Category: Rebecca Goldstein

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Constructed by: Rebecca Goldstein & Rachel Fabi
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Stand Apart

Themed answers, in a punny way, are things one might find in a MESS HALL, and they’re very MESSY:

• 59A Army dining area, or a punny description of where to find 16-, 24-, 36-, and 49-Across : MESS HALL

• 16A Region of severe drought in the 1930s : DUST BOWL
• 24A Diner, e.g. : GREASY SPOON
• 36A Rochester, New York, dish with meat, fries, and baked beans : GARBAGE PLATE
• 49A Hazard for bare feet in a beach parking lot : BROKEN GLASS

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

Bill’s time: 6m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Day on Mars : SOL

A solar day is the time taken for a planet to rotate completely about its axis so the sun reappears in the same position in the sky. A solar day on Earth is 24 hours. A solar day on Mars is just under 24 hours, and is referred to as a “sol”.

13 Clean water org. : EPA

The main legislation governing water pollution in the US is the Clean Water Act (CWA), which became law in 1972.

14 Inner selves : EGOS

Sigmund Freud created a structural model of the human psyche, breaking it into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is that part of the psyche containing the basic instinctual drives. The ego seeks to please the id by causing realistic behavior that benefits the individual. The superego almost has a parental role, contradicting the id by introducing critical thinking and morals to behavioral choices.

16 Region of severe drought in the 1930s : DUST BOWL

The Dust Bowl was a period in which severe dust storms ravaged the American and Canadian Prairies in the thirties. A major factor in the storms was the loss of the deep-rooted grasses native to the land that had been displaced by intensive farming. Without the grasses, the topsoil was blown away in a period of drought.

18 Structures that provide shade : GAZEBOS

A gazebo is a roofed structure, often octagonal in shape, that is found mainly in public spaces. Gazebos can be quite small, or can be large enough to perhaps serve as a bandstand. The actual etymology of the term “gazebo” seems to be a bit of a mystery, and there are some misconceptions out there.

22 Craigslist abbr. : OBO

Or best offer (OBO)

Craigslist (usually written as “craigslist”) is an online network of communities that features classified advertisements organized geographically. Craigslist was started by Craig Newmark in 1995, originally as an email distribution list for his friends who lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area.

23 Actress Polo : TERI

Teri Polo’s most prominent role on the big screen was Pam Focker in “Meet the Fockers” and its sequels. Pam is the wife of the character played by Ben Stiller. Polo also played the wife of Presidential candidate Matt Santos in “The West Wing”.

24 Diner, e.g. : GREASY SPOON

“Greasy spoon” is a familiar term describing a restaurant, usually a diner, that is less than pristine and that serves cheap food.

28 Head physician, briefly? : ENT

Ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT)

30 Light units : WATTS

James Watt was a Scottish inventor. He figured prominently in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, largely due to the improvements he made to the fledgling steam engine. The SI unit of power is called the watt, and was named in his honor.

36 Rochester, New York, dish with meat, fries, and baked beans : GARBAGE PLATE

The garbage plate is a trademarked dish that originated in the Nick Tahou Hots restaurant in Rochester, New York. It comprises hot dogs or hamburger meat mixed with hot sauce, piled upon several side dishes such as home fries, baked beans and macaroni salad. Although the dish was introduced in 1918, the name “garbage plate” was only introduced in the 1980s, and trademarked in 1991. Because of the trademark, other restaurants serve the same or similar dishes using names like Rochester plate and trash plate.

40 SoFi Stadium pros : LA RAMS

SoFi Stadium is an arena in Inglewood, California just a few miles from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It is the home of two NFL teams: the LA Rams and the LA Chargers.

42 Actor Hawke : ETHAN

Ethan Hawke is a Hollywood actor who made his breakthrough in a supporting role in “Dead Poet’s Society”, playing opposite Robin Williams. Hawke used to be married to Uma Thurman, with whom he has two children.

59 Army dining area, or a punny description of where to find 16-, 24-, 36-, and 49-Across : MESS HALL

“Mess” first came into English about 1300, when it described the list of food needed for a meal. The term comes from the Old French word “mes” meaning a portion of food or a course at a meal. This usage in English evolved into “mess” meaning a jumbled mass of anything, from the concept of “mixed food”. The original usage, in the sense of a food for a meal, surfaced again in the military in the 1500s when a “mess” was a communal eating place.

62 Apt name for someone born on Christmas : NOELLE

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

67 Mule kin : ASS

A hinny is the offspring of a male horse (the “h-” from h-orse) and a female donkey/ass (the “-nny” from je-nny). A mule is more common, and is the offspring of a female horse and male donkey/ass.

Down

3 Activity that involves taking a shot in the dark? : LASER TAG

The name “Laser Tag” is really a misnomer as lasers are rarely used in the game. The “guns” actually send out infrared light, and not laser light, that is picked up by infrared detectors worn by the players.

4 Subject of a congressional ceiling : DEBT

Historically speaking, significant increases in the US national debt expressed as a percentage of the gross domestic product are caused by only two factors: war and recession. So, we should just avoid both of those things. Easy, huh …?

7 Like a limb that’s all pins and needles : ASLEEP

The sensation known as “pins and needles” is a form of paresthesia, an abnormal sensation felt by the skin with no obvious physical cause. Another example of paresthesia, though less common than pins and needles, is formication, the sensation of insects crawling on the skin.

8 “30 Rock” role for Tina : LIZ

“30 Rock” is a sitcom on NBC that was created by the show’s star Tina Fey. Fey plays an ex-performer and writer from “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) and uses her experiences on that show as a basis for the “30 Rock” storyline. Fey plays Liz Lemon, the head writer for the fictional sketch comedy series “TGS with Tracy Jordan”.

10 Start up again : REBOOT

The verb “to boot”, as used in the world of computers, comes from the phrase “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”. The idea is that the software that has to be loaded before a computer can do anything useful is called a “bootstrap load”.

11 Asimov work with “Three Laws” : I, ROBOT

Science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote a marvelous collection of short stories titled “I, Robot” that were first published together in 1950. In the stories, he makes repeated reference to the Three Laws of Robotics, which he introduced in the story “Runaround”, first published in 1942. The three laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

12 Vacuums that have “dual cyclone” technology : DYSONS

Dyson vacuum cleaners do not use a bag to collect dust. James Dyson invented the first vacuum cleaner to use cyclonic separation in 1979, frustrated at the poor performance of his regular vacuum cleaner. As Dyson cleaners do not use bags, they don’t have to deal with collection bags that are blocked with fine dust particles, even after emptying. Cyclonic separation uses high speed spinning of the dust-containing air so that the dust particles are thrown out of the airflow into a collection bin. We have a Dyson now, and should have bought it years ago …

15 “I Try” singer Gray : MACY

Macy Gray is an R&B singer noted for her raspy voice, and a singing style that resembles that of Billie Holliday.

18 Beneficiaries of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, for short : GIS

What we commonly refer to as the GI Bill is more correctly called the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944.

21 Out of style : PASSE

“Passé” is a French word, meaning “past, faded”. We’ve imported the term into English, and use it in the same sense.

25 Journalist Farrow : RONAN

Ronan Farrow is a former US government advisor in the Obama administration who hosted “Ronan Farrow Daily” on MSNBC from 2014 to 1025. He is the son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen. Ronan is estranged from his father, ever since Allen started a relationship with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who is now Allen’s wife.

26 Pinky promises : SWEARS

The use of “pinkie” or “pinky” for the little finger or toe comes into English from “pinkje”, the Dutch word for the same digit. Who knew …?

27 Carb-loader’s pre-race meal : PASTA

Only relatively small amounts of carbohydrate can be stored by the human body, but those stores are important. The actual storage molecule is a starch-like polysaccharide called glycogen, which is found mainly in the liver and muscles. Glycogen is a quick source of energy when required by the body. Most of the body’s energy is stored in the form of fat, a more compact substance that is mobilized less rapidly. Endurance athletes often eat meals high in carbohydrates (carbo-loading) a few hours before an event, so that their body’s glycogen is at optimum levels.

32 Style of boat first used by the Aleut, Inuit, and Yupik peoples : KAYAK

There is a type of boat used by Inuit people called a “kayak”. The term “kayak” means “man’s boat”, whereas “umiak” means “woman’s boat”.

The Aleuts live on the Aleutian Islands of the North Pacific, and on the Commander Islands at the western end of the same island chain. The Aleutian Islands are part of the United States, and the Commander Islands are in Russia.

The Inuit people live in the Arctic, in parts of the US, Russia, Greenland and Canada. A member of the Inuit people is known as an “Inuk”.

The Yupik are a group of indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East.

37 Aspirational hashtag : GOALS

A hashtag is a word preceded by the symbol #. Hashtags are big these days because of its use by Twitter, or whatever it’s called these days. The “#” symbol is usually referred to as the “number sign”, but here in the US the name “pound sign” is very common as well.

38 Savory turnover : EMPANADA

An empanada is a dish made by folding pastry around cooked meat and vegetables. To me an empanada looks very similar to a dish I grew up with called a Cornish pasty.

41 Seats for equestrians : SADDLES

Something described as equestrian is related to horses or horsemanship. The term “equestrian” comes from the Latin “equus” meaning “horse”.

46 The Caped Crusader : BATMAN

Batman is sometimes referred to as the Caped Crusader, Robin as the Boy Wonder, and the pair as the Dynamic Duo.

51 Word before microbiome : GUT …

The gut microbiome, also “gut flora”, is the collection of microorganisms found in an animal’s digestive tract. That microbiome comprises billions of bacteria, but also fungi and viruses. The gut’s microorganisms are found in the stomach, and small intestine, but in relatively small amounts. Most of the microbiome found in the human intestinal tract is in the colon. There are so many bacteria in the colon that bacteria make up as much as 60% of the dry mass of human feces.

55 DA-to-be’s exam : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)