Tag: Cinematic transition crossword clue

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Constructed by: Zachary Edward-Brown & Jude White

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Outer Banks

Themed answers all include the OUTER letters B-A-N-K:

• 52A Drama set on the North Carolina coast, and what 16-, 27-, and 39-Across have? : OUTER BANKS

• 16A Work promoted by the American Library Association every autumn : BANNED BOOK
• 27A Color associated with tutus : BALLERINA PINK
• 39A Euphemism that conveys disapproval : BLANKETY-BLANK

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

Bill’s time: 4m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Eisenberg of the “Now You See Me” heist films : JESSE

Actor Jesse Eisenberg is known for playing fast-talking, highly intelligent characters, most notably perhaps Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network”, for which he earned an Oscar nomination.. Eisenberg is also a dedicated playwright, and frequently contributes humorous pieces to “The New Yorker”.

“Now You See Me” is a very entertaining 2013 heist film about a team of illusionists who pull off bank robberies during their stage performances. The impressive cast includes Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

10A Miso paste source : SOY

Miso is the name of the seasoning that makes miso soup. Basic miso seasoning is made by fermenting rice, barley and soybeans with salt and a fungus to produce a paste. The paste can be added to stock to make miso soup, or perhaps to flavor tofu.

14A Guthrie of folk : ARLO

Singer Arlo Guthrie is known for his protest songs, just like his father Woody Guthrie. The younger Guthrie only ever had one song in the top 40: a cover version of “City of New Orleans”. He has lived for years in the town of Washington, just outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His 1976 song “Massachusetts” has been the official folk song of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 1981.

15A Source of ruin : BANE

Today, we tend to use the word “bane” to mean “anathema, a source of persistent annoyance”. A few centuries ago, a bane was a cause of harm or death, perhaps a deadly poison.

16A Work promoted by the American Library Association every autumn : BANNED BOOK

Librarian and activist Judith Krug launched Banned Books Week 1982 in response to a surge in challenges to literature in schools and bookstores. Many such challenges are pretty bizarre. For instance, Dr. Seuss’s “Hop on Pop” was once targeted for “encouraging violence against fathers”.

19A Texting format : SMS

Short Message Service (SMS) is the name for the text messaging service that many of us still use on our cell phones to contact friends and family.

21A “Shaqtin’ a Fool” host : O’NEAL

“Shaqtin’ a Fool” is a weekly segment hosted by Shaquille O’Neal on ESPN’s “Inside the NBA”. Starting in 2011, the show highlights the NBA’s most embarrassing bloopers and on-court blunders.

23A Pumpkin picking time : FALL

The pumpkin is a winter squash that is grown for food, and for carving as a jack-o’-lantern. Pumpkins can grow to very large sizes. Mature giant pumpkins can weigh over 2,000 pounds!

25A Copacabana city : RIO

Copacabana is a neighborhood in the city of Rio de Janeiro that is home to a famous (and much-used) beach. The neighborhood is named for a chapel there, dedicated to the Virgen de Copacabana (Our Lady of Copacabana). The Virgen de Copacabana is the patron saint of Bolivia, with the original Copacabana being a Bolivian town located on the southeastern shore of Lake Titicaca.

27A Color associated with tutus : BALLERINA PINK

The word “tutu”, used for a ballet dancer’s skirt, is actually a somewhat “naughty” term. It came into English from French in the early 20th century. The French “tutu” is an alteration of the word “cucu”, a childish word meaning “bottom, backside”.

30A Rice field : PADDY

A paddy field is a flooded piece of land used to grow rice, or perhaps taro. The water reduces competition from weeds allowing the rice to thrive. The word “paddy” has nothing to do with us Irish folk, and is an anglicized version of the word “padi”, the Malay name for the rice plant.

31A Narcissist’s problem : EGO

Narcissus was a proud and vain hunter in Greek mythology. He earned himself a fatal punishment, falling in love with his own reflection in a pool. So, taken was he by his own image that he could not leave it, and wasted away and died by the pool. Narcissus gives us our term “narcissism” meaning “excessive love of oneself”.

32A Foil alternative : EPEE

There are three fencing events in the modern Olympics, with each distinguished by the weapon used:

• Foil
• Épée
• Sabre

34A Mover’s vehicle : VAN

The vehicle we call a “van” takes its name from “caravan”, and so “van” is a shortened version of the older term. Back in the 1600s, a caravan was a covered cart. We still use the word “caravan” in Ireland to describe what we call a “mobile home” or “recreational vehicle” here in the US.

36A Classic soft drink : NEHI

The Nehi cola brand has a name that sounds like “knee-high”, a measure of a small stature. Back in the mid-1900’s the Chero-Cola company, which owned the brand, went for a slightly different twist on “knee-high” in advertising. The logo for Nehi was an image of a seated woman’s stockinged legs, with her skirt pulled up to her knees to hint at “knee-high”.

37A Actor Beatty : NED

Actor Ned Beatty is possibly best remembered for the rather disturbing “squeal like a pig” scene in the movie “Deliverance”. Beatty also earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1976 movie “Network”.

38A Asterisks : STARS

The name of the typographical symbol “asterisk” comes from the Greek word “asteriskos” meaning “little star”. The original use of the asterisk was by printers of family trees in feudal times. Back then it was a symbol indicating the date of birth.

39A Euphemism that conveys disapproval : BLANKETY-BLANK

The term “blankety-blank” emerged in the mid-19th century as a way to bypass social and legal taboos against profanity in print and speech. Printers would often use a long dash, or “blank”, to replace a vulgarity, and so the spoken phrase just mimics the physical placeholder.

42A Wong of “Beef” : ALI

Ali Wong is a stand-up comedian from San Francisco who is a protégé of Chris Rock. She made two very successful Netflix stand-up specials “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife”, and also worked as a writer for the hit sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat”.

“Beef” is a dark comedy-drama series that follows two strangers whose lives become intertwined after a road rage incident. A feud develops between the characters Amy Lau and Danny Cho, played by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.

44A Drei minus zwei : EINS

In German, “drei minus zwei” (three minus two) is “eins” (one).

45A “No Time To Die” actress Ana de __ : ARMAS

Ana de Armas is an actress from Cuba. Having attended the National Theater School of Cuba, she moved to Spain at the age of 18. There, she made a name for herself in a Spanish TV series called “El Internado”. De Armas moved to Los Angeles in 2014, after which her performance opposite Ryan Gosling in 2017’s “Blade Runner 2049” earned her critical acclaim.

2021’s “No Time to Die” is the 25th in the “James Bond” series of films. It stars Daniel Craig as the MI6 agent in his last appearance in the role. Bond’s adversary in “No Time to Die” is Lyutsifer Safin, played by Rami Malek. The theme song was performed by Billie Eilish.

48A Duracell size : AAA

Duracell is a brand of batteries made today by Procter & Gamble. “Duracell” is a portmanteau of “durable” and “cell”.

52A Drama set on the North Carolina coast, and what 16-, 27-, and 39-Across have? : OUTER BANKS

The TV show “Outer Banks” (OBX) is about two opposing groups of teenagers searching for a lost treasure along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Originally, filming was planned to take place in the actual Outer Banks, but Netflix changed the location to Charleston, South Carolina in response to North Carolina’s “Bathroom Bill” that discriminated against transgender individuals. After the state repealed the controversial bill, the producers opted to move filming to the actual location called out in the series’ title.

56A The “U” of CPU : UNIT

The central processing unit (CPU) is the main component on the motherboard of a computer. The CPU is the part of the computer that carries out most of the functions required by a program. Nowadays you can get CPUs in everything from cars to telephones.

57A Some high-end coolers : YETIS

YETI is a manufacturer of coolers and related products that is based in Austin, Texas. There was a kerfuffle between YETI and the National Rifle Association in 2018, when YETI removed the NRA from its membership discount program. That kerfuffle got quite public when some NRA members published videos of themselves destroying their own YETI products in protest.

Down

5D Green gemstones : EMERALDS

Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl that is green in color due to traces of chromium. Beryl containing traces of vanadium are also considered to be emeralds, at least here in the US. “Vanadium emeralds” aren’t recognized as emeralds in Europe.

7D Deity often depicted as a winged youth : EROS

In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love, desire, and sexual attraction. He is often depicted as a winged youth carrying a bow and arrows, with which he shoots either golden arrows to inspire love or leaden ones to inspire aversion. His Roman counterpart is Cupid.

8D Cheery aproned agent in Progressive Insurance ads : FLO

The character Flo, portrayed by actress Stephanie Courtney, has a last name that’s rarely used in the Progressive insurance company’s commercials: Flo Progressive. Courtney improvised the character’s signature perky attitude during her audition.

9D John Lennon’s “Unfinished Music” series collaborator : YOKO ONO

The “Unfinished Music” series was a trilogy of albums recorded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the late 1960s. The first album, subtitled “Two Virgins”, became an instant scandal for its nude cover art. It was deemed so shocking that the albums had to be sold in plain brown paper bags.

12D Evergreen with poisonous berries : YEW

The family of trees and shrubs known as yews propagate by producing a seed surrounded by soft, sweet and brightly colored aril. Birds eat the fruit and then disperse the seed in their droppings. The birds leave the seed undamaged, and so are unharmed by the potent poisons taxane and taxol that are found within the seed. The seeds are highly toxic to humans.

17D “Queen of Country” Parton : DOLLY

Dolly Parton is a country music singer-songwriter, as well as an actress. Parton has written over 3,000 songs, my favorite of which is “I Will Always Love You” that was a huge hit for herself and for Whitney Houston.

22D Sensitive info doc : NDA

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

29D Pie nuts : PECANS

The pecan is the state tree (and state nut) of Texas, and also the state nut of Alabama, Arkansas, California and Louisiana. That’s not all: Oklahoma’s official state meal includes pecan pie!

30D Spanish rice cooking vessel : PAELLA PAN

Paella is sometimes referred to as the Spanish national dish, but not by Spaniards. In Spain, paella is regarded as a typical regional dish from Valencia. The name “paella” means “frying pan” in Valencian, and is a reference to the shallow vessel traditionally used to cook the dish over an open fire.

33D Caitlin Clark’s org. : WNBA

Basketball great Caitlin Clark was the first selection in the 2024 WNBA draft, and signed up with the Indian Fever. Her quality of play and success on the court has helped popularize women’s basketball. That boost in popularity has been dubbed “the Caitlin Clark effect”.

37D Genre for Maxwell and D’Angelo : NEO-SOUL

“Maxwell” is the stage name used by singer-songwriter Gerald Maxwell Rivera. A New Yorker, Maxwell opted to use his middle name on stage to protect his family’s privacy.

“D’Angelo” is the stage name of R&B singer Michael Archer. His biggest success came in 2000 with the release of the album “Voodoo”. D’Angelo’s career went into decline for over a decade as he struggled with alcoholism, but he pulled things together and won a Grammy for his 2014 album “Black Messiah”.

40D Sportage automaker : KIA

Kia Motors is the second-largest manufacturer of cars in South Korea, behind Hyundai (and Hyundai is a part owner in Kia now). Kia was founded in 1944 as a manufacturer of bicycle parts, and did indeed produce Korea’s first domestic bicycle. The company’s original name was Kyungsung Precision Industry, with the Kia name introduced in 1952.

41D Flat French hats : BERETS

The beret is a type of hat that is believed to have originated in ancient Greece, where it was worn by shepherds.

51D Actress Thurman : UMA

Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”. Uma’s big break in the movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

53D Draw Four card game : UNO

UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. It falls into the shedding family of card games, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.

54D Nuclear agcy. depicted in “Oppenheimer” : AEC

The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was set up right after WWII in 1946, with the aim of promoting the peaceful use of atomic energy. Establishing the AEC was a significant move made by President Truman, as it passed control of atomic energy from the military to the civilian sector. The AEC continued to operate until 1974 when its functions were divided up into two new agencies: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Energy Research and Development Administration (NRDA). The NRDA was merged with the Federal Energy Administration in 1977 to form the Department of Energy.

“Oppenheimer” is an epic 2023 film starring Cillian Murphy in the title role. The movie follows J. Robert Oppenheimer, “the father of the atomic bomb”, from his student days right through World War II and beyond. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film has an amazing ensemble cast that includes:

• Matt Damon (General Leslie Groves)
• Robert Downey Jr. (Lewis Strauss)
• Josh Hartnett (Ernest Lawrence)
• Kenneth Branagh (Niels Bohr)
• Tom Conti (Albert Einstein)
• Gary Oldman (Harry S. Truman)