Category: Zachary David Levy

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Constructed by: Zachary David Levy
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Spread the Wealth

Themed answers include the word CASH hidden within. The LETTERS C-A-S-H SPREAD out as we descend the grid:

• 59A Be generous with one’s good fortune, as depicted by the movement of this puzzle’s circled letters : SPREAD THE WEALTH

• 17A Garment made from goat’s wool : CASHMERE SWEATER
• 27A Picture that may feature students in height order : CLASS PHOTOGRAPH
• 47A Completely spotless : CLEAN AS A WHISTLE

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

Bill’s time: 6m 52s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 South African language : ZULU

Zulu is one of the many Bantu languages spoken in Africa. There are hundreds of Bantu languages, with most being spoken in central, east and southern Africa. The most commonly spoken Bantu language is Swahili, with Zulu coming in second.

14 Iowa State’s town : AMES

The Iowa city of Ames was founded as a stop on the Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad in 1864. It was named for US Congressman Oakes Ames from the state of Massachusetts in honor of the role that Ames played in the building of the transcontinental railroad.

15 Folk artist Joan : BAEZ

Joan Baez is an American folk singer and a prominent activist in the fields of non-violence, civil rights, human rights and environmental protection. Baez has dated some high-profile figures in her life including Bob Dylan, Steve Jobs (of Apple) and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead.

17 Garment made from goat’s wool : CASHMERE SWEATER

Cashmere wool comes not only from the Cashmere goat, but also from other types of goat. Technically, cashmere isn’t really wool, but rather hair. Unlike hair, wool is elastic and grows in clusters.

Until the early 1880s, the word “sweater” applied to clothing worn specifically for weight reduction by “sweating”.

20 Roebuck partner : SEARS

Richard Sears was a station agent on the railroad. In the late 1800s, he bought up a shipment of unwanted watches that was left at his depot and sold the watches to other agents up and down the line. He was so successful that he ordered more watches and then came up with the idea of using a catalog to promote more sales. Sears hired his first employee in 1887, a watch repairman named Alvah Curtis Roebuck who was brought on to repair watches that were returned. Sear and Roebuck co-founded Sears Roebuck & co. in 1895. By the mid 1900s, Sears was the biggest retailer in the whole country.

21 __ borealis: colorful sky display : AURORA

The adjective “boreal” means “northern”, as in “aurora borealis” (northern lights) for example. The term comes from “Boreas”, the Greek god of the north wind.

The spectacular aurora phenomenon is seen lighting up the night sky at both poles of the earth (the Aurora Borealis in the north, and the Aurora Australis in the south). The eerie effect is caused by charged particles colliding with atoms at high latitudes.

24 Big name in SUVs : GMC

GMC is a division of General Motors (GM) that was established in 1901 and started out as “GMC Truck”.

33 “Klutzy me” : OOPS

A klutz is an awkward individual, with the term “klutz” coming from Yiddish. The Yiddish word for a clumsy person is “klots”.

34 Some Blu-ray players : SONYS

Sony was founded by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The two partners met in the Japanese Navy during WWII.

37 Point value of “eight” in Scrabble : NINE

IN the US version of Scrabble, the word “EIGHT” has a point value of nine.

42 Kia hatchbacks : RIOS

The Kia Rio is a subcompact that has been in production since 1999, and has undergone several updates and redesigns over the years. The Rio was designed by Kia’s chief design officer, Peter Schreyer, who previously worked for Audi and is credited with designing the iconic Audi TT.

44 Destiny’s Child’s “__ My Name” : SAY

“Say My Name” is a 1999 song released by Destiny’s Child. The recording took place at a time when the group was somewhat in turmoil. The lineup that performed for the recording included original group members LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson. By the time the music video for “Say My Name” was filmed, Luckett and Roberson had parted with Destiny’s Child, and so replacements Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin had to quickly learn the song, lip-sync for the video, and pose for the cover art.

51 Apple CEO Cook : TIM

Tim Cook was appointed as Apple’s CEO in 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs. Cook had joined the company back in 1998 as senior vice president in charge of worldwide operations. He came out as gay in October of 2014, making Cook the first openly gay CEO of a company on the Fortune 500 list.

52 Point value of “five” or “six” in Scrabble : TEN

In the game of Scrabble, the words “five” and “six” both score ten points.

54 End of an era? : SMALL A

The end of the word “era” is a small/lowercase letter A.

57 Large member of the violin family : CELLO

The cello is the second-largest instrument in the violin family, after the double bass. It is said that the cello produces a sound nearer the human voice than any other instrument in an orchestra. I can see/hear that …

65 Elton John musical based on a Verdi opera : AIDA

The rock musical “Aida” is based on Giuseppe Verdi’s original opera. It premiered in 1998 and is still performed today. Music is by Elton John and lyrics are by Tim Rice.

66 Raptor’s weapon : CLAW

“Raptor” is a generic term for a bird of prey, one that has talons to grip its victims.

68 “Dark Phoenix” mutants : X-MEN

“Dark Phoenix” is a 2019 superhero movie featuring characters from Marvel Comics’ X-Men universe. The film was dedicated to Stan Lee, the co-creator of the X-Men, and who died while the movie was in post-production.

Down

1 Actor Efron : ZAC

Zac Efron is an actor from San Luis Obispo, California. Apparently, Efron is a heartthrob to “tweenyboppers”. His big break came with the hit Disney movie “High School Musical”.

2 Thurman of “Red, White & Royal Blue” : UMA

“Red, White & Royal Blue” is a 2023 romcom film that is based on a 2019 novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston. Central to the story is a love affair between a British prince and a son of the US president. The two big names in the cast (to me, anyway) are Uma Thruman playing the American president and Stephen Fry playing the British king.

6 “24K Magic” singer Bruno : MARS

“24K Magic” is a 2016 song co-written and recorded by Bruno Mars. His writing partners were Philip Lawrence and Christopher Brody Brown. The trio also co-produced the song, using the names Shampoo Press & Curl.

9 Couleur of the sky : BLEU

In French, “bleu” (blue) is the “couleur du ciel” (color of the sky).

10 Pants-on-fire person : LIAR

The full rhyme used by children to deride someone not telling the truth is:

Liar, liar, pants on fire,
Hang them up on the telephone wire.

11 Padded footstool : OTTOMAN

The piece of furniture known as an ottoman can be a couch, usually one with a head but no back or sides. Here in the US, the term more commonly applies to a padded and upholstered seat or bench that can also be used as a footrest. The original ottoman couch came from the Ottoman Empire, hence the name.

13 High-ranking angels : SERAPHS

A seraph is a celestial being found in Hebrew and Christian writings. The word “seraph” (plural “seraphim”) literally translates as “burning one”. Seraphs are the highest-ranking angels in the Christian tradition, and the fifth-ranking of ten in the Jewish tradition.

18 Baseball Hall of Famer Willie : MAYS

Willie Mays’ nickname was “Say Hey Kid”, although his friends and teammates were more likely to refer to him as “Buck”. When Mays was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was asked who was the best player he’d ever seen in the game. He replied, “I don’t mean to be bashful, but I was.”

19 City halfway between Dallas and Austin : WACO

The Texas city of Waco is named for the Wichita people known as the “Waco”, who occupied the area for thousands of years.

24 RNC group : GOP

National leadership of the Republican Party is provided by the Republican National Committee (RNC). Only one former chairperson of the RNC has been elected to the office of US president, and that was George H. W. Bush.

25 VT ski resort with an apt name : MT SNOW

Mount Snow is a ski area on the peak of the same name in Vermont’s Green Mountains.

28 Poet Edgar Allan __ : POE

Celebrated American writer Edgar Allan Poe (EAP) was born “Edgar Poe” in 1809 in Boston. Poe’s father abandoned Edgar and his two siblings after the death of their mother. As a result, Edgar was taken into the home of the Allan family in Richmond, Virginia. His foster parents gave the future author the name “Edgar Allan Poe”.

30 “Tug of Words” channel : GSN

“Tug of Words” is a game show that first aired in 2021. It was presented by former footballer Ahmad Rashad, who was replaced by entertainment reporter Samantha Harris.

31 Caviar : ROE

Caviar is the roe of a large fish that has been salted and seasoned, and especially the roe of a sturgeon. Beluga caviar comes from the beluga sturgeon, which is found primarily in the Caspian Sea. It is the most expensive type of caviar in the world. 8 ounces of US-farmed beluga caviar can be purchased through Amazon.com for just over $850, in case you’re feeling peckish …

36 Former “Inside the NFL” host Dawson : LEN

Len Dawson is a retired AFL-NFL quarterback who played for the Kansas City Chiefs (originally the Dallas Texans). Dawson played for the Chiefs in the first ever Super Bowl, losing badly to the Green Bay Packers. However, he was on the winning team in Super Bowl IV, when the Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings. Quarterback Dawson was named the MVP that day.

43 Actor McKellen : IAN

Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, one who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an “X-Men” movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in “The Lord of Rings”. In the UK, Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.

49 Hebrides landmass : ISLE

The Hebrides are a group of islands just off the west coast of Scotland. They are divided into two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides.

55 Long onion kin : LEEK

The leek is a vegetable closely related to the onion and the garlic. It is also a national emblem of Wales (along with the daffodil), although I don’t think we know for sure how this came to be. One story is that the Welsh were ordered to wear leeks in their helmets to identify themselves in a battle against the Saxons. Apparently, the battle took place in a field of leeks.

58 Obi-Wan player : EWAN

Ewan McGregor is a very talented Scottish actor, one who got his break in the 1996 film “Trainspotting”. McGregor’s first big Hollywood role was playing the young Obi-Wan-Kenobi in the “Star Wars” prequels. Less known is his televised marathon motorcycle journey from London to New York via central Europe, Ukraine, Siberia, Mongolia and Canada. The 2004 trip was shown as “Long Way Round” on TV. McGregor did a similar trip in 2007 called “Long Way Down”, which took him and the same traveling companion from the north of Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa.