Tag: Intimidates crossword clue

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Constructed by: Zachary David Levy
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Missing the Point

Themed include a POINTY adjective, but are physically MISSING that POINT:

• 60A Failing to grasp the obvious, maybe, and what 17-, 28-, and 46-Across are? : MISSING THE POINT

• 17A Complicated and potentially sensitive subjects : THORNY QUESTIONS
• 28A Shrewd one : SHARP COOKIE
• 46A Fruity drink with a kick : SPIKED PUNCH

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

Bill’s time: 8m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16 “Sesame Street” regular : ELMO

The “Sesame Street” character named Elmo has a birthday every February 3rd, and on that birthday he always turns 3½ years old. The man behind/under Elmo on “Sesame Street” for many years was Kevin Clash. If you want to learn more about Elmo and Clash, you can watch the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”.

20 Events with mutton busting : RODEOS

Mutton busting is a rodeo event where children, typically between the ages of 4 and 7, ride sheep. Similar to bull riding, the goal is to hold on for as long as possible as the sheep runs around the arena.

23 Aquatic mammal : OTTER

Male and female otters are known as dogs and bitches, with the offspring called pups. Males and females are sometimes referred to as boars and sows. A collection of otters is a bevy, family, lodge or perhaps a romp. When in water, a collection of otters can be called a raft.

27 Lav : LOO

It has been suggested that the British term “loo”, meaning “toilet”, comes from “Waterloo” (water closet … water-loo), but no one seems to know for sure. Another suggestion is that the term comes from the card game of “lanterloo”, in which the pot was called the loo!

34 Civil rights org. : NAACP

The full name of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is remarkable in that it still uses the offensive term “colored people”. The NAACP was founded in 1909, by a group that included suffragette and journalist Mary White Ovington, wealthy socialist William English Walling, and civil rights activist Henry Moskowitz. Another member of the founding group was W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African-American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University. The date chosen for the founding of the NAACP was February 12th, 1909, the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln, the man most visibly associated with the emancipation of African-American slaves.

38 __ couture : HAUTE

“Haute couture”, literally “high dressmaking” in French, is a name given to the creation of exclusive fashions. A couturier is someone who creates or sells such fashions.

66 Tropical tuber : TARO

Taro is a root vegetable that is grown for its edible underground plant stems (corms). The English name “taro” is borrowed from the Maori language of New Zealand. The same plant is known as “gabi” in the Philippines, “arbi” in much of India, and “jimbi” in parts of Africa where Swahili is spoken.

Down

1 Reconnaissance group : PATROL

A reconnaissance (recon) is a preliminary survey carried out to gather information. The term “reconnaissance” came into English in the early 19th century from French, from which language it translates literally as “recognition”.

2 Bygone picture-editing app : IPHOTO

iPhoto is a digital photo manipulation application that Apple no longer supports, having replaced it with the Photos app.

4 Free-for-all : SPREE

Our word “spree”, meaning “carefree outing”, might be an alteration of the French “esprit”, a term meaning “spirit, lively wit”.

6 Letters on some business cards : ESQ

The title “esquire” is of British origin and is used differently today depending on whether one is in the US or the UK. Here in America the term is usually reserved for those practicing the law (both male and female). In the UK, “esquire” is a term of gentle respect reserved for a male who has no other title that one can use. So, a mere commoner like me might receive a letter from the bank, say, addressed to W. E. Butler Esq.

7 “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. __ : CHU

Jon M. Chu is a movie and television director who is perhaps known for directing 2018’s highly-acclaimed film “Crazy Rich Asians”. Chu’s firstborn child is named “Willow”, after the 1998 film “Willow”. His second-born child is named “Jonathan Heights”, after the 2021 movie “In the Heights”.

“Crazy Rich Asians” is a 2018 rom-com based on a 2013 novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan. The film garnered a lot of attention and accolades, not only for the quality of the script and performances. It was the first major Hollywood movie to feature a principal cast of Asian descent since 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club”.

12 Rx information : DOSE

There seems to be some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

15 Bass group? : NSYNC

Lance Bass sang with the very successful boy band NSYNC. As luck would have it, Bass’s voice type is a bass.

18 Like Loki : NORSE

Loki is a trickster god in Norse mythology known for continually creating chaos. He is the father of sons with his wife Sigyn. Because Loki is also a shape-shifter, he gave birth to children “himself” by assuming the shape of the opposite sex.

19 Wyoming peak : TETON

The Teton Range is located just to the south of Yellowstone National Park, and is part of the Rocky Mountains. The origins of the name “Teton” is not very clear, although one story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French is a slang term meaning “breasts”.

24 Olympic swimmer Torres : DARA

Dara Torres is a US swimmer who has won twelve Olympic medals. Torres is also the only American swimmer to have competed in five Olympic Games, and is the oldest swimmer to have made it onto the Olympic team, at 41.

30 Penn of “House” and the White House : KAL

Indian-American actor Kal Penn made a name for himself in the “Harold & Kumar” series of comedy films. These so-called “stoner comedies” are not my cup of tea, but I enjoyed him playing his more mainstream roles on TV’s “House” and “24”. He left the world of acting when President Obama won the 2008 election to work as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement (although he did leave the White House briefly to film the “Harold & Kumar” sequel).

35 Gloomy guy : GUS

The original Gloomy Gus was a pessimistic character in newspaper comics in the early 1900s, who was introduced to the public by illustrator Frederick Burr.

37 Short “Didn’t need to hear that!” : TMI!

Too much information! (TMI!)

43 One side in the cola wars : PEPSI

“Cola Wars” is a phrase used to describe the competing marketing campaigns of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Coke is winning …

48 Designer dog crossbreed with a black snout : PUGGLE

The puggle is a designer dog breed that originated in the US in the 1990s. It is a cross between a beagle and a pug, inheriting a blend of traits from both parent breeds.

49 __ disease: gluten intolerance : CELIAC

Our word “celiac” is used for things related to the abdomen. The term is derived from the Greek “koiliakous” meaning “pertaining to the bowels”.

Gluten is a protein mixture found in foods processed mainly from wheat. The sticky properties of gluten are used in making bread, giving dough its elasticity and making the final product chewy. “Gluten” is the Latin word for “glue”.

50 Detroit Lions Pro Bowl receiver __ St. Brown : AMON-RA

Amon-Ra St. Brown played college football with the University of Southern California Trojans before being drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2021. Amon-Ra’s brother Osiris played college football at Stanford, and his brother Equanimeous played at Notre Dame. Equanimeous was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 2018.

51 Place name in 1960s TV : PEYTON

Grace Metallius’s 1956 novel “Peyton Place” had such an impact that to this day, the expression “Peyton Place” is used to describe a neighborhood where the residents have sordid secrets. The novel has it all, including incest, abortion, adultery, lust and murder. No wonder it stayed on “The New York Times” bestseller list for 59 weeks. And, no wonder that it was adapted into a very popular prime-time soap opera that ran from 1964 to 1969 …

55 Doha dignitary : EMIR

Doha is the capital city of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The name “Doha” translates from Arabic as “big tree” or “roundness”.

62 “Ideas change everything” org. : TED

The acronym “TED” stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design”. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as “TED Talks”. There are also TEDx events, which are locally-run talks presented under license from TED.

63 Bamboozled : HAD

It’s thought that the lovely word “bamboozle” came into English from the Scottish “bombaze” meaning “perplex”. We’ve been using “bamboozle” since the very early 1700s.