name from the Erie Native American tribe that resided in the area. Erie is nicknamed the Gem City, a reference to the “sparkling” water of Lake Erie.

Cleveland, Ohio was named after the man who led the team that surveyed the area prior to the founding of the city. General Moses Cleaveland did his work in 1796 and then left Ohio, never to return again.

Buffalo is the second-most populous city in the state of New York. The city takes its name from Buffalo Creek that runs through the metropolis (although the waterway is called Buffalo River within the city). The source of the name Buffalo Creek is the subject of much speculation, but one thing is clear, there were never any bison in the area.

70 Slim-necked swimmers : SWANS

An adult male swan is a cob and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.

Down

1 Some electric cars : TESLAS

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 as a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world’s best selling plug-in electric vehicle of 2015. Tesla Motors shortened its name to Tesla in early 2017.

3 Maiden loved by Cupid : PSYCHE

In the myth of Cupid (aka Eros) and Psyche, the two title characters must overcome many obstacles to fulfill their love for each other. Overcome them they do, and the pair marry and enjoy immortal love.

5 Ottoman rulers : SULTANS

The land ruled by a sultan is known as a sultanate. In the West, the feminine forms of “sultan” are “sultana” and “sultanah”. The adjectival form is “sultanic”.

Osman I was the man who established the Ottoman Dynasty, with “Ottoman” coming from the name “Osman”. This is despite the fact that the “Ottoman Empire” came about with the conquest of Constantinople, and that didn’t happen until almost 130 years after Osman I died.

8 Weatherproof canvas : TARP

Originally, tarpaulins were made from canvas covered in tar that rendered the material waterproof. The word “tarpaulin” comes from “tar” and “palling”, with “pall” meaning “heavy cloth covering”.

21 Jet, in poems : EBON

Ebony is another word for the color black (and is often shortened to “ebon” in poetry). The color is named for the dark black wood called ebony that is very dense, one of the few types of wood that sinks in water. Ebony has been in high demand so the species of trees yielding the wood are now considered threatened. It is in such short supply that unscrupulous vendors have been known to darken lighter woods with shoe polish to look like ebony, so be warned …

27 Marsh plant : REED

The common reed is a species of flowering point in the grass family. It has many uses for humans. The whole plant can be eaten, and the stems can be used as drinking straws, straws that are exceptionally eco-friendly. The common reed is also the principal source of that for roofs in Europe.

28 Voice actress Strong : TARA

Actress Tara Strong is perhaps best known for her voice work. The list of her voice roles includes Dil Pickles on the TV series “Rugrats”.

30 __ helmet: safari accessory : PITH

Pith helmets were worn by mainly Europeans in the tropics, often on safari or as part of a military uniform. The helmet was light in weight, covered with cloth and made from cork or pith. Pith helmets were also called “safari helmets”, “topees” and “topis”.

“Safari” is a Swahili word meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

35 Like up and down: Abbr. : OPP

Opposite (opp.)

36 German mining region : RUHR

The Ruhr is a large urban region in western Germany. The area is heavily populated, and is the fifth largest urban area in the whole of Europe after Istanbul, Moscow, London and Paris. The Ruhr became heavily industrialized due to its large deposits of coal. By 1850, the area contained nearly 300 operating coal mines. Any coal deposits remaining in the area today are too expensive to exploit.

37 Forensic evidence collector : SWAB

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

38 Largest city on Hawaii’s largest island : HILO

Hilo is the largest settlement on the Big Island of Hawaii, and has a population of over 43,000 (that’s not very many!). I love the Big Island …

39 Sch. near the Rio Grande : UTEP

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was founded in 1914 as the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. To this day, there is a mine shaft on the campus. The mascot of the school’s sports teams is Paydirt Pete, a prospector from the mining industry. The teams are also known as the UTEP Miners and Lady Miners.

The Rio Grande (Spanish for “big river”) is a waterway that forms part of the border between Mexico and the United States. Although we call the river the Rio Grande on this side of the border, in Mexico it is called the Río Bravo or Río Bravo del Norte (Spanish for “furious river of the north”).

50 Ides of March word : BEWARE

In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, a soothsayer warns the doomed leader to “beware the ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophecy and is subsequently killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that fateful day.

51 Muse of astronomy : URANIA

In Greek mythology, Urania was the goddess and muse of astronomy. She is usually depicted wearing a cloak embroidered with stars, and with her eyes looking up to the heavens.

52 England’s first poet laureate : DRYDEN

John Dryden was a highly influential poet and playwright in the late 1600s. He came from good literary stock, and was a cousin once-removed of Jonathan Swift. Dryden was made England’s first Poet Laureate, in 1668.

A poet laureate is a poet who is officially pointed by some institution to compose works for special occasions. The US Poet Laureate is more correctly known as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. To be “laureate” is to be “crowned with laurels”. In ancient Greece, poets and heroes were honored with a crown or wreath made from laurels.

55 Headpiece worn by kid-lit’s Fancy Nancy : TIARA

“Fancy Nancy” is a best-selling children’s picture book by Jane O’Connor that was released in 2005. That release launched a whole series of “Fancy Nancy” titles, as well as “Fancy Nancy the Musical” that was produced Off-Broadway in 2012.

56 City near the Great Salt Lake : OGDEN

Ogden was the first permanent settlement by people of European descent in what is now the state of Utah.

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is extremely shallow, and so the area of the lake fluctuates greatly with the changing volume of water. Back in 1963, the lake shrunk to 950 square miles, whereas in 1988 the area was measured at a whopping 3,300 square miles.

61 “The Office” role for Jenna : PAM

In the excellent sitcom “The Office”, the character Pam Halpert (née Beesly) is played very ably by Jenna Fischer. If you’ve seen the original version of “The Office” from the UK, then you’d have met Pam’s equivalent character, whose name is Dawn Tinsley.