Tag: Mercurial crossword clue

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Constructed by: Brian Callahan & Taylor Johnson

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Out of Pocket

Themed answers are all zany phrases made OUT OF the letters in “POCKET” exclusively:

• 59A Like some expenses, and how the answers to the starred clues are made? : OUT OF POCKET

• 17A *Odist with a passion for the culinary arts? : COOKTOP POET
• 24A *Eight-member band from Seoul, perhaps? : K-POP OCTET
• 37A *Social media community obsessed with quick kisses? : PECK TOK
• 48A *Beverage sold at a Florida theme park? : EPCOT COKE

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

Bill’s time: 8m 40s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Casual top? : CAMI

A camisole (also “cami”) is a sleeveless undershirt worn by women that extends down to the waist. “Camisole” is a French word that we imported into English that ultimately derives from the Latin “camisia” meaning “shirt, nightgown”.

5A __ page: website introduction : SPLASH

Users visiting a website might encounter a splash page, or a landing page. The former is an introductory screen a visitor must pass through before entering the site’s main content, often used for age verification or language selection. The latter is a standalone destination page created for a specific marketing campaign, designed to get a user to perform one action (like buying a product).

11A Spanish infinitive : SER

The Spanish verbs “ser” and “estar” both translate as “to be”:

1. Ser: Used for permanent or essential qualities (personality, origin, time). Think “what” something is, e.g. Soy alto. (I am tall.)
2. Estar: Used for temporary states or conditions (location, emotion, condition). Think “how” something is, e.g. Estoy cansado. (I am tired.)

14A Stratford-upon-__ : AVON

Stratford-upon-Avon is a town in the county of Warwickshire in the English midlands. Most famously perhaps, it was the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

16A Hullabaloo : ADO

Our word “hullabaloo”, meaning “commotion”, is a derivative of an older term “hollo-ballo”. “Hollo-ballo” was a word used for an uproar in the north of England and Scotland.

19A “Snowden” org. : NSA

“Snowden” is a 2016 film co-written and directed by Oliver Stone. It tells the story of computer professional Edward Snowden, who leaked information from the NSA to “The Guardian” newspaper in 2013. The bulk of the leaked material revealed extensive illegal cyber-snooping by the NSA on millions of American citizens, without the knowledge of the US Congress. The title role is played by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

21A Flavor of some purple ice cream : UBE

Ube is a species of yam that is purple in color. I’m a big fan of ube ice cream. Potato-flavored ice cream; what’s not to like?!

22A Condition that affects one’s ability to focus, briefly : ADHD

The “official” name for the condition we sometimes still refer to as “attention deficit disorder” (ADD) is “attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder” (ADHD).

23A Pastoral : IDYLL

An idyll (also “idyl”) is a short poem with a pastoral theme, usually depicting the scene in romantic and idealized terms. The word “idyl” comes from the Greek “eidyllion”, which literally translates to “little picture” but was a word describing a short poem with a rustic theme.

26A Word on a shoppe sign : OLDE

The word “olde” wasn’t actually used much earlier than the 1920s. “Olde” was introduced to give a quaint antique feel to brand names, shop names etc. as in “Ye Olde Shoppe”.

32A Great Basin people : UTES

The Great Basin is a large region of the US covering most of Nevada, much of Utah and some parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and California. The 200,000 square mile area drains internally, with all precipitation sinking underground or flowing into lakes. Most of the lakes in the Great Basin are saline, including the Great Salt Lake, Pyramid Lake and the Humboldt Sink.

39A Jazz guitarist Metheny : PAT

Pat Metheny is a jazz guitarist who has many Grammys in his trophy room. He won 20 Grammy Awards in ten different categories, making him the only artist in history to achieve such broad recognition.

40A Paris river : SEINE

In preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics, a massive effort went underway to clean up the Seine River. For decades, pollution plagued the waterway, making it unsafe for swimming. A €1.4 billion project aimed at improving water quality was implemented, including upgrades to wastewater treatment plants and a crackdown on illegal dumping. As a result, several Olympic swimming events were held in the Seine, although some triathletes came down sick afterwards.

43A IDs on tax forms : SSNS

The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an identity number to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children on their tax returns who did not actually exist. So starting in 1986, the IRS made it a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the age of 5. Sure enough, seven million dependents “disappeared” in 1987. Today, a SSN is required for a child of any age in order to receive a tax exemption.

44A Star associated with Venus : SERENA

Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most successful and influential tennis players of all time. The sisters are also successful entrepreneurs. They have invested in various businesses, including a stake in the Miami Dolphins NFL team.

48A *Beverage sold at a Florida theme park? : EPCOT COKE

EPCOT Center (now just called “Epcot”) is the theme park beside Walt Disney World in Florida. EPCOT is an acronym standing for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and is a representation of the future as envisioned by Walt Disney. Walt Disney actually wanted to build a living community for 20,000 residents at EPCOT, but he passed away without that vision being realized.

55A Infielder played by Bernsen in the “Major League” films : DORN

“Major League” is a 1989 sports comedy about a new owner of the Cleveland Indians who assembles a roster of misfits, intending for them to lose so she can move the team to Miami. Even though the movie is set in Cleveland, it was primarily filmed in Milwaukee. The filmmakers used the Milwaukee Brewers’ old County Stadium as the stand-in for the Indians’ home field.

Actor Corbin Bernsen is perhaps best known for playing the attorney Arnie Becker on the hit series “L.A. Law”. He also played prima donna third baseman Roger Dorn in the 1898 classic film “Major League”. Off the screen, Bernsen is one of the world’s largest collectors of snow globes, with a personal collection numbering around 8,000. Yowza …

57A Eritrea’s capital : ASMARA

Asmara is the capital and largest city in Eritrea. The same city is known locally as “Asmera”.

Eritrea is a country located in the Horn of Africa, and surrounded by Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Red Sea. Some scientists believe that the area now known as Eritrea was the departure point for anatomically modern humans who first left Africa to populate the rest of the world.

61A Hat similar to a songkok : FEZ

A fez is a red, cylindrical hat worn mainly in North Africa, and by Shriners here in the US. The fez used to be a very popular hat across the Ottoman Empire. The etymology of “fez” is unclear, although it may have something to do with the Moroccan city named Fez.

A songkok is a brimless, flat-topped cap, traditionally made of black velvet and worn by Muslim men in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

66A Educational spots, briefly : PSAS

Public service announcement (PSA)

Down

1D Arizona flora : CACTI

The cactus (plural “cacti”) is a member of a family of plants that are particularly well-adapted to extremely dry environments. Almost all cacti are native to the Americas, although some succulent plants from the old world are similar in appearance and are often mislabeled as “cacti”.

3D Mercurial : MOODY

“Mercurial” is an adjective used to describe things related to Mercury, the god or the planet. A person described as mercurial is said to have a changeable temperament, a characteristic long associated with people born under the influence of the planet. This erratic quality may be an association with the fluid properties of mercury, the liquid metal.

4D Image that’s subject to interpretation : INKBLOT

The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which a subject is asked to interpret a series of inkblots. The test was created by Swiss Freudian psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s.

8D Vinegary sauce : ADOBO

In Spanish and Mexican cuisine, a dish prepared adobo-style has been marinated in a mixture containing paprika, oregano, salt, garlic and vinegar. “Adobo” is Spanish for “marinade, seasoning”.

10D Word with tip or take : HOT …

The term “hot take” is from the world of journalism, and was coined relatively recently. It describes the shabby technique of making a provocative comment about a news event, usually with the intent of encouraging angry responses from readers or listeners.

11D Driving challenges? : SAND TRAPS

Sand traps on a golf course are referred to as bunkers on the other side of the Atlantic.

12D “Thinking Out Loud” singer : ED SHEERAN

“Thinking Out Loud” is a 2014 ballad co-written and recorded by Ed Sheeran. It won many awards, including the Grammy for Song of the Year. It quickly became a staple at weddings.The slow tempo and lyrics about lifelong love (like “I will be loving you ’til we’re 70”) make it a great choice for a couple’s first dance.

18D Register : TILL

What we usually call a cash register here in North America, we mostly call a “till” in Ireland and the UK. I haven’t heard the word “till” used much here in that sense …

24D Fore-and-aft rigged boat : KETCH

A ketch is a sailboat with two masts. The most forward mast is the mainmast, and is the taller of the two. The smaller mast is further aft, and is known as the mizzen mast.

30D Pajama party : SLEEPOVER

Our word “pajamas” (sometimes “PJs” or “jammies”) comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. On the other side of the Atlantic, the spelling is “pyjamas”.

31D Suffering from cabin fever : STIR-CRAZY

The slang word “stir”, meaning “prison”, probably has its roots in Start Newgate prison in London, where “Stir” was a nickname for the establishment.

38D Bobby of the Bruins : ORR

Bobby Orr is a Boston Bruins legend universally considered one of the greatest hockey players of all time. Famously, he is the only defenseman in NHL history to win the league scoring title.

49D Ana of “Love, Victor” : ORTIZ

The breakthrough role for actress Ana Ortiz was playing the title character’s older sister in the TV series “Ugly Betty”.

“Love, Victor” is a teen comedy drama TV series that serves as a sequel to the 2018 film “Love, Simon”. The movie is based on the 2015 novel by Becky Albertalli, “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda”. The title character in the movie, Simon, is a closeted gay teenage boy being blackmailed at high school. The title character in the TV show, Victor, attends the same high school and suffers under pressures similar to those experienced by Simon. Michael Cimino plays Victor in the show, and Nick Robinson plays Simon in the show and the film.

50D Onetime capital of Japan : KYOTO

The city of Kyoto was once the capital of Japan. Indeed, the name “Kyoto” means “capital city” in Japanese. Kyoto is sometimes referred to as the City of Ten Thousand Shrines.

52D Brand of rolled tortilla chips : TAKIS

Takis are a brand of rolled corn tortilla chips, first introduced in Mexico in 1999. The most successful variety is “Fuego”, which comes in a purple bag and delivers a powerful kick of hot chili pepper and lime. That sounds fantastic …

59D Dory propeller : OAR

A dory is a small boat that’s around 20 feet long with a shallow draft, a flat bottom and a sharp bow. Dories are commonly used for fishing.

60D Dory propeller : FIN

Pixar’s 2016 animated feature “Finding Dory” is a sequel to the megahit film “Finding Nemo”. “Finding Dory” seems to have built on the success of its predecessor and had the highest-grossing opening weekend ever in North America for an animated movie.