Tag: Fossil-preserving spots crossword clue

Advertisement

Constructed by: Daniel Hrynick
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: The Sky Is Falling

Themed answers each include the word “SKY” hidden within. Those words “SKY” are FALLING through the grid, all in the same three columns:

• 60A Chicken Little’s warning, and an apt title for this puzzle? : THE SKY IS FALLING

• 20A “Take time to consider … ” : ASK YOURSELF …
• 40A 1983 Tom Cruise teen comedy : RISKY BUSINESS
• 47A Hangout for a long-distance couple : SKYPE DATE
• 60A Chicken Little’s warning, and an apt title for this puzzle? : THE SKY IS FALLING

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

Bill’s time: 7m 36s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Lawyer Goodman in the “Breaking Bad” franchise : SAUL

The AMC drama “Breaking Bad” is a well-written show about a high school teacher stricken by lung cancer who turns to a life of crime to make money. It turns out that the teacher has a talent for making high-quality crystal meth. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as a producer and writer of “The X-Files”. There is a “Breaking Bad” spin-off show running on AMC called “Better Call Saul” that focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman. If I’m honest, I enjoyed “Better Call Saul” even more than the original show …

5 Brazen : BRASH

Someone described as brazen might also be described as shameless. The term “brazen” comes from the Middle English “brasen” meaning “made of brass”. The suggestion is that a shameless person has a hardened, brass-like face. And so, the similar-meaning word “brassy” has the same etymology.

15 New __, India : DELHI

New Delhi is the capital city of India. The city resides within the National Capital Territory of Delhi (otherwise known as the metropolis of Delhi). New Delhi and Delhi, therefore, are two different things.

16 Gulf States title : EMIR

The Persian Gulf is in effect an inland sea, although it technically is an offshoot of the Indian Ocean. The outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean is one of the most famous maritime “choke points” in the world, and is known as the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s supply of petroleum passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

17 Actor Idris : ELBA

Idris Elba is a British actor and DJ. He was born in London to a Sierra Leonean father and a Ghanaian mother. Elba’s breakthrough role came in 2002, when he was cast as Stringer Bell in the HBO series “The Wire”.

18 City in Provence : ARLES

Quite a few years ago now, I had the privilege of living just a short car-ride from the beautiful city of Arles in the South of France. Although Arles has a long and colorful history, the Romans had a prevailing influence over the city’s design. Arles has a spectacular Roman amphitheater, arch, circus as well as old walls that surround the center of the city. In more modern times, it was a place Vincent van Gogh often visited, and was where he painted many of his most famous works, including “Cafe Terrace at Night” and “Bedroom in Arles”.

Provence is a geographical region in France, in the south of the country. The region was once a Roman province called Provincia Romana, and was the first Roman province beyond the Alps. It is this Roman name “Provincia Romana” that gives Provence its name. Something related to Provence is referred to as “Provençal” (note the use of the cedilla, even in English).

19 Energizer options : AAAS

We are all fairly familiar with the Energizer Bunny, I am guessing. It was introduced in 1989 to promote Energizer batteries, by parodying the Duracell Bunny that made its debut in 1973.

23 “Tiny Bubbles” singer : DON HO

Honolulu-born singer Don Ho wasa a veteran of the US Airforce. He joined up in 1954 and graduated from flight school as a fighter pilot. However, he spent much of his active service flying C-97 Stratofreighters.

1966’s “Tiny Bubbles” was the signature song of singer and entertainer Don Ho. Written by Leon Pober, it was intended for Lawrence Welk, but the celebrated bandleader turned the song down.

26 Under-the-sink piece : P-TRAP

Most sinks in a home have a P-trap in the outlet pipe that empties into the sewer line. This P-trap has at its heart a U-bend that retains a small amount of water after the sink is emptied. This plug of water serves as a seal to prevent sewer gases entering into the home. By virtue of its design, the U-bend can also capture any heavy objects (like an item of jewelry) that might fall through the plughole. But the “trapping” of fallen objects is secondary to the P-trap’s main function of “trapping” sewer gases.

29 “Looking for” shorthand : ISO

In search of (ISO)

30 Bandleader of the Electric Mayhem on “The Muppet Show” : DR TEETH

The Muppet character named Dr. Teeth is the leader of the “The Muppet Show” house band, which is actually called Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

36 Fossil-preserving spots : TAR PITS

A tar pit is an unusual geological feature created by leakage of bitumen from below ground to the earth’s surface creating a pool of natural asphalt. One of the most famous of these occurrences is the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

40 1983 Tom Cruise teen comedy : RISKY BUSINESS

“Risky Business” is a very entertaining 1983 comedy starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. This was an important movie for Cruise, as it really launched his film career. Everyone remembers Cruise dancing in a pink dress shirt, briefs and socks to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll”. Great stuff …

45 Tempe sch. : ASU

Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, and was founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

46 Automated spammer : BOT

Spambots are nasty little computer programs that send out spam emails and messages, often from fake accounts. This blog gets about 500 spam comments a day that I have to delete, almost all of which are written by spambots.

47 Hangout for a long-distance couple : SKYPE DATE

The main feature of the Skype application, when introduced, was that it allows voice communication to take place over the Internet (aka VoIP). Skype has other features such as video conferencing and instant messaging, but the application made its name from voice communication. The app was created by two Scandinavian entrepreneurs and the software necessary was developed by a team of engineers in Estonia. The development project was originally called “Sky peer-to-peer” so the first commercial name for the application was “Skyper”. This had to be shortened to “Skype” because the skyper.com domain name was already in use.

52 “Pokémon” protagonist Ketchum : ASH

Ash Ketchum is a character in the Pokémon universe. He is known as “Satoshi” in Japan.

55 “Mangia!” : EAT!

“Mangia!” is Italian for “Eat!” and is a word often used in the names of Italian restaurants or in brand names of Italian foods.

56 Newcastle Brown __ : ALE

Newcastle Brown Ale is an English beer that was launched in 1927. In the late nineties, it was the most-widely distributed beer in the UK. Its popularity has waned somewhat in its homeland, and now most sales of Newcastle Brown are in the US.

60 Chicken Little’s warning, and an apt title for this puzzle? : THE SKY IS FALLING

In a famous folk tale, Chicken Little is a young chick who panics when an acorn falls on his head. Chicken Little assumes that the sky is falling. “The sky is falling!” is a phrase often used in English today that originated in the folk tale. The protagonist’s name is “Chicken Little” in most American versions of the story, whereas “Henny Penny” is used in many European versions.

64 Code with dits and dahs : MORSE

Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the co-inventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash. When words are spelled aloud in Morse code, a dot is pronounced as “dit”, and a dash is pronounced as “dah”.

65 “The Batman” actress Kravitz : ZOE

Zoë Kravitz is an actress and singer. Zoë has a couple of famous parents, namely musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet.

“The Batman” is a 2022 film, and a reboot of the “Batman” film franchise. It stars Robert Pattinson as the title character (aka Bruce Wayne), and Paul Dano as the Riddler, the antagonist of the piece.

66 Barista canvas : LATTE

“Latte art” is the name given to the designs that can be drawn on the surface of coffee drinks. Some of those designs can be quite intricate.

A barista is a person who serves coffee in a coffee shop. “Barista” is Italian for “bartender”.

69 Pollinators that can see in the ultraviolet spectrum : BEES

Bees possess the ability to perceive ultraviolet light. This UV vision allows them to see intricate patterns on flowers, invisible to humans, that guide them towards nectar and pollen. These patterns are known as nectar guides, and act like landing strips, directing the bees to the flower’s nectar.

Down

3 Green spot in a concrete jungle : URBAN OASIS

The terms “cement”, “mortar” and ”concrete” are related, and tend to get confused at times. Cement is a binder that hardens over time and binds other materials together. Cement mixed with a fine aggregate forms mortar, a workable paste used to bind building blocks together. Cement mixed with sand and gravel forms concrete, a pourable slurry that hardens into an extremely robust building material.

5 Dec. 25, for Justin Trudeau : B’DAY

Here are some famous people who were born on Christmas Day:

• Isaac Newton (b.1642)
• Humphrey Bogart (b.1899)
• Cab Calloway (b.1907)
• Anwar el-Sadat (b.1918)
• Rod Serling (b.1924)
• Jimmy Buffett (b.1946)
• Sissy Spacek (b.1949)
• Karl Rove (b.1950)
• Annie Lennox (b.1954)
• Justin Trudeau (b.1971)

Justin Trudeau ascended to the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party in 2013, He led the Liberals to a decisive victory in the federal election of 2015, after which he assumed the office of Prime Minister of Canada. Justin is the eldest son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who led Canada for 15 years starting in 1968.

8 Frozen dessert : SHERBET

Sherbet, the frozen dessert, is very similar to sorbet, the difference being that sherbet contains a small amount of milkfat.

13 Hosp. triage units : ERS

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

21 Alaskan bear : KODIAK

Brown bears are found over much of northern Europe, Asia, and North America. They are sometimes referred to as bruins, which is a term that persists from Middle English. The biggest subspecies of brown bear is the Kodiak bear, which is the largest land-based predator in the world. Named for the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska, the Kodiak bear grows to about the same size as the enormous polar bear.

22 Filmmaker Nora : EPHRON

Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, which deals in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

23 __ jockey : DISC

The world’s first radio disc jockey (DJ) was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his debut broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.

27 Subj.-specific exam for the college-bound : AP TEST

The Advanced Placement (AP) program offers college-level courses to kids who are still in high school (HS). After being tested at the end of an AP course, successful students receive credits that count towards a college degree.

28 Condition that may be treated with exposure therapy, for short : PTSD

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) often used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ERP works by gradually exposing individuals to their fears or obsessions while preventing them from engaging in their usual compulsive behaviors. This process helps to break the cycle of OCD by teaching individuals that they can tolerate their anxiety and that their fears will not come true.

32 Roman of “The Ms. Pat Show” : TAMI

Tami Roman is an American television personality, model, and actress. She first rose to fame on MTV’s “The Real World: Los Angeles” in the 1990s. She was married to retired NBA player Kenny Anderson for almost a decade, and as such had a starring role in the reality show “Basketball Wives” from 2010 to 2019.

37 Academy cadet : PLEBE

A plebe is a freshman in the US military and naval academies. The term “plebe” is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of “plebeian”, and is a term used outside of the military schools.

41 Christen : BAPTIZE

Baptism is a rite in many Christian traditions, one in which a candidate is admitted to the Church. The ceremony usually uses water as a sign of purification. Water may be poured on the head, or the candidate may be totally immersed.

43 Decongestant brand : SUDAFED

Pseudoephedrine is a drug with decongestant properties, although it is also a stimulant. It is the active ingredient in Sudafed and Mucinex.

48 Palmer of “Nope” : KEKE

Keke Palmer is a busy woman; an actress, singer and television host. She won a Primetime Emmy in 2023 for her work as host of the game show “Password”, a revival of the show hosted by Allen Ludden in sixties and seventies. She was also nominated for several Best Actress awards for her performance in the 2022 sci-fi horror film “Nope”.

50 __ mode : A LA

In French, “à la mode” simply means “fashionable”. In America, the term has also come to describe a way of serving pie. Pie served à la mode includes a dollop of cream or ice cream, or as I recall from my time living in Upstate New York, with a wedge of cheddar cheese.

57 Orthodontist’s instruction : BITE

Orthodontics is a branch of dentistry dealing with the straightening of teeth. The name comes from the Greek “orthos” meaning “straight” and “dontia” meaning “teeth”.

61 Tax form ID : SSN

Social Security number (SSN)

63 Bunsen burner setting : LAB

The Bunsen burner is a common piece of lab equipment that is used for heating and combustion. The device was invented in 1854 by Robert Bunsen at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. It is sometimes referred to as an “etna”, a nickname coming from the Sicilian volcano.