Constructed by: Bruce Venzke & Gail Grabowski
Edited by: Rich Norris
Quicklink to a complete list of today’s clues and answers
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Theme: Norse Rhymes
Happy 4th of July, everyone!!! Today’s themed answers comprise two words, with the latter rhyming with perhaps gorse, Morse or Norse:
- 17A…Pre-exam review session..REFRESHER COURSE
- 27A…Multinational military alliance..COALITION FORCE
- 49A…Reporter’s trustworthy contact..RELIABLE SOURCE
- 63A…Coin-operated kiddie ride..MECHANICAL HORSE
Bill’s time: 4m 59s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1…Son of God, in a Bach cantata..JESU
The Bach cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben” (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life) has ten movements. The most famous of these movements is the last one, a chorale titled “Jesus bleibet meine Freude”, usually translated as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.
5…Sacred wading bird of ancient Egypt..IBIS
The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!
14…Novelist Hunter..EVAN
Evan Hunter was the adopted name of Salvatore Albert Lombino, an author and screenwriter from New York City. Hunter had a pen name that was perhaps more famous, namely Ed McBain. As McBain he wrote a successful string of crime novels starting in 1956. As Evan Hunter, he is perhaps most famous for his 1954 novel “The Blackboard Jungle”, which was made into a successful film the following year.
16…__ Valley, Calif.: 1960 Winter Olympics site..SQUAW
The Squaw Valley ski resort is in the Lake Tahoe area of California. Squaw Valley was the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. These were the first Winter Games to be televised live, which gave Squaw Valley a huge commercial boost.
21…Figure skating leap..AXEL
An Axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. It was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 World Figure Skating championships.
23…Tel __, Israel..AVIV
The full name of Israel’s second largest city is Tel Aviv-Yafo. Tel Aviv translates into “Spring Mound”, a name chosen in 1910.
25…Use an acetylene torch on..WELD
Acetylene is one of the simplest hydrocarbons, and has the formula C2H2. About 20% of the acetylene produced in the world is used for oxyacetylene gas welding and cutting.
33…PIN requester..ATM
One keys in a Personal Identification Number (PIN) when using an Automated Teller Machine (ATM).
35…Words before “Happy New Year!”..TWO, ONE
Three, two, one … Happy New Year! I mean, Happy 4th of July!
37…Explore eBay..SHOP
eBay is an auction site with a twist. If you don’t want to enter into an auction to purchase an item, there’s a “Buy It Now” price. Agree to pay it, and the item is yours!
39…Vintage roadster..REO
The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale and the REO Flying Cloud.
41…Pop singer Diamond..NEIL
I saw Neil Diamond in concert about 15 years ago, and I must say he does put on a great show. His voice is cracking a bit, but that didn’t seem to spoil anyone’s enjoyment. I’ve also seen Diamond interviewed a few times on television, and I wouldn’t say he has the most scintillating of personalities.
42…Medal of Honor recipients..HEROES
The highest military decoration awarded for gallantry is the Medal of Honor. The second highest medal is specific to the service, namely the Distinguished Service Cross (Army), the Navy Cross (Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard) and the Air Force Cross. The third highest award is the Silver Star.
48…Delta rival: Abbr…UAL
United Airlines (UAL) has a complicated history, but can trace its roots back to Aviation Enterprises, founded in 1944 and later called Texas International. The first use of the “United” name in the company’s history was when airplane pioneer William Boeing merged his Boeing Air Transport with Pratt & Whitney to form the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC) in 1929. The Air Mail Act of 1934 required that UATC be broken up into United Aircraft (which became United Technologies), the Boeing Aircraft Company and United Air Lines.
Delta was the world’s largest airline for a while (after merging with Northwest Airlines in 2008) and is also the oldest airline still operating in the US. Delta’s roots go back to 1924 before it started carrying passengers and was called Huff Daland Dusters, a crop dusting company based in Macon, Georgia. The name Delta Air Service was introduced in 1928.
57…Flu symptom..AGUE
An ague is a fever, one usually associated with malaria.
66…Spin docs..PR MEN
Public relations (PR)
68…Out of the wind..ALEE
“Alee” is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing “aweather”.
69…Shabby..SEEDY
We use the word “seedy” to mean “shabby”. The usage probably arose from the appearance of a flowering plant that has gone to seed.
Down
1…Soda __: fountain worker..JERK
In the halcyon days of yore, a “soda jerk” was usually a young person whose main job was to serve ice cream sodas in a drugstore. The server would “jerk” the handle on the soda fountain to dispense the soda water, giving the job its distinctive name.
5…Checkpoint requirements: Abbr…IDS
ID (identity document)
7…Curly-horned goat..IBEX
Ibex is a common name for various species of mountain goat. “Ibex” is a Latin name that was used for wild goats found in the Alps and Apennines in Europe.
9…GI show gp…USO
The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of FDR “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.
18…”Don’t Be Cruel” singer..ELVIS
“Don’t Be Cruel” was recorded by Elvis Presley in 1956. “Don’t Be Cruel” was released as an A-side, but the B-side turned out to be more successful; a tune called “Hound Dog” …
24…Simpson trial judge..ITO
Judge Lance Ito came in for a lot of criticism for his handling of the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The lead prosecutor in that trial was Marcia Clark, you might recall. I read the book that’s Clark wrote about the trial called “Without a Doubt”, and she pointed out one trait of Judge Ito that I think is quite telling. Ito would almost always refer to the prosecutor as “Marcia”, while addressing the men on both sides of the case as “Mister”.
29…Love, in Rome..AMORE
According to tradition, Rome was founded by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus. The pair had a heated argument about who should be allowed to name the city and Romulus hit Remus with a shovel, killing him. And so, “Rome” was born!
30…NBA great Shaquille..O’NEAL
Retired basketball player Shaquille O’Neal now appears regularly as an analyst on the NBA TV show “Inside the NBA”. Shaq has quite a career in the entertainment world. His first rap album, called “Shaq Diesel”, went platinum. He also starred in two of his own reality show: “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and “Shaq Vs.”
31…__ d’Alene, Idaho..COEUR
The city, lake and river in Idaho called Coeur d’Alene are all named for the Coeur d’Alene People, Native Americans who lived in the area when it was first explored by French Canadian fur traders. “Coeur d’Alene” translates from French as “heart of an awl”. The Native American people were given this name as they were perceived as shrewd traders by their Canadian counterparts.
32…Room-filling computer unveiled in 1946..ENIAC
The acronym ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (although many folks insist that the C was for “Computer”). ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was designed to calculate artillery firing tables, but it ended up being used early on to make calculations necessary for the development of the hydrogen bomb. Given its uses, it’s not surprising to hear that development of ENIAC was funded by the US Army during WWII.
36…Magazine you can read forward and backward?..ELLE
“Elle” magazine was founded in 1945 in France and today has the highest circulation of any fashion magazine in the world. “Elle” is the French word for “she”. “Elle” is published monthly worldwide, although you can pick up a weekly edition if you live in France.
43…Austrian “a”..EIN
The name “Austria” is a Latin variant of the German name for the country, “Österreich”. “Österreich” itself means “Eastern borderlands”, a reference to the country’s history as a prefecture of neighboring Bavaria to the west.
46…Tampa-to-Palm Beach dir…ESE
The Florida city of Tampa has been known as the Big Guava since the seventies. The term is imitative of New York’s “Big Apple”, and refers to the unsuccessful search for the reported wild guava trees that were once hoped to be the basis of a new industry for the area.
Palm Beach is the most easterly town in Florida, and is located on a barrier island. Palm Beach is separated from the cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth by the Intracoastal Waterway.
50…Unidentified flying radar blips..BOGIES
“Bogey” is WWII slang for an unidentified aircraft that is presumed to be hostile.
58…Golden St. campus..UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gets more applications from students than any other university in the country. UCLA also has more students enrolled than any other university in the state.
“The Golden State” has been the official nickname of California since 1968. The nickname reflects the expansion of the state’s economy that followed the discovery of gold, and also the fields of golden poppies seen growing wild across California in the spring.
60…Folksy Guthrie..ARLO
Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie. Both father and son are renowned for their singing of protest songs about social injustice. Arlo is most famous for his epic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, a song that lasts a full 18m 34s. In the song Guthrie tells how, after being drafted, he was rejected for service in the Vietnam War based on his criminal record. He had only one incident on his public record, a Thanksgiving Day arrest for littering and being a public nuisance when he was 18-years-old.
61…Tiny time meas…PSEC
A picosecond is one trillionth of a second, and is correctly abbreviated to “ps” in the SI system of measurements. I guess that’s what “psec” is meant to be …
65…”__ Misérables”..LES
Victor Hugo’s famous 1862 novel “Les Misérables”, has been translated into English several times. However, the title is usually left in the original French as a successful translation of “les misérables” seems to be elusive. Some suggestions for an English title are “The Wretched”, “The Victims” and “The Dispossessed”.
Complete List of Clues and Answers
Across
1…Son of God, in a Bach cantata..JESU
5…Sacred wading bird of ancient Egypt..IBIS
9…English class topic..USAGE
14…Novelist Hunter..EVAN
15…Outstanding credit..DEBT
16…__ Valley, Calif.: 1960 Winter Olympics site..SQUAW
17…Pre-exam review session..REFRESHER COURSE
20…Prepare to propose..KNEEL
21…Figure skating leap..AXEL
22…Satisfied sounds..AAHS
23…Tel __, Israel..AVIV
25…Use an acetylene torch on..WELD
27…Multinational military alliance..COALITION FORCE
33…PIN requester..ATM
34…In a bit..SOON
35…Words before “Happy New Year!”..TWO, ONE
37…Explore eBay..SHOP
39…Vintage roadster..REO
41…Pop singer Diamond..NEIL
42…Medal of Honor recipients..HEROES
45…State firmly..AVER
48…Delta rival: Abbr…UAL
49…Reporter’s trustworthy contact..RELIABLE SOURCE
52…”What have I gotten myself __?”..INTO
53…Bring in from the fields..REAP
54…Cries from successful solvers..AHAS
57…Flu symptom..AGUE
59…Sounds of thunder..CLAPS
63…Coin-operated kiddie ride..MECHANICAL HORSE
66…Spin docs..PR MEN
67…”If all __ fails … “..ELSE
68…Out of the wind..ALEE
69…Shabby..SEEDY
70…Puts into words..SAYS
71…Where boats tie up..DOCK
Down
1…Soda __: fountain worker..JERK
2…Tied, as a score..EVEN
3…Out of danger..SAFE
4…Hard to believe..UNREAL
5…Checkpoint requirements: Abbr…IDS
6…Conduct, in report card comments..BEHAVIOR
7…Curly-horned goat..IBEX
8…Sprinkled widely..STREWN
9…GI show gp…USO
10…Detachment of fighter jets..SQUADRON
11…Subtle glow..AURA
12…Nasty cut..GASH
13…Fleecy farm females..EWES
18…”Don’t Be Cruel” singer..ELVIS
19…Chin indentation..CLEFT
24…Simpson trial judge..ITO
26…Weather map “L”..LOW
27…Tens and twenties..CASH
28…”None of the above” choice..OTHER
29…Love, in Rome..AMORE
30…NBA great Shaquille..O’NEAL
31…__ d’Alene, Idaho..COEUR
32…Room-filling computer unveiled in 1946..ENIAC
36…Magazine you can read forward and backward?..ELLE
38…Like shiny shoes..POLISHED
40…Flipped during frying, as eggs..OVER EASY
43…Austrian “a”..EIN
44…The devil..SATAN
46…Tampa-to-Palm Beach dir…ESE
47…Pest control target..ROACH
50…Unidentified flying radar blips..BOGIES
51…Transfer, as computer data..UPLOAD
54…Bandstand boosters..AMPS
55…”Present!”..HERE!
56…Summit..ACME
58…Golden St. campus..UCLA
60…Folksy Guthrie..ARLO
61…Tiny time meas…PSEC
62…Search for..SEEK
64…Vague quantity..ANY
65…”__ Misérables”..LES