Tag: Many a contract for a superstar player e.g. crossword clue

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Constructed by: Chandi Deitmer
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Shark Week

Themed answers each start with a type of shark:

• 63A Annual Discovery Channel programming event that could feature the shows in the answers to the starred clues? : SHARK WEEK

• 17A *Netflix documentary series about a controversial zookeeper : TIGER KING (giving “tiger shark”)
• 30A *Showtime medical drama starring Edie Falco : NURSE JACKIE (giving “nurse shark”)
• 47A *USA series about corporate crime : WHITE COLLAR (giving “white shark”)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Muslim leader : IMAM

An imam is a Muslim leader, and often the person in charge of a mosque and/or perhaps a Muslim community.

17 *Netflix documentary series about a controversial zookeeper : TIGER KING (giving “tiger shark”)

“Tiger King” is a remarkable documentary about former zookeeper Joe Exotic who is accused of abusing and exploiting wild animals. Well, the first season broadcast was remarkable, but I hear that the second and third seasons really flopped.

The tiger shark is a massive predator, attaining an overall length of perhaps 15-16 feet. It has stripes running down the side of its body, hence the name “tiger”, but those stripes tend to fade with age. The tiger shark is responsible for more fatal attacks on humans other than the great white.

19 Krispy __ : KREME

The Krispy Kreme chain of doughnut stores was founded in 1937 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The company introduced the Whole Wheat Glazed doughnut in 2007, which is great news for folks looking to eat a healthy diet, I am sure …

24 Home of the NHL’s Blues : STL

The St. Louis Blues NHL hockey team takes its name from the song “St. Louis Blues”, a jazz and popular music classic.

The city of St. Louis, Missouri was settled by French explorers in 1763. Sitting on the Mississippi River, it grew into a very busy port. By the 1850s, it was the second busiest port in the country, with only New York moving more freight. St. Louis was named for Louis IX of France. Louis was canonized in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII, and was the only French king to be declared a saint.

25 Floe makeup : ICE

An ice floe is a sheet of ice that has separated from an ice field and is floating freely on the surface of the ocean.

29 Langley org. : CIA

The CIA headquarters is located in Langley, Virginia in a complex called the George Bush Center for Intelligence. The facility was named for former Director of the CIA and US President George H. W. Bush.

30 *Showtime medical drama starring Edie Falco : NURSE JACKIE (giving “nurse shark”)

“Nurse Jackie” is a comedy-drama series centered on an emergency room nurse at a hospital in New York City. The lead character is played by Edie Falco, who also played Tony Soprano’s wife on “The Sopranos”. I binge-watched “Nurse Jackie” a while back and found it to be a very well-written show …

The nurse shark has a relatively small mouth, and mainly suck in their food using a remarkable suction force. Notably, they have two fleshy extensions called barbels hanging down from either side of the nasal opening. The barbels are thought to aid in the detection of prey.

36 George Eliot’s “Adam __” : BEDE

“Adam Bede” was the first novel written by the English writer George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans). It was published in 1859 and has been in print ever since then, for over 150 years.

38 Sitar music : RAGA

Raga isn’t really a genre of music, but has been described as the “tonal framework” in which Indian classical music is composed. Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous raga virtuoso (to us Westerners). Western rock music with a heavy Indian influence might be called raga rock.

The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. It is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

42 “Not Gon’ Cry” singer Mary J. __ : BLIGE

Mary J. Blige is a singer-songwriter from the Bronx, New York. Her best known album is probably “My Life”, released in 1994. Blige is also making a name for herself as an actress, and was nominated for several awards for her performance in the 2017 film “Mudbound”.

45 Tolkien creature corrupted by the One Ring : GOLLUM

Tolkien introduced the character named Gollum in his 1937 novel “The Hobbit”. Gollum played amore central role in the sequel “The Lord of the Rings”. He was originally called Sméagol, and was given the name Gollum because of the “horrible swallowing noise in his throat”.

47 *USA series about corporate crime : WHITE COLLAR (giving “white shark”)

“White Collar” is a cop show that first aired in 2009. It stars Tim Dekay as an FBI agent and Matt Bomer as a very capable con artist, and the agent’s informer. Agent and informer make a deal to work together to apprehend white collar criminals.

The great white shark is one big fish, and can grow to over 21 feet long and weigh over 7,000 pounds. Great whites also live long lives, over 70 years. They have no natural predator, and are responsible for far more attacks on humans than any other shark species.

51 Caustic solution : LYE

What we call “lye” is usually sodium hydroxide (NaOH), although historically the term “lye” was used for potassium hydroxide. Lye has many uses, including to cure several foodstuffs. Lye can make olives less bitter, for example. The chemical is also found in canned mandarin oranges, pretzels and Japanese ramen noodles. More concentrated grades of lye are used to clear drains and clean ovens. Scary …

54 Iris locale : EYE

The iris is the colored part of the eye. It has an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

56 Husky hello : ARF!

The Siberian Husky is one of the oldest breeds of dog, and originated in northern Asia. Siberian Huskies were imported into Alaska in great numbers in the early 1900s for use as sled dogs during the gold rush.

57 Vidalia __ : ONION

Vidalia onions are sweet onions that are grown most famously in and around Vidalia, Georgia, where they’ve been growing since the 1930s. That area has soil which is relatively low in sulfur, which leads to the unusually sweet taste. The Vidalia onion has been the official state vegetable of Georgia since 1990.

59 SportsCenter anchor Linda : COHN

Linda Cohn is a sportscaster who started anchoring ESPN’s “SportsCenter” in 1992. When Cohn was in high school, she played hockey on the boys team.

63 Annual Discovery Channel programming event that could feature the shows in the answers to the starred clues? : SHARK WEEK

“Shark Week” is an annual event on the Discovery Channel, and has been so since 1987. The week is full of TV shows and specials that are shown with the stated intent of promoting awareness and respect for sharks.

66 Fight with foils : FENCE

Before the foil was introduced as a sporting weapon, it was used as a blunted weapon for sword practice. It has been suggested that the sword was blunted by wrapping metal foil around the tip, hence the name.

67 Terrain map, briefly : TOPO

A topographic map is one that illustrates land relief, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the terrain. Typically, this is done using contour lines that show the steepness of slopes.

69 “On the double!” : STAT!

The exact etymology of “stat”, a term meaning “immediately” in the medical profession, seems to have been lost in the mists of time. It probably comes from the Latin “statim” meaning “to a standstill, immediately”.

70 Short itinerary? : SKED

Schedule (sked)

Down

4 Like a basso profundo voice : DEEP

The basso profondo (also “contrabass, basso profundo”) is the voice with the lowest vocal range. “Basso profonda” is Italian for “deep bass”.

7 “Coming of Age in Mississippi” writer Moody : ANNE

Anne Moody was an author and civil rights activist whose best-known book is her 1968 memoir “Coming of Age in Mississippi”. It tells of her experiences growing up as an African-American female in a poor, rural area. The book deals with her struggles against racism amongst the white population, and sexism within the civil rights movement.

9 Orange skin that doesn’t peel? : FAKE TAN

The most effective fake tans available today are not dyes or stains. Instead, they are sprays with the active ingredient dihydroxyacetone (DHA). DHA reacts chemically with amino acids in the dead layer of skin on the surface of the body. Sounds a little risky to me …

10 Hockey legend Bobby : ORR

Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking. While still 31 years old, in 1979, Orr became the youngest person inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Prior to that, in 1967, Orr became the youngest person named the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

11 Boston-based sportswear giant : REEBOK

The brand name Reebok was adopted as the new company name for Foster Shoes of the UK in 1960. The name Reebok (more commonly “Rhebok”) is an Afrikaans word for an antelope, and comes from the term “roe buck”.

12 Salty Japanese condiment : TAMARI

Tamari is a variety of soy sauce that is made without wheat, and so is often used by those on a gluten-free diet.

22 Korean rice liquor : SOJU

Soju is a Korean liquor traditionally made from rice, although other starches are also used these days. The name “sujo” translates literally as “burned liquor”.

31 Girder material : STEEL

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

32 Corner PC key : CTRL

The Control (CTRL) key on a PC keyboard is used to modify the function of other keys. For example, pressing CTRL+C copies a selection to the clipboard, and CTRL+V pastes the contents of the clipboard to a location defined by the cursor. Control keys were introduced on teletypewriters to generate “control characters”, which are non-printing characters that instruct a computer to do something like print a page, ring a bell etc.

37 Big-headed sorts : EGOTISTS

An egoist (also “egotist”) is a selfish and conceited person. The opposite would be an altruist.

40 Some northern South Americans : GUYANESE

Guyana’s official name today is the Co-Operative Republic of Guyana. Guyana is located on the northern coast of South America. The country used to be a British colony, with the name British Guyana, but it achieved independence in 1966. It is now the only member of the British Commonwealth (now called the Commonwealth of Nations) that is on mainland South America.

41 Visa/MC alternative : AMEX

“Amex” is short for “American Express”, the name of the financial services company that is best known for its credit card, charge card and traveler’s check businesses. The company name is indicative of its original business. American Express was founded in 1850 in Buffalo, New York as an express mail service.

43 Key part of a block party? : LEGO SET

Lego produces some wonderful specialized sets with which you can build models of celebrated structures, including:

• The Statue of Liberty (2,882 pieces)
• The Sydney Opera House (2,989 pieces)
• The Eiffel Tower (3,428 pieces)
• Tower Bridge (4,295 pieces)
• The Taj Mahal (5,922 pieces)

45 “Bad Feminist” writer Roxane : GAY

Roxane Gay is an author and contributing opinion writer for “The New York Times”. The list of her best-selling works includes the 2014 novel “An Untamed State”, the 2017 collection of short stories “Difficult Women”, and the 2017 memoir “Hunger”.

46 Big name in vacuums : ORECK

The Oreck Corporation is named after founder David Oreck and makes vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. The company started out selling vacuum cleaners by mail, a new concept in 1963. David Oreck himself appears regularly as a spokesman in the company’s ads and infomercials.

50 Algonquian language : LENAPE

The Lenape Native American people lived along the Delaware River when Europeans first landed in the Americas. As a result of the enforcement of the Indian Removal Act 1830, most Lenape now live in Oklahoma, with significant numbers also in Wisconsin and Ontario.

62 TV pioneer : RCA

RCA was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America, and as a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Electric (GE). GE divested RCA in 1932, and then reacquired the company in 1986. Today, RCA is just a brand name owned by Sony Music.

65 Keystone __ : KOP

The Keystone Cops (sometimes “Keystone Kops”) were a band of madcap policemen who appeared in silent movies. A 1914 short film called “A Thief Catcher” that was believed lost was rediscovered in 2010. “A Thief Catcher” featured the magnificent Charlie Chaplin in an early role as a Keystone Cop.