Category: Yijing Chen

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Constructed by: Yijing Chen

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: No Notes

Themed answers must each have NO NOTES, two occurrences of the same solfège scale syllables removed. And, the notes progress from “do” to “ti” as we descend the grid:

• 69A “Perfect!,” or how to make seven answers in this puzzle match their clues? : NO NOTES!

• 17A Female sib : SIS (DO-SI-DOS – DO+DO)
• 18A Cozy eatery : CAFE (CAREFREE – RE+RE)
• 23A Man of La Mancha : SENOR (SEMI-MINOR – MI+MI)
• 38A The complete set : ALL (ALFALFA – FA+FA)
• 45A Big flowerpot : URN (SOURS ON – SO+SO)
• 57A Extemporizes : VAMPS (LAVA LAMPS – LA+LA)
• 67A Low-level laborer : PEON (PETITION – TI+TI)

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

Bill’s time: 12m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Barnyard call : MAA

“Maa” is the call of a goat.

15A Prehistoric hand tool : STONE AXE

The Paleolithic Age is a period of human history lasting from about 2.6 million to about 10,000 years ago. It is noted as the time when humans started using stone tools. The word “Paleolithic” comes from the Greek “palaios” meaning “old” and “lithos” meaning “stone”, so the term really translates as “Old Stone Age”.

19A “Ferrari” actor Driver : ADAM

Adam Driver is an actor perhaps best known to TV audiences for playing Adam Sackler on the show “Girls” that airs on HBO. Driver’s movie career got a huge boost in 2015 when he played villain Kylo Ren in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

“Ferrari” is a 2023 biopic that is based on the 1991 biography “Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine” by Brock Yates. Adam Driver (pun?!) plays Enzo, and Penélope Cruz, his estranged wife Laura Ferrari.

20A Second singer to be honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award : SINATRA

Frank Sinatra was married four times in all. His first wife, and mother of his three children, was Nancy Barbato. Barbato and Sinatra met in Jersey City while in their teens, and married in their early twenties in 1939. They divorced in 1951 following a string of affairs that Sinatra had after he moved his family to Hollywood. One of those very public affairs was with actress Ava Gardner, who became Sinatra’s second wife a few months after divorcing Barbato. That marriage lasted until 1957. Sinatra then married actress Mia Farrow, when she was 21 years old and he was 29 years her senior. That marriage only lasted a couple of years. Sinatra’s last marriage took place in 1976, and was Barbara Blakely Marx, the ex-wife of Zeppo Marx of the Marx Brothers.

23A Man of La Mancha : SENOR (SEMI-MINOR – MI+MI)

La Mancha is a region in Spain, a plateau lying south of Madrid. The area became especially famous after the publication of the novel “Don Quixote de La Mancha” by Miguel de Cervantes.

28A Monument Valley formation : MESA

The spectacular Monument Valley, with its magnificent sandstone buttes and mesas, lies within the bounds of the Navajo Nation Reservation near the Four Corners region in the Southwest. The valley has served as a backdrop in many Hollywood movies. I always remember it as the location where Forrest Gump decided to stop running back and forth across the country.

33A __ Nation: Jay-Z’s conglomerate : ROC

Jay-Z founded Roc Nation as a record label in 2008. Since then, it has evolved into a multi-faceted entertainment company operating as a talent agency, media production firm and it even has a clothing line.

36A Novelist Quindlen : ANNA

Anna Quindlen is an author, journalist and columnist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992 for her “New York Times” column “Public and Private”.

42A Many a K-pop singer : IDOL

K-pop (Korean pop) is a genre of music from South Korea that emerged in the early nineties.

47A Gaelic speaker : CELT

A Gael is anyone of a race that speaks or spoke one of the Erse tongues. There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be “Gaeilge” (in Ireland), “Gaelg” (on the Isle of Man) and “Gaidhlig” (in Scotland).

49A Cornerback Bly in the College Football Hall of Fame : DRE

Dré Bly is a football cornerback who won a Super Bowl ring with the St. Louis Rams in the year 2000. Bly’s real name is Donald André Bly, hence the nickname “Dré”.

57A Extemporizes : VAMPS (LAVA LAMPS – LA+LA)

To vamp is to improvise musically, usually on a piano. A vamp is often an accompaniment to a solo.

62A “Thrilla in Manila” boxer : ALI

The Thrilla in Manila was a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in Manila, Philippines in 1975. It was to be the third and final fight between the two boxers. Ali won the early rounds, but Frazier made a comeback in the middle of the fight. Ali took control at the end of the bout, so much so that Frazier wasn’t able to come out of his corner for the 15th and final round. He couldn’t continue fighting because both of his eyes were swollen shut, giving Ali a victory due to a technical knockout (TKO).

66A Wife of Zeus : HERA

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and the goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth. She was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

67A Low-level laborer : PEON (PETITION – TI+TI)

A peon is a lowly worker who has no real control over his/her working conditions. The word “peon” comes into English from Spanish, in which language it has the same meaning.

71A Peppers in some mole sauces : POBLANOS

Mole poblano is a classic dish that is sometimes cited as the national dish of Mexico. Two of the essential ingredients in the recipe are chili peppers and chocolate. The chocolate doesn’t dominate the taste, but does serve to offset the heat from the peppers.

72A Writer/illustrator who often wrote in anapestic tetrameter : DR SEUSS

Anapestic tetrameter is a rhythmic poetic meter consisting of four anapests, two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable, per line. It gives verses a lively momentum, making it a choice for lighthearted, comedic, or children’s poetry. One famous example is Clement Clarke Moore’s holiday classic “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, which opens with the bouncing rhythm of “‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house”. Dr. Seuss also used the meter in stories like “The Cat in the Hat” and “Yertle the Turtle”.

74A With 27-Across, big name in watercraft : SEA …
[See 74-Across : … DOO]

Sea-Doo is a brand name of personal watercraft (PWC). Other well-known brands are Jet Ski and WaveRunner.

Down

1D King with a touching story? : MIDAS

King Midas of Greek mythology might be termed an alchemist as he had the power to turn everything he touched into gold i.e. the Midas touch. That power became a curse, as everything he touched turned to gold, including his food and drink, and even his children.

2D Battery part : ANODE

The anode and cathode are the two electrodes in an electrical device, like a battery. Anodes “give away” electrons, and cathodes “accept” electrons. In a typical battery powering a device, the anode gives away electrons that travel through the connected device (like a lightbulb, making it light up). Those electrons then flow to the cathode, which accepts them, completing the circuit.

3D Breakfast tea variety : ASSAM

Assam is a state in the far northeast of India, and just south of the Himalayas. It is noted for its tea, as well as its silk.

6D Amber, once : RESIN

Amber’s technical name is “resinite”, reflecting its composition and formation. Amber starts out life as soft sticky tree resin but then under high temperature and pressure from overlying layers of soil, it fossilizes. The sticky resin can trap organisms or other plant matter, and this material can sometimes remain virtually intact inside the amber fossil giving us a unique gift from the past.

8D “Gorilla Warfare” artist Shaquille : O’NEAL

“Gorilla Warfare” is a 2023 album released by NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal under his stage name DJ Diesel.

9D NWSL official : REF

National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)

10D Didn’t ride solo : CARPOOLED

In some parts of the country, one sees high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Out here in California we refer to them as carpool lanes.

11D Corp. bigwig : EXEC

A bigwig is someone important. The use of the term “bigwig” harks back to the days when men of authority and rank wore … big wigs.

21D Digital __: remote tech worker : NOMAD

A digital nomad is a person who does their job entirely over the Internet while traveling. Estonia made history in 2020 by launching the world’s first official digital nomad visa, allowing foreign nationals to legally live in the Baltic nation while working for employers based abroad. Personally, I love the concept …

24D Deep defenses : MOATS

A moat is a protective trench that surrounds a castle, say, or an exhibit in a zoo. A moat may or may not be filled with water.

26D MD-to-be’s exam : MCAT

Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)

32D No longer feral : TAME

“Feral”, meaning “existing in a wild or untamed state”, comes from the Latin word “fera” meaning “wild animal”.

37D Totenberg of NPR : NINA

Nina Totenberg is a very able legal affairs correspondent who works for National Public Radio. Totenberg’s main focus is on the activities of the US Supreme Court. Famously, she was the journalist who uncovered the allegations of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas made by Anita Hill.

41D Linguistic cousin of Hindi : URDU

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

43D One of a geographic quintet : OCEAN

The interconnected system of oceanic waters around our planet is known as the World Ocean. Comprising almost 71% of the Earth’s surface, the World Ocean is divided into, from largest to smallest:

1. The Pacific Ocean
2. The Atlantic Ocean
3. The Indian Ocean
4. The Southern (Antarctic) Ocean
5. The Arctic Ocean

48D Galena, e.g. : LEAD ORE

Galena is the most commonly used mineral to produce lead. It is a form of lead sulfide. Galena is the state mineral of Missouri and of Wisconsin.

52D Bonny landscapes : GLENS

A glen is a deep, U-shaped valley carved into the landscape by massive glaciers during the last Ice Age. The term “glen” comes from the Scottish Gaelic word “gleann”, which has the same meaning. My favorite Scottish glen is Glenlivet: the single malt Scotch whisky, not the highland glen through which the River Livet flows. My 70th birthday is coming up soon (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) …

54D Sierra Nevada lake : TAHOE

Lake Tahoe (often referred to simply as “Tahoe”) is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is located right on the border between California and Nevada. It is the largest alpine lake in the country. Tahoe is also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

60D Olive oil maker : PRESS

Virgin olive oil is oil produced from olives with no chemical treatment involved in the production process at all. To be labeled “virgin”, the oil must have an acidity level of less than 2% and must be judged to have “a good taste”. Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) comes from virgin oil production, and is the portion with acidity levels of less than 0.8% acidity that is judged to have “superior taste”.

63D Swimmer Marchand who won four gold medals at Paris 2024 : LEON

Léon Marchand is a competitive swimmer from France who thrilled his home country at the 2024 Paris Olympics by capturing four individual gold medals and setting a new Olympic record in each of his events. Most impressively, he won both the 200-meter butterfly and the 200-meter breaststroke on the exact same night, a feat never before achieved in Olympic history.

68D __-de-France: Paris’s region : ILE

Île-de-France (literally “Island of France”) isn’t an island at all. Instead, it is the most populous of France’s 26 administrative regions. Île-de-France is roughly equivalent to the Paris metropolitan area.

70D Govt. cybersecurity monitor : NSA

The NSA traces its roots to the Cipher Bureau, the nation’s first peacetime code-breaking unit. It was established in 1917 and also known as the “Black Chamber”. Secretary of State Henry Stimson famously shuttered the bureau in 1929, asserting that “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail”, which is a tad ironic given the agency’s massive modern scale. Today, the NSA is the largest employer of mathematicians in the United States.