Tag: Flight risk? crossword clue

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Constructed by: Francie Jones
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Tainted Love

Themed answers are song titles in which the first letter of the word “LOVE” has been TAINTED, changed:

• 57A 1981 Top 10 hit for Soft Cell, and a feature of the answers to the starred clues? : TAINTED LOVE

17A *Game delay prevented by a chess clock? : ENDLESS MOVE (from “Endless Love”)

27A *”Has anyone found our pigeon?” : WHERE IS THE DOVE? (from “Where Is the Love?”)

45A *Completely hooked on swearing by a Roman god? : ADDICTED TO JOVE (from “Addicted to Love”)

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

Bill’s time: 9m 33s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Automaker with a six-star logo : SUBARU

Subaru is the automobile division of Fuji Heavy Industries, a Japanese conglomerate. “Subaru” is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. As a result, the Subaru logo is also a cluster of stars.

16 Not talking : MUM

The phrase “mum’s the word” has been around since the early 1700s. “Mum” has been used to mean “silent” for centuries, the idea being that “mum” is the sound made when the lips are tightly sealed.

17 *Game delay prevented by a chess clock? : ENDLESS MOVE (from “Endless Love”)

Speed chess is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. There is speed, and there is speed:

• Rapid chess: each player has 15 minutes to make all of their moves.
• Blitz chess: each player has 5 minutes to make all of their moves.
• Bullet chess: each player has 3 minutes to make all of their moves.

“Endless Love” is a Lionel Richie song that he recorded as a duet with Diana Ross. That recording was named the greatest duet of all time by “Billboard” magazine.

19 WNBA player, e.g. : PRO

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was founded in 1996. The WNBA had to compete with the American Basketball League (ABL), a professional women’s basketball league that started playing games the same year the WNBA was founded. The ABL folded in its third season.

22 Cartoon supplier of giant anvils : ACME

The Acme Corporation is a fictional company used mainly by Looney Tunes, and within the Looney Tunes empire it appears mostly in “Road Runner” cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is always receiving a new piece of gear from Acme designed to finally capture the Road Runner, but the equipment always leads to his downfall.

25 Pac-12 school in L.A. : 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.

27 *”Has anyone found our pigeon?” : WHERE IS THE DOVE? (from “Where Is the Love?”)

Taxonomically, doves and pigeons are the only members of the order Columbidae. The terms “dove” and “pigeon” are often used interchangeably. Scientifically speaking, dove species tend to be smaller than pigeon species. Colloquially though, many refer to doves as the white or nearly white species in the family.

“Where Is the Love?” is a 2003 recording by hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas. The song was co-written by Justin Timberlake, who also provides vocals. But, he did so without getting performance credit on the single when it was released.

32 Aveeno grain : OAT

Aveeno is a manufacturer of skincare and haircare products that was founded in 1945. The name Aveeno comes from the Latin name for the common oat, i.e. Avena sativa.

33 IPO launchers : COS

An initial public offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

34 Norse god of war : ODIN

In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. He is usually depicted as having one eye, reflecting the story of how he gave one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom.

35 European capital : LISBON

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. It is the westernmost capital city in Europe, and indeed is the westernmost large city on the continent. Lisbon is also the oldest city in Western Europe, and was founded hundreds of years before London, Paris and Rome.

37 Pet collar attachments : ID TAGS

Identity document (ID)

41 Boxers Laila and Muhammad : ALIS

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.

Laila Ali is the daughter of the great Muhammad Ali and is a very capable boxer in her own right. Laila’s professional record is an impressive 24 wins, including 21 knockouts. Now retired, she never lost a fight, and nor did she ever draw. One of those victories was against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, daughter of her father’s nemesis Joe Frazier. Laila is not a bad dancer either, coming in third place in the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars”.

45 *Completely hooked on swearing by a Roman god? : ADDICTED TO JOVE (from “Addicted to Love”)

Jupiter, also known as Jove, was the king of the gods in the Roman tradition, as well as the god of sky and thunder. Jupiter was the Roman equivalent to the Greek god Zeus.

“Addicted to Love” is a 1986 song by English rock singer Robert Palmer. While the song is notable in its own right, it is also notable for the accompanying music video. The video shows Palmer performing in front of a “band” comprising female models made to look like mannequins.

49 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. The sheltered side of an island, for example, might be referred to as the “lee” side.

50 Celery stalk : RIB

There’s an urban myth that the process of eating celery burns more calories than the body can obtain from the vegetable through digestion. While celery is indeed a low-calorie food, eating it does provide a net-positive number of calories.

56 Cantina condiment : SAL

In Spanish, one might find “sal” (salt) on the table in a “cantina” (canteen, café).

57 1981 Top 10 hit for Soft Cell, and a feature of the answers to the starred clues? : TAINTED LOVE

Soft Cell are duo from England whose music falls into the “synthpop/technopop” genre, music from the eighties that features the synthesizer as a predominant instrument. Soft Cell’s biggest hit by far is a great song called “Tainted Love”, which they released in 1981.

61 Versatile blackjack card : ACE

In the card game blackjack, an ace has the point value of one or eleven. When one of the two cards dealt to a player is an ace, the hand is called “soft”. This means that the player cannot go bust by taking another card, as the ace can be revalued at “one” if necessary in order to stay under 21.

62 Carrie-__ Moss of “Jessica Jones” : ANNE

Carrie-Anne Moss is an actress from Canada who is perhaps best known for playing the character Trinity in “The Matrix” trilogy of films.

“Jessica Jones” is a TV series produced by Marvel Television. The title character is a former superhero, played by Krysten Ritter, who runs her own private detective agency.

65 Space race initials : USSR

The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite towards the end of 1957 in a development that shocked the establishment in the US. Within months, President Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now DARPA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Space Race had begun …

Down

1 Sugar suffix : -OSE

Sugars are usually named using the “-ose” suffix e.g., glucose, fructose, sucrose.

2 Enemy in “Mulan” : HUN

“Mulan” is a 1998 animated feature film made by Walt Disney studios. The film is based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, a woman who takes the place of her father in the army and serves with distinction for twelve years without reward. Disney’s lead character was given the name Fa Mulan. Donny Osmond provided the singing voice for one of the lead characters, after which his sons remarked that he had finally made it in show business as he was in a Disney film.

3 Agenda placeholder : TBD

To be determined (TBD)

4 Bikini top option : HALTER

The origin of the word “bikini”, describing a type of bathing suit, seems very uncertain. One story is that it is named after the Bikini Atoll, site of American A-bomb tests in the forties and fifties. The name “bikini” was chosen for the swim-wear because of the “explosive” effect it had on men who saw a woman wearing the garment …

6 Mastodon feature : TUSK

Mastodons were large mammals that were related to the modern elephant. Mastodons roamed the forest of North and Central America until they became extinct about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. Their extinction is believed to have come about due to a rapid change in climate.

8 Prefix with dilator or scope : BRONCHO-

A bronchodilator is a medication that relaxes the muscles in the airways, making it easier to breathe. They are used to treat asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other lung conditions. Bronchodilators can be taken in a variety of ways, including by inhaler, nebulizer, or oral tablet.

A bronchoscope is a thin, flexible tube with a light and a camera on the end. It is used to look inside the airways and lungs.

11 “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” technique : IMPROV

The American improv comedy TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway” is a spin-off of a very successful British show of the same name. The British TV show is itself a spin-off of a BBC radio show that I well remember. Lots of fun …

12 Parish figure : CURATE

A curate is a clergyman in certain churches, someone who is focused on the care of the souls of the parish members. The term “curate” comes from the Latin “curare” meaning “to take care of”.

18 Whoville creator : SEUSS

The Whos live in Whoville in Dr. Seuss’ children’s book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”

22 AFB truant : AWOL

AWOL (absent without leave)

Air Force Base (AFB)

23 __ latte : CHAI

Chai is a drink made from spiced black tea, honey and milk, with “chai” being the Hindi word for “tea”. We often called tea “a cup of char” growing up in Ireland, with “char” being our slang word for tea, derived from “chai”.

24 Team whose first manager was Casey Stengel : METS

Casey Stengel was a professional baseball player, playing from 1912-1925 and managing from 1934-1965. Stengel was born in Kansas City. He had German heritage, and so was called “Dutch” for much of his early life. As he acquired fame on the baseball field, Stengel was given the nickname “Casey”, largely because he came from Kansas City (“KC”) and also because of the popularity of the poem “Casey at the Bat”. He was a smart and erudite guy when it came to baseball, so sportswriters tended to call him “The Old Professor”.

28 Gut bacteria : E COLI

Escherichia coli (E. coli) are usually harmless bacteria found in the human gut, working away quite happily. However, there are some strains that can produce lethal toxins. These strains can make their way into the food chain from animal fecal matter that comes into contact with food designated for human consumption.

29 Column style : IONIC

The Ionic was one of the three classical orders of architecture, the others being the Doric and Corinthian. An Ionic column is relatively ornate. It usually has grooves running up and down its length and at the top there is a “scroll” design called a “volute”. The scroll motif makes Ionic columns popular for the design of academic buildings. The term “Ionic” means “pertaining to Ionia”, with Ionia being an ancient territory that is located in modern-day Turkey.

36 The “B” of RBG : BADER

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) served on the US Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg was the second woman to join the Court, and was nominated by President Bill Clinton. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999 and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. During that time she did not miss one day on the bench. In 2009 Justice Ginsburg had surgery for pancreatic cancer, and was back to work 12 days later. She had left-lung lobectomy to remove cancerous nodules in 2018, which forced Justice Ginsburg to miss oral argument in January 2019, for the first time since joining the court 25 years earlier. She finally succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2020. Much of Ginsburg’s life is recounted in the excellent 2018 movie “On the Basis of Sex”.

38 Cry to a matey : AHOY!

“Ahoy!” is a nautical term used to signal a vessel. When the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, he suggested that “ahoy” be used as a standard greeting when answering a call. However, Thomas Edison came up with “hello”, and we’ve been using that ever since.

45 Llamalike mammal : ALPACA

Alpacas are like small llamas, but unlike llamas were never beasts of burden. Alpacas were bred specifically for the fleece. As such, there are no known wild alpacas these days, even in their native Peru.

47 Former CEO profiled in the book “DisneyWar” : EISNER

Michael Eisner took over as CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 1984. Eisner has been attributed with turning Disney around, as the company was floundering really since 1966 when Walt Disney died. Eisner had a good run, but ran afoul of Walt Disney’s nephew Roy Disney who led a boardroom revolt that resulted in Eisner’s resignation in 2005.

48 Flight risk? : JET LAG

For many years, I had to deal with jet lag almost every couple of months. I swear by the diet supplement melatonin, which you can buy over the counter here in the US. But, I am no doctor so don’t listen to anything I say …

49 Black tea variety : ASSAM

Assam, located in northeastern India, is the largest tea-producing state in the country. It is also famous for its silk production, particularly the golden muga silk.

55 Produit de la tête : IDEE

In French, an “idée” (idea) is a “produit de la tête” (product of the mind).

57 Letter between sigma and upsilon : 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.

59 Confirm the credentials of, say : VET

The verb “to vet” comes from the term “veterinarian”. The idea is that to vet something is to subject it to careful examination, like a veterinarian checking out an animal.