Tag: Feature of most debit cards crossword clue

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Constructed by: Ilana Levene
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Shifting Sands

Themed answers each include the word “SAND” hidden within. That “SAND” SHIFTS from left to right as we descend the grid:

• 55A Metaphor for constant, unpredictable change, or the pattern made by this puzzle’s circles : SHIFTING SANDS

• 20A Chicago’s Italian beef, for one : STEAK SANDWICH
• 34A Pronouns on a towel set, in some families : HIS AND HERS
• 41A La Jolla sch. with a top-ranked surf team : UC SAN DIEGO

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

Bill’s time: 5m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Feature of most debit cards : CHIP

Smart payment cards are credit and debit cards that include an integrated circuit chip for security. Smart cards can be categorized into two main types. Here in the US, we use chip and signature cards, meaning that we use a signature to identify the bearer of the card. Most Europeans use chip and PIN cards, which require the bearer to provide a PIN instead of a signature.

14 Sitarist Shankar : RAVI

Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Shankar was the father of the pop singer Norah Jones.

15 Norwegian capital : OSLO

Oslo is the capital of Norway. The city burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash too.

16 Heroic knight of medieval Spain : EL CID

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar was known as El Cid Campeador, which translates as “The Champion” or perhaps “The Lord, Master of Military Arts”. El Cid was a soldier who fought under the rule of King Alfonso VI of Spain (among others). However, he was sent into exile by the King in 1080, after acting beyond his authorization in battle. El Cid then offered his services to his former foes, the Moorish kings, After a number of years building a reputation with the Moors, he was recalled from exile by Alfonso. By this time El Cid was very much his own man. Nominally under the orders of Alfonso, he led a combined army of Spanish and Moorish troops and took the city of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast in 1094, making it his headquarters and home. He died in Valencia, quite peacefully, in 1099.

22 Distress call : SOS

The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots). That said, in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so “SOS” is really only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are back-formations that were introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.

27 New Yorker who’s the youngest woman to serve in Congress, familiarly : AOC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a politician who is often referred to by her initials “AOC”. A Democrat, she was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, representing part of the Bronx, Queens and Rikers Island in New York City. When she took office in 2019 at the age of 29, AOC became the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress.

28 Curly coif : AFRO

A coif is a hairdo. The term “coif” comes from an old French term “coife” describing a skull-cap that was worn under a helmet back in the late 13th century.

30 __ Mahal : TAJ

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is a magnificent marble mausoleum. It was built in the mid-17th century by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her 14th child in 1631. When Shah Jahan himself died in 1666, he was buried in the Taj Mahal, alongside his wife.

31 Human rights lawyer Clooney : AMAL

Amal Alamuddin married celebrated Hollywood actor George Clooney in 2014. Alamuddin was born in Beirut, Lebanon and moved with her family to London when she was a toddler. She is a lawyer specializing in international law, with one of her more renowned clients being the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.

39 Early web portal : MSN

MSN was originally launched in 1995 as a dial-up service called “The Microsoft Network”. At the time, Microsoft was competing with America Online (AOL) for dominance in the emerging consumer Internet market, and losing the battle. In response, Microsoft revamped the service and relaunched it as a free web portal in 1998.

41 La Jolla sch. with a top-ranked surf team : UC SAN DIEGO

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is located in La Jolla. The school was founded in 1960 as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Appropriately enough, UCSD’s athletic teams are known as the Tritons, and the school mascot is King Triton.

The name of the city of La Jolla is often said to be a corruption of the Spanish “La Joya” meaning “The Jewel”, giving rise to the city’s nickname “Jewel City”. Scholars dispute this etymology, but it makes for good marketing.

44 Exam for jrs. : PSAT

Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)

46 Penny : CENT

The official name of our smallest denomination coin is “cent”, and our use of the word “penny” is just a colloquialism derived from the British coin of the same name. In the UK, the plural of penny is “pence”, whereas we have “pennies” in our pockets in the US.

49 West Coast nabe known for Chicano culture : EAST LA

East Los Angeles (usually “East LA”) is the most populous census-designated place in California, and is home to over 125,000 people.

51 Addams cousin : ITT

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

They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family.

”

59 Sing a lullaby, perhaps : CROON

A lullaby is a soothing song, one usually used to quiet children. The term “lullaby” has its roots in Middle English and is related to our contemporary word verb “to lull”, as in “to lull to sleep”.

62 Language of runes : NORSE

A rune is a character in an alphabet that is believed to have mysterious powers. In Norse mythology, the runic alphabet was said to have a divine origin.

65 “Rudolph the Red-__ Reindeer” : NOSED

The song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was written by Johnny Marks, and was based on the story created by Marks’ brother-in-law Robert L. May.

All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games.

67 Some 35mm cameras : SLRS

At the beginning of the 20th century, 35mm was chosen as a standard size for film used in still cameras. 35mm was selected as it was already the standard film size used in motion pictures.

Down

1 Easy-to-grow herb in the mustard family : CRESS

Garden cress is a leafy vegetable that is closely related to watercress and mustard. Cress is particularly popular in the UK where it is a common ingredient in sandwiches. It has a very pleasant peppery taste.

3 Wall-climbing vines : IVIES

The species of flowering plant Hedera helix is variously referred to as common ivy, English ivy, or usually just plain “ivy”. “Hedera” is the generic term for “ivy”, and “helix” is Greek for “spiral, twist, turn”.

5 Neil who has been a Supreme Court justice since 2017 : GORSUCH

Neil Gorsuch was nominated to the Supreme court by the Trump administration, and assumed office in 2017. Gorsuch took the seat on the court that was left vacant with the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. Gorsuch is the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside another justice for whom he once clerked, doing so for Anthony Kennedy from 1993 to 1994.

6 From Japan, e.g. : ASIAN

The Japanese names for “Japan” are “Nippon” and “Nihon”. These translate literally as “the sun’s origin”, but the more ornate translation of “Land of the Rising Sun” is often cited.

8 Gavel banger’s word : SOLD!

The small hammer that one raps on a table or desk to call a meeting to order, or perhaps to signify a sale at an auction, is called a gavel. The term “gavel” is actually American English, and is a word that emerged in the early 19th century.

9 Beings who are part deity, part human : DEMIGODS

In mythology, a demigod was a half-god, the offspring of one parent who was a god and one parent who was human. The list of demigods includes the Greek hero Heracles and the Celtic hero Cú Chulainn.

10 Jazz great Coltrane : ALICE

Alice Coltrane was a jazz pianist and, unusually for the genre, a jazz harpist. Born Alice McLeod, she married fellow jazz musician John Coltrane in 1965. In the mid-seventies, she transitioned from the world of music to studying and practicing her Hindu religion. That said, later in her life she recorded several albums of devotional songs from the Hindu tradition.

11 Businesses that face liquidation every year? : ICE HOTELS

As the name suggests, ice hotels are temporary structures built in cold climates for the winter. Even the beds are made from snow or ice, with furs and sleeping bags preserving body heat. They sound very cool (pun!) …

13 Gridiron distances: Abbr. : YDS

We never used the word “gridiron” when I was growing up in Ireland (meaning a grill used for cooking food over an open fire). So, maybe I am excused for taking two decades living in the US to work out that a football field gridiron is so called because the layout of yard lines over the field looks like a gridiron used in cooking.

25 Butterfly stage : LARVA

The larva is an intermediate stage in the development of an insect. All four stages are embryo, larva, pupa and imago. “Larva” is a Latin word that can translate as “mask”. The term is used in the context of insects as the larval stage can “mask” the appearance of the adult.

Butterflies and moths belong to the order lepidoptera. The term “lepidoptera” comes from the Greek “lepido-” meaning “scale” and “pteron” meaning wing. Butterflies and moths are insects with scaly bodies and large, triangular wings.

27 Utah ski resort : ALTA

Alta ski resort actually lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont). The ski resort of Snowbird, located next to Alta, has been in operation since 1971.

29 Rattlesnake tooth : FANG

The scales covering the tip of a rattlesnake’s tail are made of keratin, the same structural protein that makes up the outer layer of human skin, as well as our hair and nails. The rattlesnake shakes its tail vigorously to warn off potential predators, causing the hollow scales to vibrate against one another and resulting in that scary “rattle” sound. The rattler’s tail muscles “fire” an incredible fifty times a second to achieve that effect, demonstrating one of the fastest muscular movements in the whole animal kingdom.

42 Like many Gallaudet students : DEAF

Gallaudet University is a private school in Washington, D.C. that is focused on the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. Gallaudet was founded in 1864 and is officially a bilingual institution, with classes held in both English and American sign language (ASL).

48 “The __-bitsy spider … ” : ITSY

The Itsy Bitsy Spider crawled up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,
And the Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the spout again.

52 How smoked oysters may be packed : IN OIL

A group of oysters is commonly referred to as a “bed”, and oysters can be farmed in man-made beds. The largest body of water producing oysters in the US today is Chesapeake Bay, although the number of beds continues to dwindle due to pollution and overfishing. Back in the 1800s, most of the world’s oysters came from New York Harbor.

56 Bigelow products : TEAS

The Bigelow Tea Company is a family-owned business that was founded in 1945 by Ruth C. Bigelow. The company is headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, and owns America’s only tea plantation, which is located in Charleston, South Carolina.

57 Fraction of a foot : INCH

Our term “ounce” (abbreviated to “oz.”) comes from the Latin “uncia”, which was 1/12 of a “libra”, the Roman “pound”. “Uncia” is also the derivation of our word “inch”, 1/12 of a foot.

59 “This Morning With Kasie Hunt” channel : CNN

Kasie Hunt is a broadcast journalist and political correspondent. Her career really took off with MSNBC, where she worked from 2013 through 2021. She then became the first on-air talent to join the short-lived CNN+ streaming service, but moved over to CNN when that service shut down.

60 Joey of kid-lit : ROO

In Australia, male kangaroos are known by several names including bucks, boomers, jacks or old men. Females are called does, flyers, or jills. There seems to be just one name for young kangaroos, i.e. joeys. A group of kangaroos might be called a mob, troop or court.