Tag: Bolsters crossword clue

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Constructed by: MaryEllen Uthlaut

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Get Over It

The grid includes several instances of the letter string “GET” sitting OVER “IT”:

• 61A Terse advice for the brokenhearted, and what appears four times in this puzzle : GET OVER IT

• 17A Citrus-infused brew : ORANGE TEA
• 19A Walk or trot : GAIT

• 23A Some Ram pickups : DODGE TRUCKS
• 29A Condiment in Indian cuisine : RAITA

• 53A Trick-taking spot : BRIDGE TABLE
• 57A Cleverly skillful : ADROIT

• 61A Terse advice for the brokenhearted, and what appears four times in this puzzle : GET OVER IT
• 67A Travel plan : ITINERARY

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

Bill’s time: 6m 51s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Christie’s “Evil __ the Sun” : UNDER

“Evil Under the Sun” is a 1941 Agatha Christie novel featuring her celebrated sleuth Hercule Poirot, who must solve the murder of a widely disliked actress while on holiday at an exclusive seaside resort. The story has been adapted for the screen multiple times, most famously as a 1982 film starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot, alongside a great cast including Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg.

Agatha Christie (née Miller) is the best-selling novelist of all time, having sold about 4 billion copies worldwide in total. The only books to have sold in higher volume are the works of William Shakespeare and the Bible.

6A Annual vaccine target : FLU

A vaccine used to be exclusively a modified virus administered to an individual to stimulate the immune system into developing immunity, until mRNA vaccines were introduced to combat COVID-19. British physician Edward Jenner came up with the first vaccine, injecting people with the cowpox virus in order to prevent smallpox. The term “vaccination” comes from the Latin “vaccinus” meaning “from cows”, with “vacca” translating as “cow”.

14A Bolsters : FORTIFIES

Back in Ireland I often slept in beds that had a bolster as well as pillows. The bolster was usually a long, bed-wide, stuffed cushion, harder than a pillow. It served the purpose of raising the pillows, perhaps as an aid for sitting up in bed. Our modern usage of the verb “to bolster”, meaning to give a metaphoric shot in the arm, derives from this “bolster” that we used to sit up against.

16A Natural dye for some brides : HENNA

Henna has been used for centuries as a dye, for leather and wool as well as hair and skin. In modern days, henna is often used for temporary tattoos.

20A Seuss character who advocates eating green : SAM-I-AM

Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book “Green Eggs and Ham” was first published in 1960. “Green Eggs and Ham” now ranks twelfth in the list of top selling children’s books. By the way, “Harry Potter” books hold the top four slots in that list. The text of “Green Eggs and Ham” has a lot of “I am” going on. It starts with:

I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am

and ends with:

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

21A Bobby of hockey : ORR

Bobby Orr is a Boston Bruins legend universally considered one of the greatest hockey players of all time. Famously, he is the only defenseman in NHL history to win the league scoring title.

23A Some Ram pickups : DODGE TRUCKS

Chrysler put ram hood ornaments on all of its Dodge-branded vehicles starting in 1933. When the first line of Dodge trucks and vans were introduced in 1981, they were named “Rams” in honor of that hood ornament.

29A Condiment in Indian cuisine : RAITA

Raita is a condiment served in Indian restaurants that is made from yogurt flavored with coriander, cumin, mint and cayenne pepper.

30A K-pop rapper : PSY

“PSY” is the stage name of South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang. PSY became an international star when his 2012 music video “Gangnam Style” went viral on YouTube. That video had over 1 billion views on YouTube in about six months, making it the most viewed YouTube video clip of all time. The title of the song refers to a lifestyle experienced in the Gangnam District of Seoul.

31A Major export of Côte d’Ivoire : CACAO

The flowers of the cacao tree grow in clusters, directly on the trunk and on older branches. The pollinated flowers turn into ovoid cacao pods, each of which contain 20-60 seeds or beans. The seeds are used as the main ingredient in chocolate.

The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire is located in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea. The country is often referred to in English as “the Ivory Coast”, the direct translation from the French. The official language of the country is French, as for many years it was a French colony.

33A Valueless but valuable Scrabble tile : BLANK

The two blank tiles supplied in every game of Scrabble were not part of the original design. The game’s inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts, added them later on to increase the game’s flexibility after finding the initial all-letter version too restrictive.

35A Reworks, as text : EMENDS

The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely, and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.

42A Some characters in “The Hobbit” : ELVES

“The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” is a children’s fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien that was popular from the time of its first publication in 1937. Included in the early awards for “The Hobbit” was a prize for best juvenile fiction from “The New York Herald Tribune”. Tolkien adapted his succeeding novel “The Lord of the Rings” to incorporate elements in “The Hobbit”, so that the two tales are very much related.

47A Siouan people : OTO

The Oto (also “Otoe’) are a Siouan-speaking people historically from the Great Lakes who later settled along the Platte River in Nebraska. Today, they are headquartered in Red Rock, Oklahoma, after being forcibly removed from their Nebraska lands in 1881.

53A Trick-taking spot : BRIDGE TABLE

The version of the card game bridge that is played mostly today is contract bridge. Auction bridge is a similar game, and is a precursor to contract bridge.

57A Cleverly skillful : ADROIT

The French for “to the right” is “à droit”, from which we get our word “adroit”. The original meaning of “adroit” was “rightly, properly”, but it has come to mean dexterous and skillful. Someone described as “maladroit” is unskilled and awkward.

58A Spanish appetizer : TAPA

“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”. There is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

60A Some corporate jets : LEARS

Business jet manufacturer Learjet was founded in 1960 by William Powell Lear. The original Learjet was a modified Swiss ground-attack fighter aircraft. Some models were particularly groundbreaking. For example, the Learjet 23 was the first private jet to exceed Mach 0.8 (around 600 mph), while the Learjet 28/29 was the first private jet to be certified for operation at altitudes above 51,000 feet. Learjet was purchased by Bombardier in 1990. Bombardier halted production of Learjet models in 2022.

66A “The Luncheon on the Grass” painter : MANET

“Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” (The Luncheon on the Grass) is a famous painting that Édouard Manet created between 1862 and 1863. The work features a naked woman sitting with two fully-clothed men, with a partially clothed woman in the background. Many find the image jarring, as the female nude stares at the viewer, while the two men converse, apparently ignoring the naked females in their midst. The original painting can be seen in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

69A Capital of Georgia? : GEE

The word “Georgia” starts with a capital letter G (gee).

Down

3D Show for queens : DRAG RACE

RuPaul is a famous drag queen who has developed a diverse career beyond performing on stage. He works as an actor, model, author and a recording artist. Famously, RuPaul doesn’t mind whether one addresses him as “he” or as “she” …

You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don’t care! Just as long as you call me.

He currently hosts his own reality TV show called “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, which is billed as a search for “America’s next drag superstar”.

4D Mediterranean peak : ETNA

Mount Etna, located on the island of Sicily, is one of the world’s most active stratovolcanoes and one of the most frequently erupting volcanoes on Earth. It has been active for at least 500,000 years, with historical eruptions documented for over 3,500 years.

7D “Da 5 Bloods” director Spike : LEE

“Da 5 Bloods” is a 2020 Spike Lee film about four aging veterans of the Vietnam War who go back to Vietnam. Their mission is to find the remains of their fallen squad leader, and to find a stash of gold bars they hid during the conflict. I haven’t seen this one, but am putting it on “the list” …

8D Letters on Erin Jackson’s uniform : USA

Erin Jackson is a speed skater who won gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in the 500-meter event. That win made her the first African American to medal in an individual Winter Olympic event.

11D Buffoonery : ANTICS

A buffoon is a clown or jester, although the word “buffoon” tends to be used more figuratively to describe someone foolish and ridiculous. The term comes from the Italian “buffa” meaning “joke”.

15D Wretched smell : FETOR

“Fetor” (sometimes “foetor”) is a relatively formal, and often medical, term describing a powerful, offensive smell. “Fetor” is often used in clinical or scientific contexts, like fetor oris (a medical term for bad breath).

22D Paper quantity : REAM

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

25D “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” writer Scott-Heron : GIL

Gil Scott-Heron was a jazz poet and musician who is best remembered as a spoken word performer from the seventies and eighties. Scott-Heron’s most famous work is the poem and song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, the title of which became a popular slogan for the Black Power movements in the sixties.

34D Dennings of “Shifting Gears” : KAT

Kat Dennings is the stage name of actress Katherine Litwack, who is noted today for her co-starring role on CBS’s sitcom “2 Broke Girls”. On the big screen, she plays the somewhat humorous character Dr. Darcy Lewis in the “Thor” series of films. Dennings is an avid blogger, and you can check out her video blog on YouTube.

“Shifting Gears” is a sitcom starring Kat Dennings alongside Tim Allen. Dennings plays the estranged daughter of Allen’s character, a widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop. Here’s a bit of a coincidence: Dennings and Allen share the exact same birthday (June 13). Dennings was born in 1986, and Allen in 1953.

36D Freezing shower : SLEET

Apparently, “sleet” is a term used to describe two different weather conditions. One is a shower of ice pellets that are smaller than hail, and the second is a mixture of rain and snow, with the snow melting as it falls.

39D Casino card game : BACCARAT

Baccarat, in all of its three variants, is a relatively simple casino card game. It is the favored game of chance for James Bond 007, and it looks so cool when he plays it! Banco!

40D Biblical twin of Jacob : ESAU

Esau was the grandson of Abraham and the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When Esau was born to Isaac and Rebekah, the event was described with “Now the first came forth, red all over like a hairy garment”. Esau is portrayed later in life as being very different from his brother Jacob, as a hunter and someone who loves the outdoor life.

43D Evaluate : VET

The verb “to vet” comes from the term “veterinarian”. The idea is that to vet something is to subject it to careful examination, like a veterinarian checking out an animal.

44D Pitching stat : ERA

Earned run average (ERA)

48D Capital of Albania : TIRANE

The city of Tirane is the capital of Albania and has been so since 1920. It was seized by the Nazis in WWII but was liberated in 1944, at which point the Communists seized power. The Communists were ousted in the elections of 1992 leaving a void that led to much bloodshed and an eventual EU military mission to stabilize the capital and the rest of the country. Things are very different today, and Albania is now a member of NATO.

51D Taron’s “Rocketman” role : ELTON

“Rocketman” is a very entertaining musical biopic about the life of Elton John. The title role is taken by English actor Taron Egerton, who actually did a great job singing the songs in the film himself. The movie’s title comes from Elton John’s 1972 hit record “Rocket Man”.

Taron Egerton is a Welsh actor who gained widespread attention portraying the street-smart spy “Eggsy” in the “Kingsman” film series. He really hit the big time when he played Elton John in the 2019 musical biopic “Rocketman”, for which he learned piano and did all his own singing, and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

53D Some essential oils : BALMS

Essential oils are concentrated liquids containing volatile chemical compounds that have a smell or odor. The term “essential” oil comes from the fact that it contains the “essence” of a plant’s fragrance.

55D Like chalet roofs : EAVED

“Chalet” is a Swiss-French name for an alpine cottage.

61D Club date : GIG

Musicians use “gig” to describe a job, a performance. The term originated in the early 1900s in the world of jazz. The derivative phrase “gig economy” applies to a relatively recent phenomenon where workers find themselves jumping from temporary job to temporary job, from gig to gig.

62D Summer in Paris : ETE

The French capital Paris is nicknamed “La Ville Lumière” (The City of Light). There are two justifications cited for the moniker. Firstly, the city played a leading role during Europe’s Age of Enlightenment, in the 18th century. In fact, the French refer to the era as “the Century of Lights”. Secondly, and more literally, Paris was one of the first cities in Europe to adopt widespread gas street lighting. There were about 56,000 gas lights illuminating the streets of Paris in the 1860s.

65D Norse war god : TYR

Týr was the Norse god of single combat, victory and heroic glory. According to legend, Týr showed great courage when he and his fellow gods were attempting to shackle the wolf monster called Fenrir. The wolf was tricked into accepting bindings that were actually magical ribbons of great strength. Fenrir submitted to the bonds because Týr agreed to place his hand in the wolf’s mouth, as a gesture of assurance that the ribbon was harmless. When Fenrir recognized the deceit, he bit off Týr’s hand. As a result, the god Týr is almost always depicted with only one hand.