Category: Shannon Rapp

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Constructed by: Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Protein Shake

Themed answers all include a PROTEIN food (anagramed, SHAKEN up) hidden within:
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li>64A Post-workout nourishment, and a hint to what can be found in each set of circled letters : PROTEIN SHAKE

• 18A Forward-looking aesthetic of Janelle Monáe and “Black Panther” : AFROFUTURISM (hiding shaken up “TOFU”)
• 30A Part of the digestive system : SMALL INTESTINE (hiding shaken up “LENTILS”)
• 37A Job requirement for some visa holders : WORK PERMIT (hiding shaken up “PORK”)
• 48A Plant-based remedies, e.g. : HERBAL MEDICINE (hiding shaken up “LAMB”)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 33s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Outlook alternative : GMAIL

Gmail is a free webmail service provided by Google, and my favorite of the free email services. Gmail made a big splash when it was introduced because it offered a whopping 1GB of storage whereas other services offered a measly 2-4MB on average.

6 Drum that may accompany a sitar : TABLA

A tabla is a percussion instrument used mainly in the Indian subcontinent. The tabla consists of a pair of hand drums and is similar to bongos.

14 “America’s Got Talent” judge Klum : HEIDI

German-born Heidi Klum was married to the successful English singer, Seal. Klum is a talented lady and has built a multi-faceted career based on her early success as a model. She is the force behind the Bravo reality show called “Project Runway” that has been on the air since 2004. Klum has been nominated 4-5 times for an Emmy for her association with the show. Klum was also signed up as the official ambassador for Barbie in 2009, the 50th anniversary of the Barbie Doll, and for her service that year a Heidi Klum Barbie was produced. She has been adding a touch of class to the judging panel on the show “America’s Got Talent” from 2013 through 2020.

17 Texter’s “Didn’t need to hear that” : TMI

Too much information (TMI)

18 Forward-looking aesthetic of Janelle Monáe and “Black Panther” : AFROFUTURISM (hiding shaken up “TOFU”)

Afrofuturism is a broad cultural movement that incorporates science-fiction and futuristic elements with the history and identity of the African diaspora. The term “Afrofuturism” was coined in 1994 by author and cultural critic Mark Dery.

2007’s “Metropolis: The Chase Suite” is the first installment of Janelle Monáe’s seven-part “Metropolis” conceptual series of recordings. The series was inspired by Fritz Lang’s science fiction classic film “Metropolis”, released in 1927. Monáe’s “Metropolis” is a tale about android Cindi Mayweather who is mass-produced in the year 2719. Mayweather falls in love with a human, and is sentenced to disassembly.

Black Panther is a Marvel Comics character who was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in print in 1966. That made Black Panther the first superhero of African descent to appear in mainstream comic books in the US.

20 Siamang or orangutan : APE

A siamang is a large gibbon that is native to Malaysia, Thailand and Sumatra. It is the largest of the lesser apes (as opposed to the great apes).

Orangutans (also “orangs”) are arboreal creatures, the largest arboreal animals known to man. They are native to Indonesia and Malaysia, and live in rainforests. Like most species in rainforests these days, orangutans are endangered, with only two species surviving. The word “orangutan” is Malay, meaning “man of the forest”.

22 Streetcar : TRAM

Trams were a common form of transport in London starting with horse-drawn versions in 1860. Trams were gradually replaced by diesel buses after WWII, with the last tram running in 1952. Even though the trams disappeared in the early fifties, many of the rails that carried the trams remained in some streets for many years afterwards (I remember them well as a child). A new generation of tram, a so-called light-rail system, was introduced in London in 2000.

25 Singer India.__ : ARIE

India Arie (sometimes “india.arie”) is an American soul and R&B singer who was born India Arie Simpson in Denver, Colorado.

27 Home of the Big 12’s Cyclones : AMES

Iowa State University of Science and Technology (ISU) is located in Ames, Iowa. Among many other notable milestones, ISU created the country’s first school of veterinary medicine, in 1879. The sports teams of ISU are known as the Cyclones.

30 Part of the digestive system : SMALL INTESTINE (hiding shaken up “LENTILS”)

The small intestine is that part of the alimentary canal in which most of the nutrients in food are absorbed. It is about 18 feet in length, and lies between the stomach and the large intestine. The large intestine is shorter than the small intestine, but the latter is narrower in diameter (hence the name “small”).

36 “Illmatic” rapper : NAS

Rapper Nas used to go by an earlier stage name “Nasty Nas”, and before that by his real name “Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones”. Nas released his first album “Illmatic” in 1994, and inventively titled his fifth studio album “Stillmatic”, released in 2001.

37 Job requirement for some visa holders : WORK PERMIT (hiding shaken up “PORK”)

A visa is usually a stamp in one’s passport, an indication that one is authorized to enter (and less often, to exit) a particular country. The word “visa” comes into English, via French, from the Latin expression “charta visa” meaning “paper that has been seen”, or “verified paper”.

42 Dashboard prefix with meter : ODO-

An odometer measures distance traveled. “Odometer comes from the Greek “hodos” meaning “path” and “metron” meaning “measure”.

44 Repeat role for Keanu Reeves : NEO

Neo is the character played by Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix” series of films. One of Neo’s actions is to choose a red pill over a blue pill. The blue pill would have allowed him to remain in the Matrix, a fabricated reality. The red pill led to his escape into the real world, and a much more difficult life.

45 Hair removal brand : NAIR

Nair is a hair-removal product that has some pretty harsh ingredients. The most important active constituents are calcium hydroxide (“slaked lime”) and sodium hydroxide (“caustic soda”). Other Nair components seem to be there to soothe the skin after the harsher chemicals have done their job. The name “Nair” probably comes from combining “no” and “hair”.

60 Tux rental occasion : PROM

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

Apparently, the style of men’s evening dress called a “tuxedo” was first worn to a country club event in 1886 in New York. The use of a dark dinner jacket without tails became fashionable at the club with the members, and the tradition spread from there. The country club was located in Tuxedo Park, New York, giving the style of dress its name.

63 Righteous Babe Records founder DiFranco : ANI

Singer Ani DiFranco founded her record company Righteous Records in 1990 in order to gain independence from the established record industry. She had to change the name to Righteous Babe Records as there already was a Righteous Record label, one that published gospel music.

70 DOS pt. : SYS

MS-DOS (short for “Microsoft Disk Operating System”) was the main operating system used by IBM-compatible PCs in the eighties and for much of the nineties.

71 Practice room fodder : ETUDE

An étude is a short instrumental composition that is usually quite hard to play and is intended to help the performer master a particular technique. “Étude” is the French word for “study”. Études are commonly performed on the piano.

Down

1 Accra’s land : GHANA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

6 Japanese mat : TATAMI

A tatami is a traditional mat used on floors in Japan. The term “tatami” comes from the Japanese word “tatamu” meaning “to fold”, reflecting the fact that the mat is designed to be folded up for storage.

7 Keen judgment : ACUMEN

“Acumen” is such a lovely word, I think, one meaning “keenness of judgment or insight”. “Acumen” is Latin for “point, sting”, the idea being that someone with acumen has mental sharpness.

9 Lane near Kent? : LOIS

Lois Lane has been the love interest of Superman/Clark Kent since the comic series was first published in 1938. Lois and Clark both work for the big newspaper in the city of Metropolis called “The Daily Planet”. The couple finally got hitched in the comics (and on television’s “Lois and Clark”) in 1996. One has to wonder how challenging the crossword is in “The Daily Planet” …

11 Energizer Bunny’s asset : STAMINA

The Latin word “stamen” translates as “thread”, or more specifically “warp in an upright loom”. The term was used figuratively to describe the thread woven by the Fates, the length of which predetermined the duration of a person’s natural life. This idea evolved into the idea that a person had several vital capacities (“stamina”, plural of “stamen”) that contributed to the duration of a life. Over time, “stamina” came to be used in a singular sense, describing a person’s capacity to endure. Quite interesting …

We are all fairly familiar with the Energizer Bunny, I am guessing. It was introduced in 1989 to promote Energizer batteries, by parodying the Duracell Bunny that made its debut in 1973.

19 River dividing Eurasia : URAL

Eurasia is the combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia. It accounts for 36% of the total landmass on the planet, and is home to 71% of the Earth’s population.

26 Far-too-memorable songs : EARWORMS

“Earworm” is a colloquial term used for a catchy tune that is also somewhat irritating, one that you can’t get out of your head.

28 Ophthalmologist’s concern : STYE

Ophthalmology is that branch of medicine dealing with the physiology and health of the eye. “Ophthalmos” is the Greek word for “eye”.

31 Part of the Kra-Dai language family : LAO

The Kra–Dai languages are a family of tonal languages spoken in parts of Asia. The family includes almost 100 different languages, the main ones being Thai and Lao.

33 “Veep” actor Richardson : SAM

Sam Richardson is an actor and comedian whose big break came with the role of campaign aide and future politician Richard Spett on the hit TV show “Veep”.

“Veep” is a political satire sitcom on HBO that is a remake of the British show “The Thick of It” (Warning: strong, strong language!). “Veep” is set in the office of fictional US Vice President Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

38 Molecule preceded by m-, r-, or t- : RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA. An added complication is that small changes in the sequence of amino acids specified by DNA sometimes takes place in a process known as RNA editing. This RNA editing occurs after the nucleotide sequence has been transcribed from DNA, but before it is translated into protein.

39 Kenan’s “Good Burger 2” co-star : KEL

Kel Mitchell is an actor and comedian who appeared in the first five seasons of the hit sketch comedy show “All That”. He then co-starred with Kenan Thompson in the sitcom “Kenan & Kel” in the late 1990s.

“Good Burger 2” is a 2023 comedy film that is a sequel to 1997’s “Good Burger”, which in turn was based on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy show “All That”.

40 Apple or pear : POME

The Latin word for “fruit” is “pomum”, which gives us the botanical term “pome” that is used for a group of fleshy fruits, including apples and pears.

41 Close of business? : INC

A company that has incorporated uses the abbreviation “Inc.” after its name. By incorporating, a company forms a corporation, which is a legal entity that has legal rights similar to those of an individual. For example, a corporation can sue another corporation or individual. However, a corporation does not have all the rights of citizens. A corporation does not have the Fifth Amendment right of protections against self-incrimination, for example. It is perhaps understandable that the concept of “corporations as persons” is a frequent subject for debate.

42 Candy bar with an exclamation point : OH HENRY!

Oh Henry! is a candy bar that was introduced in 1920 by the Williamson Candy Company of Chicago. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive explanation for the name, although it does seem to be a play on the name of the American writer O. Henry. There is also a story that it was named after a young man named Henry who used to flirt with the female candy makers in the Williamson Candy Company. What is true is that the bar was invented by a candy maker named Tom Henry, who sold the recipe to Williamson.

43 Pantheon group : DEITIES

A pantheon is the set of all gods in a particular religion or mythology. The term comes from the Greek “pan” (all) “theon” (of gods). “Pantheon” is also the name given to a temple dedicated to all deities.

58 Museo del Prado contents : ARTE

In Spanish, a work of “arte” (art) might be in the “Museo del Prado” (Prado Museum) in Madrid.

59 Material for a suit : TORT

“Tort” is a French word meaning “mischief, injury or wrong”. In common law, a tort is a civil wrong that results in the injured party suffering loss or harm, and the injuring party having a legal liability. Tort law differs from criminal law in that torts may result from negligence and not just intentional actions. Also, tort lawsuits may be decided on a preponderance of evidence, without the need of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

61 “Sticker shock” no. : MSRP

Manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP)

65 Letter after sigma : TAU

Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the letter that gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.