Category: Will Nediger

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Constructed by: Lisa Senzel & Will Nediger
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Filler Word

Themed answers are common phrases, but with a FILLER WORD added at the front:

• 61A Sound added to everyday speech, and what’s been added to create the answers to the starred clues : FILLER WORD

• 16A *Diner’s entitlement to savory flavor? : UMAMI, RIGHT? (from “Um, am I right?)
• 19A *Reason yellowfin tuna are wallflowers at a school prom? : AHI CAN’T DANCE (from “Ah, I can’t dance”)
• 36A *Pal who seconds whatever one says? : LIKEWISE GUY (from “Like, wise guy”)
• 57A *Not-very-straight shooter? : ERRING CAMERA (from “Er, Ring camera”)

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

Bill’s time: 10m 55s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Short form of a name that means “merciful” : CLEM

The English name “Clement” comes from the Late Latin term “clemens” meaning “merciful, mild”.

13 Jessica of “Sin City” : ALBA

Actress Jessica Alba got her big break when she was cast in the Fox science fiction show “Dark Angel”. Alba had a tough life growing up as she spent a lot of time in hospital and so found it difficult to develop friendships. As a youngster she twice had a collapsed lung, frequently caught pneumonia, suffered from asthma, had a ruptured appendix and a tonsillar cyst. On top of all that, Alba acknowledges that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child.

“Sin City” is a 2005 thriller movie that is based on a series of graphic novels by Frank Miller. Miller also co-directs the film. “Sin City” has a large ensemble cast that includes Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio del Toro, Clive Owen and Mickey Rourke. The author Frank Miller even plays a role himself.

14 Eta follower : THETA

The letter theta is the eighth in the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks like the number zero with a horizontal line across the middle.

16 *Diner’s entitlement to savory flavor? : UMAMI, RIGHT? (from “Um, am I right?)

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. Umami was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

18 __ therapy : GENE

Gene therapy is an experimental technology used to treat disease. The basic principle is to transplant genes into a patient’s cells in order to cure a disease caused by the absence of those genes.

19 *Reason yellowfin tuna are wallflowers at a school prom? : AHI CAN’T DANCE (from “Ah, I can’t dance”)

Yellowfin and bigeye tuna are usually marketed as “ahi”, the Hawaiian name. They are both big fish, with yellowfish tuna often weighing over 300 pounds, and bigeye tuna getting up to 400 pounds.

The wallflower is a genus of flowering plants that usually have the ability to cling to loose mortar in walls, hence the name. We use the term “wallflower” to describe a shy person, evoking the image of that person sitting shyly by the wall at a party.

26 NHL great Bobby : ORR

Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking. While still 31 years old, in 1979, Orr became the youngest person inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Prior to that, in 1967, Orr became the youngest person named the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

29 Michelin product : CAR TIRE

Michelin is a manufacturer of tires that is based in France. The company was founded by brothers Édouard and André Michelin in 1888. The brothers were running a rubber factory at the time, and invented the world’s first removable pneumatic tire, an invention that they used to launch their new company. Michelin is also noted for rating restaurants and accommodation in its famous Michelin Travel Guides, awarding coveted Michelin stars.

33 Q neighbor : TAB

Like most features on our computer keyboards, the tab key is a hangover from the days of typewriters. When using a typewriter, making entries into a table was very tedious, involving lots of tapping on the spacebar and backspace key. So, a lever was added to typewriters that allowed the operator to “jump” across the page to positions that could be set by hand. Later this was simplified to a tab key which could be depressed, causing the carriage to jump to the next tab stop in much the same way that the modern tab key works on a computer.

43 The Emerald Isle : EIRE

Ireland is often referred to as “the Emerald Isle” (and described as “green”). There is a common misconception that the association with the color green is because of all that green grass that grows due to the seemingly non-stop rain. However, the use of green has more political overtones, as it is associated with many of the rebellions against British colonial rule over the centuries.

52 Pump part : TOE

A pump is a woman’s shoe that doesn’t have a strap. Such shoes are probably called “pumps” because of the sound they make while walking in them.

57 *Not-very-straight shooter? : ERRING CAMERA (from “Er, Ring camera”)

Ring is a manufacturer of smart home devices, most notably devices designed to add home security. The company was founded in 2013 as Doorbot, with the first products being smart doorbells.

60 Half-moon tide : NEAP

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

61 Sound added to everyday speech, and what’s been added to create the answers to the starred clues : FILLER WORD

Um, okay …

65 Intl. alliance joined by Finland in 2023 : NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded not long after WWII in 1949 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The first NATO Secretary General was Lord Ismay, Winston Churchill’s chief military assistant during WWII. Famously, Lord Ismay said the goal of NATO was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

66 First-year law students : ONE LS

“One L” is a name used in general for first-year law students, especially those attending Harvard.

69 Gift on “The Bachelor” : ROSE

“The Bachelor” is an American dating and relationship reality show that debuted in 2002. Its success resulted in several spin-offs including “The Bachelorette”, “Bachelor Pad”, “Bachelor in Paradise”, as well as spawning many international editions of the original “The Bachelor” format.

70 Gripe : BEEF

A beef is a complaint or a grievance. It’s not quite clear how “beef” came to have this meaning, but one suggestion is that it derives from the habit of soldiers at the end of the 1800s complaining about the quality or availability of beef in their rations.

Down

1 __ cross : TAU

The Cross of Tau is a variant of the cross symbol used in the Christian tradition. Also known as St. Anthony’s Cross, the Cross of Tau resembles the Greek letter tau, and our letter T. St. Anthony of Egypt bore such a symbol on his cloak, hence the alternate name.

2 Bark beetle target : ELM

Bark beetles are so named because some species reproduce in the bark of trees. This can be a problem for the elm tree, as bark beetles are known to transmit the devastating Dutch elm disease. There is another species of bark beetle that is known as the coffee berry borer, and it is the major pest attacking coffee plants around the world.

3 Old hoops gp. : ABA

The American Basketball Association (ABA) merged with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1976. The ABA used a ball with the colors red, white and blue. The NBA uses a more traditional orange ball.

4 Pulitzer-winning rapper Kendrick : LAMAR

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.

6 Pad size : LEGAL

Our paper sizes here in North America don’t conform with the standards in the rest of the world. ISO standard sizes used elsewhere were chosen so that the ratio of width to length is usually one to the square root of two. This mathematical relationship means that when you cut a piece of paper in two each half preserves the aspect ratio of the original, which can be useful in making reduced or enlarged copies of documents. Our standard size of “letter” (ltr., 8.5 x 11 inches) was determined in 1980 by the Reagan administration to be the official paper size for the US government. Prior to this, the “legal” size (8.5 x 14 inches) had been the standard, since 1921.

8 Country singer Kathy : MATTEA

Kathy Mattea is a country singer who grew up just outside Charleston, West Virginia. Many of Mattea’s songs were written by her husband Jon Vezner.

14 Ozzy Osbourne album in memory of Randy Rhoads : TRIBUTE

“Tribute” is a 1987 album of live tracks released by Ozzy Osbourne, all of which feature guitarist Randy Rhoads. The album is a tribute by Osbourne to Rhoads, who had died in a plane crash five years earlier.

17 “Let’s put a smile on your plate” chain : IHOP

The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was founded back in 1958. IHOP was originally intended to be called IHOE, the International House of Eggs, but that name didn’t do too well in marketing tests.

20 Garment that preserves hair waves : DURAG

Hip-hoppers might wear do-rags (also “durags”) today, but they have been around for centuries. The etymology of “do-rag” is pretty evident, i.e. a piece of cloth (rag) to hold a hairstyle (do) in place.

23 Communicating with pictograms, perhaps : PRELITERATE

A pictogram is a symbol that resembles a physical object, and that conveys its meaning through that resemblance. Many of our traffic signs are pictograms. For example, the “slow, school” sign shows a silhouette of a running child, and the “slow, pedestrians” sign features a silhouette of a walking man.

32 Scottish wedding garb : KILT

The Scottish skirt called a “kilt” takes its name from the Middle English word “kilten” meaning “to tuck up”. The idea is that the kilt can be tucked up around the body to give freedom to the legs.

34 eBay action : BID

There have been some notable things sold on eBay over the years. For example:

• Ad space on a guy’s forehead, in the form of a temporary tattoo – $37,375
• William Shatner’s kidney stone – $25,000
• A cornflake shaped like Illinois – $1,350
• A single corn flake – $1.63
• A box of 10 Twinkies – $59.99
• The original Hollywood sign – $450,400
• The meaning of life – $3.26

37 Nabe that might have an H Mart : K-TOWN

Koreatown (K-Town)

H Mart is a chain of Asian supermarkets found mainly in North America. The company was founded in 1982 as a corner grocery store in New York City. That first store operated under the Korean name “Han Ah Reum”, which is the inspiration for the H in “H Mart”.

40 Vehicle’s shark fin, maybe : ANTENNA

An antenna’s job is to convert electrical power into radio waves, and radio waves into an electrical signal. The first antennas were built by the German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1888.

48 Los Angeles neighborhood near Reseda : ENCINO

Encino is a district in the City of Los Angeles on the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains. The area takes its name from a historic parcel of land called Rancho Los Encinos (Ranch of the Oak Trees).

Reseda is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. If you recall the storyline of the 1984 movie “The Karate Kid”, the title character moved from Newark, New Jersey to Reseda, and there met Mr. Miyagi.

50 Quarterback Derek : CARR

Quarterback Derek Carr was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in 2014. Derek is the younger brother of former NFL quarterback David Carr.

56 Muslim honorific from which “nabob” is derived : NAWAB

A “nawab” (also “nabob”) was a deputy governor in the Mogul empire in India. The term is also used as an Muslim honorific title in India and Pakistan. We use “nabob” in English for a person of wealth and prominence.

58 Wall St. debuts : IPOS

An initial public offering (IPO) is a significant event for a company as it marks the first time it becomes a publicly traded company. IPOs are often accompanied by a so-called “lock-up period.” This is a period of time, typically 90 to 180 days after the IPO, during which company insiders, such as executives and early investors, are not allowed to sell their shares on the open market. The purpose of the lock-up period is to prevent a flood of shares from hitting the market and potentially driving down the price of the stock.

62 Flamenco shout : OLE!

Flamenco is a style of Spanish music and dance. The origin of the word “flamenco” isn’t clearly understood, but the explanation that seems most credible to me is that it comes from Flanders in Northern Europe. Given that “flamenco” is the Spanish word for “Flemish” and Flanders is home to the Flemish people it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

64 __ Jam Recordings : DEF

Def Jam is a US record label, one focused on hip hop music.