Category: Michelle Sontarp

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Constructed by: Jill Rafaloff & Michelle Sontarp

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Out of Fashion

Happy New Year, everyone! Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted with reference to celebrity fashion designers, and clothing items associated with those designers:

• 17A Crossover design from Vivienne Westwood and Diane von Fürstenberg? : BUBBLE WRAP
• 29A Creative team behind Lilly Pulitzer’s signature frock? : SHIFT WORKERS
• 47A Item in Giorgio Armani’s 50th anniversary collection? : BIRTHDAY SUIT
• 62A Line of Mary Quant’s trademark skirts? : MINI-SERIES

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

Bill’s time: 7m 08s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16A New Age artist who often sings in Irish : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

New-Age music is created to provide a relaxing and stress-free atmosphere. The New Age movement is often said to have begun with the release of an album called “Spectrum Suite” by Steven Halpern in 1975.

17A Crossover design from Vivienne Westwood and Diane von Fürstenberg? : BUBBLE WRAP

Vivienne Westwood was a pioneering British designer known as the “mother of punk”, largely for her association with the Sex Pistols. She dressed the band, and was married to their manager, Malcolm McLaren.

Diane von Fürstenberg (DVF) is a fashion designer from Brussels, now based in the US. Born Diane Halfin, she was Princess Diane of Fürstenberg from 1969 until 1972 while married to Prince Egon of Fürstenberg.

20A Former quarterback Manning : ELI

Eli Manning is a retired footballer who played quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning retired from football as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 2015. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback. Eli, Peyton and Archie co-authored a book for children titled “Family Huddle” in 2009. It describes the Mannings playing football together as young boys.

21A __-Caps candy : SNO-

Sno-Caps are a brand of candy usually only available in movie theaters. They have been around since the 1920s, would you believe?

23A __ gel: contents of “Do not eat” packets : SILICA

Silica gel is a porous form of silicon dioxide (sand) that acts as a desiccant to adsorb moisture and prevent spoilage. The material was patented in 1919, and notably used in World War I gas masks to adsorb vapors.

29A Creative team behind Lilly Pulitzer’s signature frock? : SHIFT WORKERS

Lilly Pulitzer was a fashion designer associated with a “preppy” Palm Beach style of the 1960s. She was most famous for her colorful shift dresses, which she originally created to camouflage stains while working at a Palm Beach juice stand. She skyrocketed to fame after First Lady Jackie Kennedy, an old school friend, was photographed wearing one of her dresses in “Life” magazine. A signature trademark of the brand is that the name “Lilly” is secretly painted somewhere into the background of the floral print.

33A Liturgical vestment : STOLE

In a religious context, a stole is a long, narrow strip of fabric worn around the neck and over the shoulders by clergy during church services.

37A Madre’s sister : TIA

In Spanish, a “tia” (aunt) is the “hermana del padre o de la madre” (sister of the father or the mother).

43A Viking weapon : AXE

The Vikings were a Germanic people from northern Europe who were noted as great seafarers. Key to the success of the Vikings was the design of their famous “longships”. Made from wood, the longship was long and narrow with a shallow hull, It was also light, so that the crew would actually carry it small distances over land and around obstacles. Longships were designed to be propelled by both sail and oars.

47A Item in Giorgio Armani’s 50th anniversary collection? : BIRTHDAY SUIT

Giorgio “Gio” Armani was an Italian fashion designer and founder of the company that has borne his name since 1975. Although Armani was famous for his menswear, the company makes everything from jewelry to perfume.

51A Patterned fabric woven on Jacquard looms : DAMASK

Damask was originally a weaving technique associated with the Byzantine and Islamic weaving centers of the Middle Ages. “Damask” comes from the name of Damascus, which was a major trading city at that time.

The Jacquard machine was Invented in 1804, and revolutionized textile manufacturing by using a series of punch cards to automatically control the weaving of intricate patterns on looms. This use of punch cards inspired Charles Babbage’s design for the first mechanical computer.

56A __ shorts : CARGO

Cargo pants are trousers made out of hard-wearing material and have several large pockets designed to carry tools. They are sometimes referred to as “combat pants”, reflecting the original use by members of the armed forces in the 1930s and 1940s.

60A Briny : SEA

The briny is the sea, with “brine” meaning “salty water”. The term “briny” was originally used for “tears”.

62A Line of Mary Quant’s trademark skirts? : MINI-SERIES

English fashion designer Mary Quant was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties culture of London. Her name is inextricably linked to two styles of clothing: the miniskirt and hotpants.

Down

2D Circular openings in domes : OCULI

“Oculus” (plural “oculi”) is the Latin word for “eye”, and is a term used in architecture for a circular window.

3D Synergy Supreme+ gasoline retailer : MOBIL

Mobil was founded as part of the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911. The company was originally called Socony (Standard Oil Company of New York). Socony merged with Magnolia Petroleum Company in the thirties and adopted Magnolia’s Pegasus emblem, and it has been used ever since. Mobil merged with Exxon in 1999 but the Mobil brand and Pegasus are alive and well.

4D “Putting my phone down a sec” : BRB

Be right back (brb)

5D Weekly skit show, for short : SNL

NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) was named “NBC’s Saturday Night” during its first season. This was to differentiate it from the ABC show airing at that time, called “Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell”. Chevy Chase uttered the famous line “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night” in the very first SNL episode on October 11, 1975. That careful wording has persisted, even though the NBC show’s name was changed to “Saturday Night Live” after Cosell’s show went off the air in 1976.

8D Japanese carrier : ANA

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline, one that is now larger in size than the nation’s flag carrier Japan Airlines (JAL).

10D Expose as false : DEBUNK

The word “bunk” is short for “bunkum”, the phonetic spelling of “Buncombe”, which is a county in North Carolina. Supposedly, a state representative made a dull and irrelevant speech that was directed to his home county of Buncombe, bringing the term “bunkum” into the language with the meaning of “nonsense”. The derivative word “debunk” first appeared in a novel by William Woodward in 1923, when he used it to describe “taking the bunk out of things”.

18D Actor Morales : ESAI

Esai Morales is not only a successful actor, he is also a trained martial artist, having studied the Korean martial art of taekwondo since he was a teenager.

25D “Moonstruck” Oscar winner : CHER

“Moonstruck” is a 1987 movie, a romantic comedy starring Cher and Nicolas Cage. There’s a bit of a love triangle in the storyline, with Danny Aiello playing the man who loses the girl. “Moonstruck” won three Oscars and was a huge success, and somehow, I’ve never seen it …

28D Musubi seaweed : NORI

“Musubi” is a Japanese word meaning “tying, knot”. In the context of food, like Spam Musubi, it refers to the act of pressing and binding the rice together into a specific shape, often wrapped or tied with nori (seaweed).

30D Brawl : FRACAS

“Fracas”, meaning “noisy quarrel”, is a French word that we absorbed into English. In turn, the French usage evolved from the Italian “fracasso” meaning “uproar, crash”.

39D Zilch : NADA

We use the term “zilch” to mean “nothing”. Our current usage evolved in the sixties, before which the term was used to describe “meaningless speech”. There was a comic character called Mr. Zilch in the 1930s in “Ballyhoo” magazine. Mr. Zilch’s name probably came from the American college slang “Joe Zilch” that was used in the early 1900s for “an insignificant person”.

45D Greek island in the Cyclades : MYKONOS

Mykonos is a Greek island that is part of the Cyclades group. Mykonos has the nickname “the island of the winds”, a reference to the strong seasonal winds that impact the island in the winter and the summer.

48D Caught off base? : TAGGED

That might be baseball.

53D Nepali, e.g. : ASIAN

Nepal lies to the northeast of India. Today, the state is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2008, the Communist Party of Nepal won the country’s general election. Soon after, the Assembly voted to change the form of government, moving away from a monarchy and creating a secular republic.

55D “Listen to __”: podcast that covers a classic teen magazine : SASSY

“Sassy” was a teen magazine, published in the late 1980s and 1990s, known for its irreverent, intelligent, and feminist approach to teen culture. There was a spinoff publication called “Dirt: Son of Sassy” aimed at teenage boys, but it lasted for only a brief period in 1992.

62D Prefix with way or wife : MID-

Back at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago there were rides and amusements that were all concentrated in one place, away from the exhibition halls. The rides included the world’s first Ferris wheel, and one could also see Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show. All these attractions were located in the mile-long linear park on the South Side of Chicago known as Midway Plaisance. Ever since then, the attractions at any fair have been located at “the midway”.

A midwife is someone trained to assist women in childbirth. The term comes from Middle English “mid wif” meaning “with woman”.

63D Raw bar need : ICE

Almost all of the shellfish consumed at a raw bar is not only uncooked, it is also still alive.

65D Caviar : ROE

Caviar is the roe of a large fish that has been salted and seasoned, and especially the roe of a sturgeon. Beluga caviar comes from the beluga sturgeon, which is found primarily in the Caspian Sea. It is the most expensive type of caviar in the world. 8 ounces of US-farmed beluga caviar can be purchased through Amazon.com for just over $850, in case you’re feeling peckish …