Tag: Headphone jack insert crossword clue

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Constructed by: Doug Peterson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: HQs

Themed answers all comprise two words starting with the letters H and Q:

• 52D Command ctrs., and a description of five answers in this puzzle : HQS

• 19A Pint equivalent : HALF QUART
• 25A DC Comics’ Clown Princess of Crime : HARLEY QUINN
• 42A Members of royal courts who may be crowned at halftime : HOMECOMING QUEENS
• 57A Deluxe : HIGH QUALITY
• 64A Feels apprehensive : HAS QUALMS

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

Bill’s time: 6m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Air rifle : BB GUN

A BB gun is an air pistol or rifle that shoots birdshot known as BBs. Birdshot comes in a number of different sizes, from size 9 (0.070″ in diameter) to size FF (.230″). Birdshot that is size BB (0.180″ in diameter) gives the airgun its name.

14 Mint with a Coca-Cola flavor : TIC TAC

Tic Tacs aren’t American candies (as I always mistakenly believed). Tic Tacs are made by the Italian company Ferrero, and were introduced in 1969.

17 Russian crepes : BLINI

A blintz (also “blintze” and “blin”, plural “blini”) is a thin pancake similar to a crêpe, although unlike a crêpe, a blintz may contain yeast.

18 Single-celled creature : AMOEBA

An ameba (also “amoeba”) is a single-celled microorganism. The name comes from the Greek “amoibe”, meaning change. The name is quite apt, as the cell changes shape readily as the ameba moves, eats and reproduces.

19 Pint equivalent : HALF QUART

Two pints make up a “quart”, which is a “quarter” of a gallon, hence the name.

21 “Yellowjackets” actress Purnell : ELLA

Ella Purnell is an actress from London, now living in the US, whom I perhaps know best for playing Winston Churchill’s secretary in the 2017 film “Churchill”.

“Yellowjackets” sounds like an interesting TV show. It is about four teenage girls who survive a plane crash, and have to live for nineteenth months alone in the Canadian wilderness. While this story unfolds in the show, we also track their lives as adults, 25 years later.

23 Customizable Nintendo avatar : MII

Nintendo introduced customizable avatars for the company’s video game consoles starting in 1997. The first customizable avatars for the Wii system were introduced in 2006, and were given the inventive name “Miis”.

24 Actress Falco : EDIE

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

25 DC Comics’ Clown Princess of Crime : HARLEY QUINN

The character Harley Quinn was introduced by DC Comics in 1992 as a henchwoman for the Joker in a Batman story. Her real name is Harleen Frances Quinzel. She was a psychiatrist who worked at Arkham Asylum, where she met and fell in love with the Joker. After the Joker escaped from Arkham, Harley Quinn followed him and became his sidekick. She developed into a full-blown and independent enemy of Batman over time.

30 “Rudy” coach Parseghian : ARA

Ara Parseghian coached the Notre Dame football team from 1964 to 1974, a period known alliteratively as “The Era of Ara”.

“Rudy” is a 1993 American biographical sports film starring Sean Astin in the title role. The movie is an account of the life of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who harbored dreams of playing football at the University of Notre Dame despite significant obstacles. It was the first film that the Notre Dame administration allowed to be shot on campus since “Knute Rockne, All American” in 1940.

31 WrestleMania win : PIN

“WrestleMania” is a pay-per-view professional wrestling event that was first produced in 1985. I really don’t do wrestling …

37 __ Buddhism : ZEN

Zen is a Buddhist school that developed its own tradition in China back in the 7th century AD. “Zen” is a Japanese spelling of the Chinese word “chan”, which in turn derives from the Sanskrit word “dhyana” meaning “meditation”.

39 Tennis icon Arthur : ASHE

Arthur Ashe was a professional tennis player from Richmond, Virginia. In his youth, Ashe found himself having to travel great distances to play against Caucasian opponents due to the segregation that still existed in his home state. He was rewarded for his dedication by being selected for the 1963 US Davis Cup team, the first African-American player to be so honored. Ashe continued to run into trouble because of his ethnicity though, and in 1968 was denied entry into South Africa to play in the South African Open. In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery, with follow-up surgery four years later during which he contracted HIV from blood transfusions. Ashe passed away in 1993 due to complications from AIDS. Shortly afterwards, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

46 Like a Mega Millions jackpot winner : RICH

The Mega Millions lottery game is available in most states of the US, as is its major rival called Powerball.

47 NYSE debut : IPO

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).

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the world’s largest stock exchange by market capitalization, and it has been in operation for over 230 years. The first company to be listed on the NYSE was the Bank of New York. It was traded alongside four other securities when the exchange opened.

48 Open, as a onesie : UNSNAP

A onesie is a baby’s one-piece bodysuit, and is a common gift at a baby shower.

51 “Weekend Update” comic Michael : CHE

Michael Che is a standup comedian from New York City. Che had worked as a writer for “Saturday Night Live” (SNL), and then started to appear in front of SNL cameras in September 2014. One of his roles was co-anchor for the “Weekend Update” segment of the show.

“Weekend Update” is the longest-running of any recurring sketch on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL). In fact, the segment made its debut on the very first show, back in 1975. The first “anchor” at the “Weekend Update” desk was Chevy Chase.

53 LED TV brand : RCA

Radio Corporation of America (RCA)

Light-emitting diode (LED)

61 Mine, in Marseille : A MOI

Marseille (often written “Marseilles” in English) is the second largest city in France, after Paris. Marseille is also the largest commercial port in the country. I used to live nearby, and can attest that Marseille and environs is a great place to visit …

62 22-Down monitoring org. : EPA
22D Pollution stat : AQI

The air quality index (AQI) is monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

63 Aquatic mammal : SEAL

Male seals are called bulls, females are cows, and babies are pups. A group of seals comprising one or two males, with several females and their offspring, is known as a harem.

67 Planet orbited by a moon named Margaret : URANUS

Margaret is what’s called an irregular moon of Uranus. Regular moons are satellites that form in situ around the planet that they orbit. Irregular moons are thought to have been captured from an orbit around the sun when the planet was relatively young. Margaret was discovered in 2003, and was named for a character in William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”.

72 Official calling pitch clock violations : UMP

That would be baseball.

73 City east of Los Angeles : POMONA

Pomona lies in LA County in California. The city was called Pomona after a naming contest held in 1875. Pomona was the goddess of fruit to the ancient Romans.

74 Desert sanctuaries : OASES

An isolated area of vegetation in a desert is called an oasis (plural “oases”). As water is needed for plant growth, an oasis might also include a spring, pond or small lake. We often use the term “oasis” more generally to describe a haven, a place of rest.

75 Part of LGBTQ+ : GAY

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning, and others (LGBTQ+)

76 Teen sleuth Drew : NANCY

I loved the “Nancy Drew” mysteries as a kid (I know, as a boy I “shouldn’t” have been reading girls’ books!). The “Nancy Drew stories” were written by a number of ghost writers, all of whom went by the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The character was introduced by publisher Edward Stratemeyer in 1930. Nancy Drew’s boyfriend is Ned Nickerson, a college student from Emerson.

Down

1 Booster gp. for schools : PTA

Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)

4 Iron alloy : STEEL

Steel is an alloy that is composed mainly of iron, with a small percentage of carbon.

5 Ferret’s cousin : SABLE

Sables are small mammals, about two feet long, that are found right across northern Europe and northern Asia. The sable’s black pelt is highly prized in the fur trade. Sable is unique among furs in that it feels smooth no matter which direction it is stroked.

A group of ferrets is called a “business”. An older collective noun for ferrets is a “fesnyng”.

10 Puritanical people : BLUENOSES

A bluenose is a person who is excessively puritanical. Apparently the term comes to us from Nova Scotia, where the potatoes grown had a bluish skin and were called bluenoses. Later, that term was applied to the growers, and I guess they must have had a reputation for being prudish.

11 Celebrity chef De Laurentiis : GIADA

Giada De Laurentiis is a celebrity chef who started making regular appearances on television when she hosted “Behind the Bash” in 2005 on the Food Network. She opened her first restaurant, named “GIADA”, in 2014 in Las Vegas.

15 Caribbean music genre : CALYPSO

The musical style known as calypso originated in Trinidad and Tobago, but there seems to be some debate about which influences were most important as the genre developed. It is generally agreed that the music was imported by African slaves from their homeland, but others emphasize influences of the medieval French troubadours. To me it sounds more African in nature. Calypso reached the masses when it was first recorded in 1912, and it spread around the world in the thirties and forties. It reached its pinnacle with the release of the famous “Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte.

20 Literary Huckleberry : FINN

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain was first published in 1884, not here in the US but rather in England. The original launch planned for the US had to be delayed until the following year because some rascal had defaced the plate for one of the illustrations, making an obscene joke. Once the problem was spotted a new plate had to be made, and 30,000 copies already printed had to be reworked to cover up the obscenity.

25 __ browns : HASH

Hash, beef and vegetables mashed together, is a very American dish and one that really surprised me when I first came across it. “Hash” just seems like such an unappetizing item, but I soon found out how delicious it was. The name “hash” in this context comes from the French “hacher” meaning “to chop”. Back in the early 1900s the dish called “hashed browned potatoes” was developed, which quickly morphed into “hash browns”. From there the likes of corned beef hash was introduced.

26 Samurai’s protection : ARMOR

Samurai were noble military officers in medieval and early-modern Japan who served particular clans and lords. Originally known as “bushi” in Japanese, the term “samurai” was introduced in the early part of the 18th century.

27 Maguire’s “Spider-Man” director : RAIMI

Sam Raimi is a very successful director and producer. He was behind the “Spider-Man” series of films among others, and TV shows such as “Xena: Warrior Princess”. In 1993, Raimi married Gillian Green, the youngest daughter of actor Lorne Greene of “Bonanza” fame. Raimi and Greene named their eldest son Lorne, after his grandfather.

Actor Tobey Maguire is most associated with the role of Spider-Man these days. I’m not much into comic book hero films, but I do kind of enjoy the understated way that Maguire takes on “Spidey”. Maguire has appeared in other hit films, like “Pleasantville” (1998), “The Cider House Rules” (1999) and “Seabiscuit” (2003). Off the screen, he is big into poker and it’s said that he has won over $10 million playing poker in Hollywood. Apparently, the rather unsavory character “Player X” in the 2017 movie “Molly Bloom” was largely inspired by Maguire.

33 Mythical man-goat : FAUN

Fauns are regarded as the Roman mythological equivalent of the Greek satyrs, but fauns were half-man and half-goat and much more “carefree” in personality than their Hellenic cousins. In the modern age we are quite familiar with Mr. Tumnus, the faun-like character encountered by the children entering the world of Narnia in C. S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.

38 Father of Methuselah : ENOCH

There are two Enoch’s mentioned in the Bible. One was Enoch, son of Cain and grandson of Adam. The second was Enoch, great-grandfather of Noah and father of Methuselah.

Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah, and the man in the Bible who is reported to have lived the longest. Methuselah passed away seven days before the onset of the Great Flood, and tradition holds that he was 969 years old when he died.

40 Painter Matisse : HENRI

Henri Matisse was a French artist renowned for his contribution to modern art. In his early career, Matisse was classed as a “fauve”, one of the group of artists known as the “wild beasts” who emphasized strong color over realism in their works. He was a lifelong friend of Pablo Picasso, and the two were considered to be good-natured rivals so their works are often compared. One major difference between their individual portfolios is that Picasso tended to paint from his imagination, whereas Matisse tended to use nature as his inspiration.

43 Headphone jack insert : MINI-PLUG

A jack is a socket that accepts a plug, allowing a connection to some electrical circuit.

45 Fix, at the vet’s office : SPAY

Our verb “to spay”, meaning “to surgically remove the ovaries of” (an animal), comes from an old Anglo-French word “espeier” meaning “to cut with a sword”.

50 Actress Seehorn : RHEA

Rhea Seehorn is an actress best known for playing lawyer Kim Wexler in the TV crime drama “Better Call Saul”. Seehorn’s birth name is Deborah Rhea, but she opted to use her middle name at a young age (which she pronounces as “Ray”).

52 Command ctrs., and a description of five answers in this puzzle : HQS

We use the term “quarters” for a place of abode, especially housing for military personnel. Back in the late 16th century, quarters were a portion (quarter) of a town reserved for a military force.

55 Appliance maker : AMANA

The Amana Corporation takes its name from the location of its original headquarters, in Middle Amana, Iowa. Today, the Amana name is very much associated with household appliances. The company was founded in 1934 to manufacture commercial walk-in coolers.

58 Letter before delta : GAMMA

Gamma is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. The term “gamma” might come from the Phoenician “gimel”, meaning “camel”. One theory is that the uppercase “gamma” resembles the neck of a camel, hence the name.

59 Yankee slugger Judge : AARON

Aaron Judge is a baseball outfielder who was selected as 2017’s American League Rookie of the Year. Judge is a big guy. He weighs 282 pounds, and is 6 foot 7 inches tall.

60 Peruvian pack animal : LLAMA

The llama is a camelid mammal very much associated with the Andean cultures. Despite the association with South America, it is thought that the ancestors of the modern llama migrated south from the Great Plains of North America about 40 million years ago.

65 FedEx rival : UPS

United Parcel Service (UPS) is based in Sandy Springs, Georgia and has its own airline that operates out of Louisville, Kentucky. UPS often goes by the nickname “Brown”, because of its brown delivery trucks and brown uniforms.

66 Eve in “Killing Eve,” for one : SPY

“Killing Eve” is a spy thriller series about an MI5 agent on the trail of a female assassin. The agent is played by Canadian actress Sandra Oh, and the assassin by English actress Jodie Comer. The storyline comes from a series of novellas titled “Codename Villanelle” by British author Luke Jennings.

68 The “N” of NFT : NON-

Non-fungible token (NFT). I admit it, I don’t understand NFTs (or the related cryptocurrencies).