Category: Rachel Fabi

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Constructed by: Rachel Fabi
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Upper Atmosphere

Themed answers are all in the down-direction. The UPPER word of each is a synonym of “ATMOSPHERE”:

• 7D Layer in which space stations orbit Earth, and what the answers to the starred clues literally have? : UPPER ATMOSPHERE

• 3D *Staff symbol for a bassoon piece : TENOR CLEF
• 9D *Symphonic composition that evokes another art form : TONE POEM
• 33D *Wig adhesive : SPIRIT GUM
• 37D *Accessory that changes color : MOOD RING

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

Bill’s time: 5m 55s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Vegan beauty brand : AVEDA

Horst Rechelbacher was traveling in India in 1970 when he was introduced to the Hindu science of longevity called Ayurveda, which inspired him to set up his own company of skin and hair care products that he called Aveda. The company opened its doors in 1978 and is based in Blaine, Minnesota.

15 Tax pro : CPA

Certified public accountant (CPA)

16 Surname of Bo and Sunny : OBAMA

Sunny and Bo are Portuguese water dogs owned by the Obama family. The former First Family chose the Portuguese water dog largely because it is a hypoallergenic breed, and Malia Obama suffers from an allergy to most dogs.

17 “Despacito” singer Luis : FONSI

“Despacito” is a 2017 song released by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, featuring Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee. The song’s accompanying music video was the most-viewed video of all time on YouTube from 2017 to 2020.

21 When an album drops, e.g. : RELEASE DATE

The Latin word “album” translates as “white”. Back in the 17th century, public notices and lists of names were written on a board painted white, or in a souvenir book with white pages known as an “albo” (from “album”). Over time, the term “album” came to be used in English for a blank book created to collect signatures or other mementos. By the end of the 19th century, albums were used to collect photographs. The term “album” was applied to long-playing gramophone records in the early 1950s, because the record sleeves resembled large photographic albums.

24 46-Down Emmy winner Gilda : RADNER
[46D NBC show with Punkie Johnson : SNL]

Gilda Radner was a comedian and actress, and one of the original cast members of the hit television show “Saturday Night Live”. Radner left her first husband to marry comedic actor Gene Wilder, whom she met while they were both filming the Sidney Poitier movie “Hanky Panky”.

29 “¡Hasta luego!” : ADIOS!

The term “adiós” is Spanish for “goodbye”. “Adiós” comes from the phrase “a Dios vos acomiendo” meaning “I commend you to God”.

31 “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” actress Little __ : NELL

“Little Nell” is the stage name of Australian actress and singer Nell Campbell. Her most famous role was Columbia in both the original stage play and the 1975 film adaptation of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. And yes, Campbell’s stage name was inspired by the character in Charles Dickens’ novel “The Old Curiosity Shop”.

45 Chicken homes : COOPS

The Old English word “cypa”, meaning “basket”, evolved in the 14th century to the word “coop” to describe a small cage for poultry. We still use “coop” today.

48 Edamame units : PODS

Edamame is a simple dish made of immature soybeans still in the pod. The pods are boiled and then salted before serving, usually as a snack or side dish. The name “edamame” translates as “twig bean”.

49 Food word that is plural in Italian but singular in English : PANINI

In Italy, a sandwich made from sliced bread is called a “tramezzino”, while sandwiches made from non-sliced breads are called “panini” (singular “panino”). We’ve imported the plural term “panini” into English to describe a single pressed and toasted sandwich.

51 Chad Michael Murray teen drama set in North Carolina : ONE TREE HILL

“One Tree HIll” is a TV drama that first aired from 2003 until 2012. Filmed around Wilmington, North Carolina, the show is set in the fictional North Carolina town of Tree Hill.

54 Brief “I can’t unhear that” : TMI

Too much information (TMI)

57 Rock icon Smith who wrote the memoir “Just Kids” : PATTI

Punk singer Patti Smith penned a 2010 memoir “Just Kids”, which mainly dealt with her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. According to Smith, she wrote the book after vowing to do so as Mapplethorope lay on his deathbed in 1989. “Just Kids” won that year’s National Book Award for Nonfiction.

59 Golden beer : LAGER

Lager is so called because of the tradition of cold-storing the beer during fermentation. “Lager” is the German word for “storage”.

61 Scandal-plagued energy company : ENRON

After all the trials following the exposure of fraud at Enron, several of the key players ended up in jail. Andrew Fastow was the Chief Financial Officer. He plea-bargained and received ten years without parole, and became the key witness in the trials of others. Even Fastow’s wife was involved and she was sentenced to one year for helping her husband hide money. Jeffrey Skilling (ex-CEO) was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months. Kenneth Lay (CEO) died in 2006 after he had been found guilty but before he could be sentenced. The accounting firm Arthur Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice for shredding thousands of pertinent documents and deleting emails and files (a decision that the Supreme Court later overturned on a technicality). But still, Arthur Andersen collapsed under the weight of the scandal and 85,000 people lost their jobs (despite only a handful being directly involved with Enron).

63 Upscale Honda : ACURA

Acura is a luxury vehicle brand produced by the Japanese automaker Honda. Acura was the first Japanese luxury car brand to be introduced to the US, in 1986. The Acura Legend and Acura Integra were the first two models released.

66 Country on the Gulf of Aden : YEMEN

Yemen is a country located in the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the east, the Red Sea to the west, and the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea to the south. Yemen has a population of over 30 million people and its capital and largest city is Sana’a.

Down

3 *Staff symbol for a bassoon piece : TENOR CLEF

Our modern bassoon first appeared in the 1800s and has had a place in the concert orchestra ever since.

4 Items in jewel cases : CDS

It seems that the derivation of the term “jewel case” (CD box) is unclear. One suggestion is that initial prototypes weren’t very successful, so when a workable design was found it was dubbed the “jewel” case.

5 Coif : HAIRDO

A coif is a hairdo. The term “coif” comes from an old French term “coife” describing a skull-cap that was worn under a helmet back in the late 13th century.

6 Beaufort __ : SCALE

The Beaufort wind scale is named after Irishman Sir Francis Beaufort, a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy. Beaufort was a hydrographer as well as a career navy man.

7 Layer in which space stations orbit Earth, and what the answers to the starred clues literally have? : UPPER ATMOSPHERE

An atmosphere is the layer of gasses surrounding a body, usually a planet. The word “atmosphere” comes from the Greek “atmos” meaning “vapor, steam”. The term was first applied to the Moon, which is a real paradox as the Moon doesn’t have any atmosphere.

8 Cabbage in baechu kimchi : NAPA

Napa cabbage is a Chinese cabbage that turns up a lot in the cuisine of East Asia. The “napa” name comes from the Japanese “nappa”, which describes the leaves of any vegetable when used as food.

9 *Symphonic composition that evokes another art form : TONE POEM

Franz Liszt was the original creator of the single-movement work known as a symphonic or tone poem. A symphonic poem is a musical piece usually based on another work, perhaps a play, story or poem. Liszt wrote the tone poem “Hamlet” in 1858, which was intended to be an introduction to Shakespeare’s play.

11 Settlement-building game with hexagonal tiles : CATAN

The Settlers of Catan (now just “Catan”) is a board game that was introduced in 1995, in Germany as “Die Siedler von Catan”. The game is very popular in the US and was called “the board game of our time” by the “Washington Post”. My son plays it a lot, and as a lover of board games, I am going to have to check it out …

25 Penne __ vodka : ALLA

Penne alla vodka is a pasta dish with a sauce made of vodka, cream, tomatoes, onions and sausage or bacon.

28 Foam toy brand : NERF

Nerf is a soft material used in a whole series of toys designed for “safe” play indoors. The Nerf product is used to make darts, balls and ammunition for toy guns. “NERF” is an acronym, standing for Non-Expanding Recreational Foam.

30 2017 Kendrick Lamar album : DAMN

Kendrick Lamar is a hip-hop singer from Compton, California. Lamar’s full name is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, with the singer’s given name honoring Motown artist Eddie Kendricks. Notably, his 2017 album “Damn” won a Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first non-classical or non-jazz album to do so.

32 Endorse as a couple, in slang : SHIP

“Shipping” is a slang term describing the desire of fans for characters to get together in a romantic relationship. The term originated with fans of the TV series “The X-File”, who wanted the leads Mulder and Scully to fall for each other. That group of fans were “relationshippers”, and eventually just “shippers”.

33 *Wig adhesive : SPIRIT GUM

Spirit gum is an adhesive mostly used to affix costume prosthetics in the world of theater and cinema. It comprises resin (the adhesive “gum”) in a denatured alcohol known as SD alcohol 35-A (the “spirit”).

34 Fourth-down play : PUNT

That would be football.

35 Bonobos, e.g. : APES

The bonobo used to be called the pygmy chimpanzee, and is a cousin of the common chimpanzee. The bonobo is an endangered species that is now found in the wild only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. Along with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest species to humans genetically.

37 *Accessory that changes color : MOOD RING

Mood rings were invented relatively recently, in 1975, and became a bit of a fad for a few years. A mood ring is one containing a “stone” that changes color with temperature, although the color change is touted as being dependent on the wearer’s mood. The part of the ring that changes color is actually a liquid crystal that responds to temperature changes.

43 Bouquet : NOSE

“Bouquet” comes from the French word for “bunch” in the sense of “bunch of flowers”. In French, the term is derived from an older word describing a little wood or small grove of trees. We started using “bouquet” to mean “perfume from a wine” in the early 1800s.

45 “The fabric of our lives,” per an ad slogan : COTTON

Cotton Incorporated is a non-profit, reporting the US Department of Agriculture, that is funded through assessments on cotton producers and importers. It is Cotton Incorporated that came up with the slogan “Fabric of Our Lives” that was part of an advertising campaign launched in 1989.

46 NBC show with Punkie Johnson : SNL

“Punkie Johnson” is the stage name of standup comedian Jessica Williams. Johnson joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” as a featured player in 2020, and became an SNL repertory player in 2020.

47 “A Few Figs From Thistles” writer : MILLAY

“A Few Figs From Thistles” is a 1920 collection of poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The collection garnered a lot of attention and controversy soon after publication because of its themes of feminism and feminine sexuality.

48 __ dish : PETRI

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”.

51 Piece with a view : OP-ED

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

52 Prefix with bot : NANO-

Nanorobots (also “nanobots”) are tiny devices that range from 0.1 to 10 micrometers in size. The technology of nanorobotics is in its infancy, but it is hoped that nanobots might be used (for example) in medicine one day. The oft-cited application is the use of nanobots inserted inside the body to identify and destroy cancer cells.

53 LSAT, e.g. : EXAM

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

56 Country north of 40-Down : IRAN
[40D Country northeast of 66-Across : OMAN]

Before 1935, the country we know today as Iran was referred to as Persia by the Western world. The official name of the country since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is the “Islamic Republic of Iran”.

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