Category: Sala Wanetick

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Constructed by: Sala Wanetick & Amie Walker

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Voice Commands

Happy St. Paddy’s Day, everyone! Themed answers are all COMMANDS demanding a VOCAL response:

• 53A Requests to Siri and Alexa, or what 19-, 26-, and 43-Across literally are : VOICE COMMANDS

• 19A Emotional plea in “Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick” : TALK TO ME, GOOSE
• 26A “I didn’t hear a ‘Please’!” : SAY THE MAGIC WORD!
• 43A “Why this course of action?” : EXPLAIN YOURSELF

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

Bill’s time: 6m 14s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Lobby group for seniors : AARP

AARP is the official name now for the interest group that used to be called “The American Association of Retired Persons”. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired. The AARP was founded by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus in 1958 and is a successor to the National Retired Teachers Association, also founded by Andrus over ten years earlier.

8A Red light therapy venues : SPAS

Low-level laser therapy (sometimes “red light therapy”) is a therapeutic technique that uses low-wavelength red light to treat skin issues, such as wrinkles, scars, and persistent wounds. From what I read, the effectiveness of the technique is unproven …

12A Pink’s counterpart in “Wicked” : GREEN

In the movie “Wicked”, the colours pink and green are used to contrast the natures of the witches Elphaba and Glinda. Elphaba’s skin is green to represent her status as an outcast, originating from a mysterious elixir that her mother drank while she was pregnant. Glinda is pink to signify her bubbly, “perfect” persona, a nod to her counterpart in 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz”.

16A Italian liqueur such as Aperol or Campari : AMARO

Amaro is a herbal liqueur from Italy that is traditionally consumed as a digestif to aid digestion after a heavy meal. Two of the more common amaro brands seen in North America are Campari and Aperol. “Amaro” is an Italian word meaning “bitter”.

18A Cogito, __ sum : ERGO

The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum”. This translates into French as “Je pense, donc je suis” and into English as “I think, therefore I am”. Anything pertaining to the philosophy of Descartes can be described by the adjective “Cartesian”.

19A Emotional plea in “Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick” : TALK TO ME, GOOSE

Here are some of the more notable characters in the 1986 movie “Top Gun”:

• Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise)
• Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis)
• Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards)
• Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer)
• Mike “Viper” Metcalf (Tom Skerritt)
• Rick “Jester” Heatherly (Michael Ironside)

22A NYC summer hrs. : EDT

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

23A Most consecutive Super Bowls won by the same team : TWO

We’ve never seen a Super Bowl “three-peat”, but have witnessed several “repeats”:

1. Green Bay Packers [1967, 1968]
2. Miami Dolphins [1973, 1974]
3. Pittsburgh Steelers [1975, 1976 & 1979, 1980]
4. San Francisco 49ers [1989, 1990]
5. Dallas Cowboys [1993, 1994]
6. Denver Broncos [1998, 1999]
7. New England Patriots [2004, 2005]

24A Italian fashion house : PRADA

Prada started out in 1913 as a leather-goods shop in Milan, one established by the two Prada brothers. One of the brothers, Mario Prada, prevented the female members of his family from participating in the running of the company as he didn’t believe women should be involved in business (!). When the sexist brother died, his son had no interest in the business so it was his daughter who took over and ran the company for about twenty years, handing it over to her own daughter. I’d say the devil loved that …

33A Guitar Hero World Tour console : WII

Guitar Hero is an amazingly successful series of video games, first published in 2005. It used to be the third best selling franchise of video games, after Mario and Madden NFL. Sales have dropped in recent years though, and there are no plans for further releases.

37A Fuel efficiency stat : MPG

Miles per gallon (mpg)

41A Wilmington’s st. : DEL

The Delaware city of Wilmington is the most populous in the state. It was originally founded in 1638 as Fort Christina, the very first Swedish settlement in North America. The city was eventually renamed to honor Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington, Britain’s second de facto prime minister.

42A __ rummy : GIN

Gin rummy is a faster variant of standard rummy. It was introduced in 1909 by one Elwood Baker and his son.

50A Harbor Freight purchases : TOOLS

Harbor Freight Tools was founded in 1977 by 17-year-old Eric Smidt and his father Allan as a mail-order business called Harbor Freight Salvage Co. The company’s business model results in outlets shunning major household names like DeWalt or Milwaukee, opting instead to manufacture its own private labels like Hercules and Predator, hence keeping prices relatively low.

53A Requests to Siri and Alexa, or what 19-, 26-, and 43-Across literally are : VOICE COMMANDS

Siri is a software application that works with Apple’s iOS operating system. “Siri” is a “backronym” standing for Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface. Voice-over artist Susan Bennett revealed herself as the female American voice of Siri a few years ago. The British version of Siri is called Daniel, and the Australian version is called Karen. Also, “Siri” is a Norwegian name meaning “beautiful woman who leads you to victory”, and was the name the developer had chosen for his first child.

Alexa is a personal assistant application that is most associated with Amazon Echo smart speakers. Apparently, one reason the name “Alexa” was chosen is because it might remind one of the Library of Alexandria, the “keeper of all knowledge”.

57A Graduate of the CIA, perhaps : CHEF

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York was founded in 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut as the New Haven Restaurant Institute. It was established as a training school for veterans returning from WWII.

63A “Girls5eva” co-star __ Elise Goldsberry : RENEE

Renée Elise Goldsberry is an actress and singer who is best known to me for playing the attorney Geneva Pine on the TV show “The Good Wife”. Goldsberry also originated the role of Angelica Schuyler Church in the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton”.

“Girls5eva” is a musical comedy TV show that debuted in 2021. It is about a one-hit-wonder girl group from the nineties who reunite in an attempt to rediscover past glories.

Down

1D Rock shop options : AGATES

Agate is a micro-crystalline form of quartz (and so is related to sand/silica). Some agate samples have deposited layers that give a striped appearance, and these are called “banded agate”.

2D Naval fleet : ARMADA

“Armada” is a Spanish (and Portuguese) word meaning “naval fleet”.

3D “Million Dollar Listing” field : REALTY

The terms “realty” and “real estate” actually date back to the late 1600s. Back then, the terms meant “real possessions, things owned that are tangible and real”.

10D Iguazu Falls land: Abbr. : ARG

The Iguazu Falls on the Iguazu River straddles the border between Argentina and Brazil. The falls are in effect a series of cataracts that span nearly two miles, making it the largest waterfall system in the world.

14D Claire Dunphy, e.g. : TV MOM

Actress Julie Bowen is probably best known today for playing Claire Dunphy on the excellent sitcom “Modern Family”.

21D Goblinlike creature : ORC

Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction as well as in fantasy video games.

27D Thanksgiving, e.g.: Abbr. : THU

Thanksgiving Day was observed on different dates in different states for many years, until Abraham Lincoln fixed the date for the whole country in 1863. Lincoln’s presidential proclamation set that date as the last Thursday in November. In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the fourth Thursday in November, arguing that the earlier date would give the economy a much-needed boost.

29D Job for a DJ : GIG

Musicians use “gig” to describe a job, a performance. The term originated in the early 1900s in the world of jazz. The derivative phrase “gig economy” applies to a relatively recent phenomenon where workers find themselves jumping from temporary job to temporary job, from gig to gig.

34D The “I” of the RICE method : ICE

The RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) was a common regimen used to treat soft tissue injuries. The mnemonic was introduced in 1978 by Dr. Gabe Mirkin, a physician and marathon runner. However, he distanced himself from the treatment in 2014, citing research showing that reducing inflammation (using ice) can slow the healing process.

38D San Diego neighborhood whose name means “sea view” : MIRAMAR

The San Diego neighborhood of Miramar is colloquially known as “Fightertown USA”, a title earned when it was home of the Navy’s elite TOPGUN flight school from 1969 to 1996. Before the arrival of the US military, the area was a large 19th-century estate owned by newspaper tycoon E.W. Scripps. Central to Scripps Ranch was the home he built that he called Miramar, which translates loosely as “a view of the sea”.

42D U.S. Pacific island : GUAM

Guam is a US territory in the western Pacific Ocean, and is the largest of the Mariana Islands. Guam is also the first territory in the United States to see the sun rise on any particular day. As such, the territory has adopted the motto, “Where America’s day begins”. During WWII, the US territory of Guam was occupied by the Japanese for 31 months until it was liberated in the Battle of Guam in July 1944. Of the 18,000 Japanese men holding the island, only 485 surrendered, so almost all perished in the invasion. One Japanese sergeant hid out on the island for an incredible 28 years, finally surrendering in 1972!

44D Bath scrubber : LOOFAH

The loofah (also “loofa”, “lufah” and “luffa”, all Arabic words) is a vine, with fruit that’s very popular in Asia and Africa. If the fruit is allowed to mature, it can be processed to remove everything but the more rigid xylem structure (remember your high school botany class?) leaving a soft, sponge-like mass that is used as a skin polisher.

45D Oscar winner Mahershala : ALI

Mahershala Ali is an actor and sometime rapper. Among the more memorable roles Ali has had are lobbyist Remy Danton in TV’s “House of Cards”, and Colonel Boggs in “The Hunger Games” series of movies. He also won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for playing Juan in the 2016 drama “Moonlight”, and Dr. Don Shirley in 2018’s “Green Book”.

47D Pacific climate phenomenon : EL NINO

When the surface temperature of much of the Pacific Ocean rises more than half a degree celsius, then there is said to be an El Niño episode. That small temperature change in the Pacific has been associated with climatic changes that can stretch right across the globe. El Niño is Spanish for “the boy” and is a reference to the Christ child. The phenomenon was given this particular Spanish name because the warming is usually noticed near South America and around Christmas-time.

54D Jazz great James : ETTA

“Etta James” was the stage name of celebrated R&B and jazz singer Jamesetta Hawkins. James was an acquaintance of civil rights activist Malcolm X. For ten years, she was a member of the Nation of Islam, and used the name “Jamesetta X”.

57D Kiss __: PDA capturer at a stadium : CAM

The kiss cam is a diversion during some sporting events in which a video camera picks out random couples in the crowd, projecting their image onto the giant screen at the venue. The couples are encouraged to kiss, for the entertainment of the fans. Famously, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama kissed for the kiss cam at a basketball game a few years ago, as did former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

58D Shade on a color wheel : HUE

A color wheel is a visual device that illustrates the relationship between various colors and hues.