Tag: Fault line? crossword clue

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Constructed by: Joe Deeney

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Finishing Touches

Themed answers each FINISH with a synonym of “TOUCH”:

• 61A Details that make things perfect, and what 18-, 24-, 39-, and 53-Across have : FINISHING TOUCHES

• 18A Wildflower with showy red bracts : INDIAN PAINTBRUSH
• 24A Mockumentary about “one of England’s loudest bands” : THIS IS SPINAL TAP
• 39A Line in Hamlet’s “To sleep, perchance to dream” soliloquy : THERE’S THE RUB
• 53A Style in a swimming medley : BUTTERFLY STROKE

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

Bill’s time: 7m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Debit card feature : CHIP

The global technical standard for the security chips in credit and debit cards is called EMV, an initialism standing for the three companies that originally created it: Europay, Mastercard, and Visa.

5A Petro-Canada rival : ESSO

Petro-Canada started out as a government-owned corporation in 1976. “Petro-Canada” is now a brand name of Suncor Energy.

9A God, in the Haggadah : ADONAI

“Adonai” is a Hebrew name for God.

The Haggadah is an ancient Jewish text that is traditionally read aloud at the Passover seder. The Haggadah (“telling” in Hebrew) acts as a guide to the seder ritual, which commemorates the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt.

15A Frost : HOAR

The Old English word “har” meant “gray, venerable, old”, and came into English as “hoar” (and later “hoary”) with the same meaning. The term “hoar-frost” dates back to the 13th century, and reflects the similarity of the white feathers of frost to the gray/white of an old man’s beard.

17A Swerve dangerously : CAREEN

The term “careen” dates back to 1590 when it meant “to turn a ship on its side, exposing the keel”. The word evolved from the Middle French word “carene” meaning “keel”. Our modern usage, meaning to lean or tilt, only dates back as far as the 1880s. Careen should not be confused with “career”, a verb meaning to move rapidly. One has to “career” from side-to-side in order to “careen”.

18A Wildflower with showy red bracts : INDIAN PAINTBRUSH

About 200 species of wildflowers native to the Americas go by the name Indian paintbrush. Their flowers aren’t very colorful, but modified leaves, called bracts, are a vibrant scarlet color, and they surround the relatively drab flowers. Indian paintbrush is a hemiparasite, and so has a clever survival strategy This means that while it can produce its own food through photosynthesis, its roots also tap into the roots of neighboring plants to steal water and nutrients.

22A MIT Sloan deg. : MBA

MIT’s School of Management is named for MIT graduate Alfred P. Sloan, a former chairman of General Motors.

23A Photoreceptor cell : ROD

The retina is the tissue that lines the inside of the eye, and is the tissue that is light-sensitive. There are (mainly) two types of cells in the retina that are sensitive to light, namely rods and cones. Rods are cells that best function in very dim light and only provide black-and-white vision. Cones on the other hand function in brighter light and can perceive color.

24A Mockumentary about “one of England’s loudest bands” : THIS IS SPINAL TAP

“This Is Spın̈al Tap” is a rock musical mockumentary about the fictional band Spinal Tap, directed by the great Rob Reiner. I love Rob Reiner’s work, but this movie … not so much …

31A With 1-Down, martial art involving slow movements : TAI …
1D See 31-Across : … CHI

More correctly called “t‘ai chi ch‘uan”, which translates to “supreme ultimate fist”, tai chi is a martial art that is mostly practiced to improve overall health and increase longevity.

32A Leaves partway through : BAILS

The phrase “to bail out” (sometimes just “to bail”) means to leave suddenly. We’ve been using the term since the early thirties, when it originated with airline pilots. To bail out is to make a parachute jump.

39A Line in Hamlet’s “To sleep, perchance to dream” soliloquy : THERE’S THE RUB

The phrase “To sleep — perchance to dream” comes from Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy:

To die — to sleep.
To sleep — perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!

A rub is a difficulty or obstruction. The usage of the term “rub” predates Shakespeare, and comes from the game of lawn bowls in which a rub is a fault in the bowling surface.

43A Peace activist Yoko : ONO

Artist Yoko Ono operates the website ImaginePeace.com. I checked it out once and found these two lovely quotes:

• Imagine all the people living life in peace … John Lennon
• A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is reality … Yoko Ono

44A Sigma follower : TAU

Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the letter that gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

50A Gravel size : PEA

Gravel is a loose mixture of rock fragments. It is classified by the size of those fragments. For example, pea gravel comprises pea-size, rounded stones.

53A Style in a swimming medley : BUTTERFLY STROKE

The butterfly is the newest swimming stroke used in competition, having been introduced in 1933. It was originally used as a variant of the breaststroke, in an attempt to gain an advantage in speed over swimmers using the traditional breaststroke movement. The butterfly was carved out as a style of its own in 1952, and made its Olympic debut in 1956.

58A Boxer Muhammad : ALI

Boxer Muhammad Ali is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the greatest sports figures of the 1900s. In 1999, Ali was named “Sportsman of the Century” by “Sports Illustrated” and “Sports Personality of the Century” by the BBC.

60A McDonald’s magnate Ray : KROC

The original McDonald’s restaurant was opened in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald as a barbecue restaurant. The brothers then moved into fast food hamburgers, eventually selling out to one of their franchise agents, Ray Kroc. It was Ray Kroc who really led the company to its worldwide success. He was played by Michael Keaton in the movie about Ray Kroc’s business life called “The Founder”.

69A Ashram adviser : GURU

“Guru” is a Hindi word meaning “teacher” or “priest”.

“Ashram” is a term used in the Hindu tradition to describe a place of spiritual retreat, one that is typically located in a remote location conducive to spiritual instruction and meditation.

Down

5D “Ready Player One” author Cline : ERNEST

Writer Ernest Cline is best known for his science-fiction novels “Ready Player One” (2011) and “Armada” (2015). Cline also co-wrote the screenplay for a movie adaptation of “Ready Player One” that was directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 2018.

6D 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.

8D Savanna grazer : ORIBI

The oribi is a small antelope found in parts of eastern and southern Africa. Male oribis will stake out a territory and defend it from other males. When an intruder enters their territory, they will emit a high-pitched whistle that alerts other males in the area. This whistle is unique to each individual oribi and serves as a way for them to identify themselves to other males.

11D NHL great Bobby : ORR

In the 1970 Stanley Cup final, Bobby Orr scored the winning goal, giving the Boston Bruins a victory over the St. Louis Blues. Orr was so excited that he leapt into the air towards his teammates, sliding into their embrace as he landed on the ice. A photographer caught Orr in full horizontal flight, resulting in one of the most famous sports photographs of all time.

12D Like brain activity : NEURAL

A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron. The long nerve fiber that conducts signals away from the neuron is known as the axon. The axon is surrounded by a myelin sheath, which acts as an electrical insulator and which increases the rate the impulses pass along the axon.

13D __ Fables : AESOP’S

Aesop is remembered today as a fabulist, a writer of fables. Aesop lived in ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

19D D-backs, on a scoreboard : ARI

The Arizona Diamondbacks (also “D-backs”) joined Major League Baseball’s National League in 1998. By winning the World Series in 2001, they became the fastest expansion team to do so in Major League history.

20D Photographer Goldin : NAN

Nan Goldin is an American photographer who works out of New York, Berlin and Paris. She is known for her work featuring LGBT models, and for images highlighting the HIV crisis and the opioid epidemic.

24D Big bang letters? : TNT

Trinitrotoluene (TNT)

35D Article of faith : TENET

A tenet is an article of faith, something that is “held” to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “he/she/it holds”.

41D Lewis in the News : HUEY

Huey Lewis and the News are a band based in San Francisco. When the movie “Ghostbusters” came out in 1984, the band sued Ray Parker, Jr. who wrote the film’s theme song, claiming that it was very similar to their own song “I Want a New Drug”. The case was settled out of court, and the following year “Huey Lewis and the News” made the most of an opportunity to write a movie theme themselves. Their smash hit “The Power of Love” was written for “Back to the Future”, and propelled the band into stardom.

42D Fashion style related to luxe grunge : BOHO CHIC

Boho chic is a style of fashion that grew out of the bohemian and hippie looks.

Luxe grunge is a fashion style that builds on the anti-fashion aesthetic of 90s grunge that featured the likes of flannel shirts and ripped jeans. The “luxe” version features similar items of clothing, but made from luxurious materials and with a more polished finish.

49D Liberia neighbor : GUINEA

The Republic of Guinea is often called Guinea-Conakry, to distinguish it from its neighbor Guinea-Bissau. It is a country in West Africa with a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. Guinea is known as the “water tower of West Africa” because the Niger, Gambia, and Senegal rivers all have their sources in its highlands.

55D Viper teeth : FANGS

The Viperidae are a family of venomous snakes commonly referred to as vipers.

64D Female lobster : HEN

A male lobster is called a cock, and a female a hen. A lobster weighing less than a pound is called a chicken.

65D Three-legged race, briefly? : TRI

An Ironman Triathlon is a race involving a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon run of just over 26 miles. The idea for the race came out of a debate between some runners in the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay. They were questioning whether runners, swimmers or bikers were the most fit athletes. The debaters decided to combine three local events to determine the answer, inviting athletes from all three disciplines. The events that were mimicked in the first triathlon were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). The idea was that whoever finishes first would be called “the Iron Man”. The first triathlon was run in 1978, with fifteen starters and only twelve finishers. The race format is used all over the world now, but the Hawaiian Ironman is the event that everyone wants to win.

67D Matching game with diamonds, squiggles, and ovals : SET

The card game Set is a visual puzzle where players identify a “set” of three cards from a group of twelve. Each card features diamonds, squiggles, or ovals with four distinct attributes (symbol, color, number, and shading). The game was invented in 1974 by geneticist Marsha Falco, who initially designed the card system not as a game, but as a tool to help her categorize genetic data from the German Shepherds she was studying.