Tag: Concert souvenirs for short crossword clue

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Constructed by: Michael Lieberman
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer(s): Unfinished … Business

Themed answers each include the UNFINISHED name of a BUSINESS hidden within:

• 57A With 62-Across, matters left to settle, and what can be found in each set of circled letters? : UNFINISHED …
• 62A See 57-Across : … BUSINESS

• 16A 100% guaranteed : IN THE BAG (unfinished EBAY)
• 19A Trade an aisle seat for a window seat, say : SWAP PLACES (unfinished APPLE)
• 31A Many night owls, in the morning : LATE SLEEPERS (unfinished TESLA)
• 41A Doomsday prophecy : THE END IS NEAR (unfinished DISNEY)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “American Idol” network : ABC

“American Idol” is a spin-off show that was created after the amazing success of the British television show “Pop Idol”. Aired on Fox from 2002 to 2016, the show “jumped ship” and moved to ABC starting in the 2018 season.

4 Mayberry boy : OPIE

Opie Taylor is the character played by Ron Howard on “The Andy Griffith Show”. Opie lives with widowed father Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith) and his great-aunt Beatrice “Aunt Bee” Taylor (played by Frances Bavier). Ron Howard first played the role in 1960 in the pilot show, when he was just 5 years old. Howard sure has come a long way since playing Opie Taylor. He has directed some fabulous movies including favorites of mine like “Apollo 13”, “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code”.

Mayberry is the fictional North Carolina town in which the “The Andy Griffith Show” is set. Mayberry is said to be based on Griffith’s own hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina.

13 Florida, to the Keys : MAINLAND

The Florida Keys are a chain of low islands that stretch from the tip of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles south of Miami. The westernmost inhabited island is Key West, and the westernmost uninhabited island is Dry Tortugas. Most of the inhabited islands are connected by US Highway 1, which traverses several impressive bridges.

16 100% guaranteed : IN THE BAG (unfinished EBAY)

eBay was founded in 1995 as AuctionWeb. One of the first items purchased was a broken laser pointer, for $14.83. The buyer was a collector of broken laser pointers …

To have something “in the bag” can mean to have it virtually secured, an outcome almost certainly assured. Such a usage of the phrase is very American, and arose in the game of baseball in the early 1900s. The New York Giants baseball team developed a superstition during a run of 26 consecutive wins in 1916. If the Giants were leading at the top of the ninth inning, then superstition required that a player be sent to the clubhouse with a ball bag in order to assure the Giants of victory. The game was said to be “in the bag”.

18 “Top Chef” judge Simmons : GAIL

Gail Simmons is a Toronto-born food writer who has been a judge on the cooking show “Top Chef” since it first aired in 2006. In 2012, she had a memoir published with the interesting title “Talking With My Mouth Full: My Life as a Professional Eater”.

19 Trade an aisle seat for a window seat, say : SWAP PLACES (unfinished APPLE)

Apple Computers was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company incorporated the following year, but without Wayne. He sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak, for $800 …

21 “The Baby-Sitters Club” author __ M. Martin : ANN

Ann M. Martin is an author of children’s fiction who is perhaps best known for penning “The Baby-Sitters Club” (BSC) series of novels. Martin wrote the first 36 of the BSC books, and retired into a quieter life leaving ghostwriters to continue the series since 2000.

22 “In __”: Nirvana’s last studio album : UTERO

“In Utero” is a 1993 album released by the band Nirvana. It was to be their final album, as the group disbanded after lead singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide the following year.

23 Be in arrears : OWE

To be in arrears is to have an unpaid obligation or debt. The term “arrears” came into English from the Old French “ariere” meaning “behind”.

26 Hi-fi spinners : LPS

Hi-fi systems were introduced in the late 1940s. They are pieces of audio equipment designed to give a much higher quality reproduction of sound than cheaper systems available up to that point. “Hi-fi” stands for “high fidelity”.

31 Many night owls, in the morning : LATE SLEEPERS (unfinished TESLA)

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 as a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world’s best selling plug-in electric vehicle of 2015. Tesla Motors shortened its name to Tesla in early 2017.

40 “Never Feed a __ Spaghetti”: rhyming board book : YETI

A board book is a book produced for children that is made from heavy paper or cardboard (hence the name).

41 Doomsday prophecy : THE END IS NEAR (unfinished DISNEY)

The Walt Disney Company was founded in1923 as Disney Brother Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney. Walt had co-founded the short-lived Laugh-O-Gram studio two years earlier, but it went bankrupt in 1923.

45 L.A. school : USC

The University of Southern California (USC) is a private school in Los Angeles. Apart from its excellent academic record, USC is known for the success of its athletic program. USC Trojans have won more Olympic medals than the students of any other university in the world. The USC marching band is very famous as well, and is known as the “Spirit of Troy”. The band has performed with many celebrities, and is the only college band to have two platinum records.

46 Concert souvenirs, for short : MERCH

Merchandise (merch)

50 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”.

52 Mixer at a bar : TONIC

The original tonic water was a fairly strong solution of the drug quinine dissolved in carbonated water. It was used in tropical areas in South Asia and Africa where malaria is rampant. The quinine has a prophylactic effect against the disease, and was formulated as “tonic water” so that it could be easily distributed. In British colonial India, the colonial types got into the habit of mixing gin with the tonic water to make it more palatable by hiding the bitter taste of quinine. Nowadays, the level of quinine in tonic water has dropped, and sugar has been added.

60 Norse god with raven messengers : ODIN

According to Norse mythology, the god Odin had a pair of ravens that flew all over the world each day to get him information. The ravens were named Huginn and Muninn.

65 Handel work : ORATORIO

An oratorio is a large musical work for orchestra, choir and solo singers. Oratorios usually have a religious theme and are similar to operas, but without the action, costume and scenery.

George Frideric Handel was the King of the Oratorio. Handel’s most famous oratorio is “Messiah”, which had its debut performance in Dublin, Ireland back in 1742.

67 Cellist Ma : YO-YO

Yo-Yo Ma is a “ma-velous” American cellist who was born in Paris to Chinese parents. Ma started studying the violin when he was very young, working his way up (in size) to the viola and finally to the cello. He has said that he wanted to play the double bass, but it was just too big for his relatively small frame.

68 Oft-redacted ID : SSN

So often, we are asked for “the last four digits” of our Social Security Numbers (SSNs).

Down

1 Spanish friends : AMIGAS

In Spanish, an “amigo” is a male friend, and an “amiga” a female friend.

2 Split fruit : BANANA

The banana is actually a berry, botanically speaking. And, bananas don’t really grow on trees. The “trunk” of the banana plant is in fact a pseudostem. The pseudostem is a false stem comprising rolled bases of leaves, and it can grow to 2 or 3 meters tall.

The banana split was created in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1904. This particular sundae was the idea of David Stickler, a young apprentice pharmacist at the Tassel Pharmacy’s soda fountain.

4 Cheer for un gol : OLE!

In Spanish, a “fútbol” (football, soccer) supporter might shout “olé!” (bravo!) after “un gol” (a goal).

5 Blue Ribbon beer : PABST

Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) is the most recognizable brand of beer from the Pabst Brewing Company. There appears to be some dispute over whether or not Pabst beer ever won a “blue ribbon” prize, but the company claims that it did so at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The beer was originally called Pabst Best Select, and then just Pabst Select. With the renaming to Blue Ribbon, the beer was sold with an actual blue ribbon tied around the neck of the bottle until it was dropped in 1916 and incorporated into the label.

7 Mystery award : EDGAR

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (“Edgars”) are presented annually by the Mystery Writers of America. There are several categories of awards. For example, the Ellery Queen Award honors “writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry”. The Raven Award is presented to non-writers, who contribute to the mystery genre.

9 Chatty bird : MACAW

Macaws are beautifully colored birds native to Central and South America that are actually a type of parrot. Most species of macaws are now endangered, with several having become extinct in recent decades. The main threats are deforestation and illegal trapping and trafficking of exotic birds.

10 “Enter the Dragon” star : BRUCE LEE

“Enter the Dragon” is a 1973 martial arts movie that was to be the last film made by actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. Lee died at the age of 32, one month before the film premiered.

14 Org. with many left-wingers and right-wingers : NHL

The National Hockey League (NHL) was formed in 1917 in Montreal as a successor to the defunct National Hockey Association (NHA) that had been founded in 1909.

20 Hay fever cause : POLLEN

The pollen of ragweed is the most common allergen of all pollens. It seems that the pollen season has been lengthening in recent years, probably due to global warming.

The common term “hay fever” describes a type of seasonal allergic rhinitis, inflammation of the nose due to an immune reaction to airborne allergens.

22 Forever stamp letters : USA

The Forever stamp for first-class postage was introduced by the USPS in 2006 (and about time!). Now we have stamps that are good for first-class postage forever, no matter how often the rates change.

25 Protected, at sea : ALEE

Alee is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing aweather. The sheltered side of an island, for example, might be referred to as the “lee” side.

27 Cacio e __: simple pasta dish : PEPE

Cacio e pepe is a pasta dish that originate in Rome. The dish’s name can be translated from Italian dialects as “cheese and pepper”. The recipe is quite simple, comprising grated Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper and spaghetti.

29 Field for Alice Neel and Kara Walker : ART

Alice Neel was an American artist best known for her expressionistic portraits. Although Neel painted mainly female subjects, she did so using a female gaze, and her work is viewed as a reaction to the attitudes embodied in the male gaze.

The term “male gaze” describes the act of depicting women in artistic works as sexual objects for the pleasure of maculine, heterosexual viewer. The male gaze can manifest itself as perhaps a man behind a camera in a movie, a male character in a story, or male spectators of a work.

Kara Walker is an American painter who is perhaps best known for her large-scale black cut-paper silhouettes, most of which depict slavery and racism.

30 Trident-shaped letter : PSI

Psi is the 23rd and penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks a bit like a trident or a pitchfork.

36 20s dispenser : ATM

The twenty-dollar bill is called a “Jackson” as it bears the portrait of President Andrew Jackson on the front side of the bill. Jackson’s image replaced that of President Grover Cleveland in 1928, and there doesn’t seem to be any record documenting just why that change was made. Over one-fifth of all notes printed today are 20-dollar bills. The average life of a Jackson is a little over 2 years, after which it is replaced due to wear.

37 John who plays Sulu in recent “Star Trek” films : CHO

John Cho is an actor and musician who was born in Seoul, South Korea but has lived in the US since he was a young boy. Cho’s break in movies came in playing Harold Lee in the ”Harold & Kumar” films. He is now making a name for himself playing Mr. Sulu in the latest “Star Trek” movies.

43 World’s largest theater chain : AMC

The AMC theater chain used to go by the name American Multi-Cinema Inc., hence the initialism “AMC”.

47 Uber patrons : RIDERS

The rideshare service Uber takes its name from the English colloquial word “uber” meaning “super, topmost”, which in turn comes from the German “über” meaning “above”.

48 Turning point : CRISIS

The narrowest definition of the word “crisis” is “turning point in a severe disease or fever”. Our spelling of the term is a Latinized version of “krisis”, which has the same meaning. The broader, non-medical use of “crisis” originated in the early 17th century.

49 “Hidden Figures” star Taraji P. __ : HENSON

Taraji P. Henson is an actress whose breakthrough role was Queenie in 2008’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, a role for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. I best know her as one of the leads in the excellent 2016 biographical drama “Hidden Figures”. TV viewers might know Henson for playing Cookie Lyon in the musical drama series “Empire”.

“Hidden Figures” is an excellent 2016 film based on a book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. Both book and film tell the story of female African-American mathematicians who worked for NASA during the Mercury and Apollo programs in the 1960s.

51 High-end German vacuum brand : MIELE

Miele is a manufacturer of kitchen equipment based in Germany. The company was founded by Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann in 1899, and is still privately-held and family-run. One of Miele’s first products was a butter churn.

54 Logical opening? : NEURO-

Neurology is the branch of medicine dealing with the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. The study of the nervous system is known as neuroscience.

57 Thick noodle : UDON

Udon noodles are made from wheat-flour and are very popular in Japanese cuisines such as tempura.

58 “Finding Dory” fish : NEMO

Pixar’s 2016 animated feature “Finding Dory” is a sequel to the megahit film “Finding Nemo”. “Finding Dory” seems to have built on the success of its predecessor and had the highest-grossing opening weekend ever in North America for an animated movie.

59 Derby-sporting Addams : ITT

In the television sitcom “The Addams Family”, the family had a frequent visitor named Cousin Itt. Itt is a short man with long hair that runs from his head to the floor. He was played by Italian actor Felix Silla.

I think that a bowler hat is usually called a derby here in the US. The bowler was first produced in 1849 in London by hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler, hence the name. The alternative name of “derby” comes from the tradition of wearing bowler hats at the Derby horse race (a major race held annually in England).

60 Artist Yoko : ONO

Yoko Ono is an avant-garde artist. She met her future husband John Lennon for the first time while she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit called “Hammer a Nail”. Visitors were encouraged to hammer in a nail into a wooden board, creating the artwork. Lennon wanted to hammer in the first nail, but Ono stopped him as the exhibition had not yet opened. Apparently Ono relented when Lennon paid her an imaginary five shillings to hammer an imaginary nail into the wood.