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Constructed by: Matthew Faiella
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Exercising Is Easy!

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted as forms of (very easy) EXERCISE:

• 20A Exercise done by making a grilled cheese sandwich? : PANINI PRESS
• 34A Exercise done by lounging on the couch and bingeing a new show? : TV MARATHON
• 44A Exercise done by hitting the snooze button and staying in bed? : SLEEP CYCLE
• 56A Exercise done by lying around doing nothing all day? : DIDDLY-SQUAT

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

Bill’s time: 7m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Sudden impulse : WHIM

“Whim”, meaning “sudden fancy”, is such a lovely word, and one that we’ve been using in English since the 1640s. “Whim” is actually a shortened form of “whimwham”, which has a similar meaning and has been around since the early 1500s.

5 Patatas bravas, croquetas, etc. : TAPAS

Patatas bravas is a Spanish dish comprising fried white potatoes served with a spicy sauce. The name “patatas bravas” translates as “spicy potatoes”. The dish is common in tapas restaurants.

Croquetas are a very typical tapas dish served in Spain. They are croquettes (breaded and filled, deep-fried rolls) usually made with a thick béchamel sauce as a binder, with perhaps dry-cured ham (“jamon”), chicken or salt cod.

10 “SOS” quartet : ABBA

The ABBA 1975 song “SOS” was originally titled “Turn Me On”. In the movie “Mamma Mia!”, “SOS” is performed by Meryl Streep (brilliantly) and by Pierce Brosnan (terribly).

14 Pre-migraine phenomenon for some : AURA

A person who suffers from migraines might experience visual disturbances known as auras. Often, an aura may signal the onset of the migraine.

17 Smelting waste : SLAG

The better ores are processed in a blast furnace, to extract the metal. The waste from this process is called “slag”. Slag does contain some residual metal and it can be processed further in a slag furnace to extract the balance. Slag furnaces also accept lower-quality ores as a raw material.

20 Exercise done by making a grilled cheese sandwich? : PANINI PRESS

In Italy, a sandwich made from sliced bread is called a “tramezzino”, while sandwiches made from non-sliced breads are called “panini” (singular “panino”). We’ve imported the plural term “panini” into English to describe a single pressed and toasted sandwich.

23 Sea urchin delicacy : ROE

Sea urchins are globular, spiny creatures found just about everywhere in the ocean. The “roe” of a sea urchin is eaten as a delicacy in several cuisines around the world. In a sushi restaurant, the sea urchin roe is called “uni”. The term “roe” normally means “fish eggs”, but in the case of the sea urchin it refers to the gonads of both the male and female.

24 Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, e.g.: Abbr. : CEO

Satya Nadella is an Indian-American businessman who has served as CEO of Microsoft since 2014. Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992, after having worked with Sun Microsystems. He is only Microsoft’s third CEO, following Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

27 Letters before xis : NUS

Nu is the thirteenth letter in the Greek alphabet, and is the equivalent of our letter N. An uppercase nu looks just like the Latin capital N, but the lowercase nu looks like our lowercase V. Very confusing …

30 Royal flush cards : ACES

The poker hand called a royal flush is the highest-ranking hand possible. It consists of a run of 10, jack, queen, king and ace, with all in the same suit.

33 Intl. oil cartel : OPEC

The OPEC cartel was formally established in 1960 and has been headquartered in Vienna since 1965. The US is actually the third largest oil producer in the world (after Russia and Saudi Arabia). One reason America isn’t in OPEC, even though we are a big producer, is that we import a lot more than we export. But we all probably knew that already …

34 Exercise done by lounging on the couch and bingeing a new show? : TV MARATHON

The marathon commemorates the legendary messenger-run by Pheidippides from the site of the Battle of Marathon back to Athens, and is run over 26 miles and 385 yards. The first modern Olympic marathon races were run over a distance that approximated the length of the modern-day Marathon-Athens highway, although the actual length of the race varied from games to games. For the 1908 Olympics in London, a course starting at Windsor Castle and ending in front of the Royal Box at White City Stadium was defined. That course was 26 miles and 385 yards, the standard length now used at all Olympic Games. Organizers of subsequent games continued to vary the length of the race, until a decision was made in 1921 to adopt the distance used in London in 1908.

41 __ Lingus : AER

Aer Lingus is my favorite airline! Well, the service isn’t that great, but when I get on board an Aer Lingus plane I feel like I am back in Ireland. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland, with “Aer Lingus” being a phonetic spelling of the Irish “aer-loingeas” meaning “air fleet”. These days Aer Lingus can only lay claim to the title of Ireland’s oldest airline as it is no longer the biggest. That honor goes to the controversial budget airline Ryanair.

43 Milhouse’s pal : BART

Milhouse Van Houten is a character on the animated TV show “The Simpsons”. He is Bart Simpson’s best friend, and has a crush on Bart’s sister Lisa.

46 Native American tent : TIPI

A tepee (also written as “tipi” and “teepee”) is a cone-shaped tent traditionally made from animal hides that is used by the Great Plains Native Americans. A wigwam is a completely different structure and is often a misnomer for a tepee. A wigwam is a domed structure built by Native Americans in the West and Southwest, intended to be a more permanent dwelling. The wigwam can also be covered with hides but more often was covered with grass, reeds, brush or cloth.

48 Horseback game : POLO

A game of polo is divided into periods of play called chukkers (sometimes “chukkas”). The game usually lasts for two hours, plus the time between the chukkers that is used to change horses.

50 Greek currency used in “Percy Jackson” novels : DRACHMA

The Greek drachma was in use until it was replaced by the euro in 2002. As well as being Greece’s currency in modern times, the drachma was also used in ancient Greece.

“Percy Jackson & the Olympians” is a series of children’s adventure stories written by Rick Riordan. Two of the books have been adapted into movies: “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” (2010) and “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” (2013).

53 Short reply? : ANS

Answer (ans.)

55 Unagi, in sushi : EEL

“Unagi” is the Japanese term for” freshwater eel”, and “anago” is the term for “saltwater eel”.

56 Exercise done by lying around doing nothing all day? : DIDDLY-SQUAT

“Squat” is a slang term for “nothing”. “Squat” and the variant “Jack squat”, probably have a distasteful derivation that is related to a bodily function.

69 Lil’ one : TYKE

“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902 For centuries before that, a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

70 Bender of “Futurama,” for one : ROBOT

In the animated sitcom “Futurama”, the character Bender (full name “Bender Bending Rodriguez”) is a robot, one with quite the personality. He swears a lot, drinks heavily, steals what he can, and is very ill-tempered. Paradoxically, he was manufactured by Mom’s Friendly Robot Company.

Down

1 Winged stinger : WASP

While wasps are considered a nuisance by many, they are very important to the agricultural industry. Wasps prey on many pest insects, while having very little impact on crops.

2 Dance taught at some Oahu hotels : HULA

The hula is a native dance of Hawaii that uses arm movements to relate a story. The hula can be performed while sitting (a noho dance) or while standing (a luna dance).

3 Country whose emblem resembles a tulip : IRAN

The current National Emblem of Iran was introduced in 1980, following the Iranian Revolution. The symbol comprises four curves, two on either side of a sword. Above the sword is a “shadda”, one of the diacritics used with the Arabic alphabet. The four curves and the shadda represent the word “Allah”. The overall design resembles a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom, in memory of those who died for Iran.

4 Orlando team : MAGIC

The Orlando Magic were formed in 1989 as an NBA expansion team. A local paper was asked to run a competition to suggest names for the new team and the community came up with its four top picks of “Heat”, “Tropics”, “Juice” and “Magic”. A committee then opted for “Orlando Magic”. A good choice I think …

5 Bubble tea pearls : TAPIOCA

Bubble tea, sometimes called “boba tea”, is a tea-based drink from Taiwan. The “bubbles” are chewy tapioca balls that are usually added to the drink.

9 Word with jam or cram : … SESSION

The use of “jam”, meaning an improvised passage performed by a whole jazz band, dates back to the late twenties. This gave rise to “jam session”, a term used a few years later. The use of “jam” in this context probably stems from the meaning of “jam” as something sweet, something excellent.

11 Time to grab a brewski : BEER O’CLOCK

It’s time to have a drink, because both “beer o’clock” and “wine o’clock” are starting to turn up as entries in reputable dictionaries. Of course, there’s also “beer thirty”.

12 Club ingredient : BACON

The club sandwich is a double-decker affair with three layers of bread and two layers of filling. This style of sandwich has been around since the end of the 19th century, and some say it was invented at an exclusive gambling “club” in Saratoga Springs, New York.

22 Tree goo : SAP

The sap of a plant can be broadly divided into phloem sap and xylem sap. The phloem is the tissue that transports sugars made by photosynthesis from the leaves to the parts of the plant needing those sugars. The sugary solution flowing through the phloem is the phloem sap. The xylem is the tissue that transports water and other nutrients from the roots to the rest of the plant. The watery solution flowing through the xylem is the xylem sap.

27 Fed. crash investigator : NTSB

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is responsible for the investigation of major accidents involving transportation. Included in this broad definition is the transportation of fluids in pipelines. The organization is independent in that it has no ties to other government agencies or departments so that its investigations can be viewed as “impartial”. The NTSB also earns a little money for the US as it hires out its investigation teams to countries who don’t have the necessary resources available on their own soil.

28 Eye layer : UVEA

The uvea is the middle of the three layers that make up the eyeball. The outer layer is called the fibrous tunic, and the inner layer is the retina.

29 Know-it-all : SMART ALECK

Apparently, the original “smart Alec” (sometimes “Aleck”) was one Alec Hoag, a pimp, thief and confidence trickster who plied his trade in New York City in the 1840s.

35 Room with a slanted ceiling, often : ATTIC

An attic or loft is a room or space located below the roof of a building. The term “attic” is a shortened form of “attic story”, the uppermost story or level of a house. This term “attic story” originally applied to a low, decorative level built on top of the uppermost story behind a building’s decorative facade. This use of decoration at the top of buildings was common in ancient Greece, and was particularly important in the Attica style. That Attica style was so called because it originated in the historical region of Attica that encompassed the city of Athens. And that’s how our attics are linked to ancient Greece.

36 Cookie with a Blackpink collaboration : OREO

Blackpink is a girl group from South Korea that was formed in 2016. By all accounts, Blackpink has gained more international success than any other female Korean act.

The South Korean girl group Blackpink collaborated with Nabisco in a promotion celebrating the release of Blackpink’s first studio album (titled “The Album”). Blackpink X Oreos come in two different flavors, and feature the group’s signature colors: black and pink.

47 Research grant? : PHD

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

52 Mexican marinade made with chili peppers : ADOBO

In Spanish and Mexican cuisine, a dish prepared adobo-style has been marinated in a mixture containing paprika, oregano, salt, garlic and vinegar. “Adobo” is Spanish for “marinade, seasoning”.

54 Calamari : SQUID

“Calamaro” is the Italian word for “squid” (plural “calamari”).

58 Mother of Artemis : LETO

In Greek mythology, the goddess Leto and her sister Asteria are daughters of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. Leto’s twin children Apollo and Artemis were fathered by Zeus, the king of the gods.

59 Pakistani language : 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.

61 Tropical tree : TEAK

Teak is a hardwood tree in the mint family that is commonly found in monsoon forests of Asia. Teak’s tight grain and high oil content make it very suitable for constructing outdoor furniture, where weather resistance is valued. For the same reason, teak is the wood of choice for wooden decks on boats.