Tag: Metal box crossword clue

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Constructed by: Zachary Gallardo

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Abandon Ship

Themed answers come in pairs, one is a BAND, the other hides a SHIP. In the grid, the BAND sits ON the SHIP:

• 59A “Everyone in the water!,” or when parsed differently, what can be found in each set of circled words : ABANDON SHIP! … or, A BAND ON SHIP

• 15A Camel’s watering hole : OASIS
• 17A Programming problem : ENDLESS LOOP (hiding “SLOOP”)

• 25A Enclosed rhyme scheme in Petrarchan sonnets : ABBA
• 30A Clinton secretary of state : ALBRIGHT (hiding “BRIG”)

• 41A “Exactly right!” : YES!
• 45A Bible Belt state : ARKANSAS (hiding “ARK”)

• 54A Yellow brick road terrier : TOTO
• 59A “Everyone in the water!,” or when parsed differently, what can be found in each set of circled words : ABANDON SHIP! … or, A BAND ON SHIP

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

Bill’s time: 8m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Korean-American grocery store : H MART

H Mart is a chain of Asian supermarkets found mainly in North America. The company was founded in 1982 as a corner grocery store in New York City. That first store operated under the Korean name “Han Ah Reum”, which is the inspiration for the H in “H Mart”.

11A Dim sum brew : CHA

“Cha” is a Chinese word meaning “tea”.

14A Little solo break : ME DAY

Dim sum is a Chinese cuisine made up of small portions of various dishes. The tradition of serving dim sum is associated with the serving of tea, when small delicacies were offered to travelers and guests along with tea as a refreshment. The name “dim sum” translates as “touch the heart” implying that dim sum is not a main meal, just a snack “that touches the heart”.

15A Camel’s watering hole : OASIS

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of a camel is the large deposit of fatty tissue on its back. The dromedary is the most common camel, and has one hump of fatty tissue on its back. The Bactrian camel has two humps, and makes up just 6% of the world’s camel population. Those fatty humps are useful if no food or water is available, as fat can be broken down into water and energy.

17A Programming problem : ENDLESS LOOP (hiding “SLOOP”)

Sloops and cutters are sailboats, and each has just one mast. One major difference between the two types of vessel is that the mast on a cutter is set much further aft than the mast on a sloop.

19A Scand. country : NOR

Norway has been ranked as one of the countries in the world with the highest standard of living every year since 2001. It is rich in natural resources and has a relatively low population. The people benefit from a comprehensive social security system, subsidized higher education for all citizens and universal health care. And Norway is famous for her success at the Winter Olympic Games, having won more gold medals than any other nation in the world.

20A Proboscis : NOSE

A proboscis is a long appendage attached to the head of an animal, and is sometimes referred to as an elongated “nose”. Many insects have a proboscis, as does an elephant.

21A Feature of Canada’s flag : LEAF

The current design of the Canadian National Flag, known as “the Maple Leaf”, has been in place since 1965. The design made its first appearance on February 15th of that year, and so that date is celebrated annually as National Flag of Canada Day.

22A Nove minus uno : OTTO

In Italian, “Nove meno uno” (nine minus one) is “otto” (eight).

25A Enclosed rhyme scheme in Petrarchan sonnets : ABBA

A sonnet is a short poem with varying rhyming schemes but always with 14 lines. The sonnet form has been around at least since the 13th century. The Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three quatrains (4 lines) and a final couplet (2 lines). The Petrarchan sonnet comprises two quatrains (4 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines), or two tercets (3 lines).

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) was an Italian scholar and poet who lived during the Renaissance. Petrarch gave up his vocation as a priest, and soon after spotted a woman named Laura in his church in Avignon, France. He was so taken by Laura that he wrote many poems dedicated to her. He later clarified that he could not approach Laura with his feelings, as she was a married woman.

27A Turkish peak : ARARAT

Mount Ararat is in Turkey. It is a snow-capped, dormant volcano with two peaks. The higher of the two, Greater Ararat, is the tallest peak in the country. Ararat takes its name from a legendary Armenian hero called Ara the Beautiful (or “Ara the Handsome”). According to the Book of Genesis, Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat as the Great Flood subsided.

30A Clinton secretary of state : ALBRIGHT (hiding “BRIG”)

Madeleine Albright was appointed Secretary of State by President Clinton, making her the first woman to hold the post. Among her many qualifications for holding that job, is her fluency in English, French, Russian and Czech. Albright can also hold her own in Polish and Serbo-Croat.

A brig is a two-masted sailing vessel, with the name “brig” coming from the related vessel known as a brigantine. Brigs and brigantines are both two-masted, but there is a difference in the sails used. It was the use of retired brigs as prison ships that led to the use of “brig” as the word for a jail or prison cell on a seagoing vessel.

34A Olympic gymnast with five moves named for her : BILES

Artistic gymnast Simone Biles holds many, many world and US records. In 2022, President Joe Biden presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making her the youngest person ever to receive the award.

35A 2025 Best Picture Oscar winner : ANORA

The 2024 movie “Anora” is about a young stripper from Brooklyn who impulsively marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. The marriage is short-lived, as the groom’s parents send henchmen to find the couple and force an annulment. The film follows the aftermath as the stripper ends the marriage, leaving her in an emotionally vulnerable and uncertain state. The entire film was shot in 37 days, with one 25-minute sequence taking up 10 of those days. The sequence was a particularly demanding and disturbing home invasion scene.

37A Dongle, e.g. : ADAPTER

A dongle is a small hardware adapter that plugs into a port on a computer to link incompatible devices or unlock restricted software. The name likely stems from the word “dangle”, a nod to how early security keys hung off the back of a workstation.

39A Synagogue singers : CANTORS

“Canto” is a Latin word meaning “I sing”. In some religious traditions, a “cantor” is the person assigned to lead the singing of ecclesiastical music.

42A __ Sports Bureau: stats giant : ELIAS

The Elias Sports Bureau has been providing research and statistics for professional sports since 1913. The business was set up in 1913 in New York City by Al Munro Elias and his brother Walter.

44A “Punch-__ Love”: Paul Thomas Anderson film : DRUNK

2002’s “Punch-Drunk Love”, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, has been described as an absurdist romcom film. It stars Adam Sandler as a socially anxious man who falls for his sister’s co-worker, played by Emily Watson. There is a subplot, based on an actual consumer stunt, in which Sandler’s character attempts to exploit a frequent-flyer mileage loophole by purchasing massive quantities of pudding. In 1999, a real-life civil engineer named David Phillips, later dubbed the “Pudding Guy”, spent roughly $3,140 on 12,150 cups of pudding to legitimately accumulate over 1.25 million airline miles.

Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson goes by his initials “PTA”. One of his most famous films is 2007’s “There Will Be Blood”, which he both wrote and directed. PTA has been in a relationship with comedian and actress Maya Rudolph since 2001, and the couple have four children together.

45A Bible Belt state : ARKANSAS (hiding “ARK”)

“Bible Belt” is an informal term coined in 1924 by journalist and social critic HL Mencken, It describes a geographic region in the US where evangelical Protestantism heavily influences local culture, politics, and society. It lacks strict boundaries, but generally sweeps across the American South and lower Midwest, stretching from the eastern coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas all the way westward into Texas and Oklahoma. Mencken originally popularized the phrase while reporting on the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee.

48A Altar site : APSE

An apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally, apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

51A Prometheus’s gift : FIRE

In Greek mythology, Prometheus was one of the Titans. He was said to have created man from clay as well as giving fire to humanity, and hence allowing the human race to prosper.

54A Yellow brick road terrier : TOTO

Toto is Dorothy’s dog in the film “The Wizard of Oz”, and in the original book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. Toto was played in the movie by a dog called Terry, but Terry’s name was soon changed to Toto in real life due to the success of the film.

According to L. Frank Baum’s series of “Oz” novels, there are three Yellow Brick Roads that lead to the Emerald City from Munchkin Country, and it turns out that Dorothy chose the hardest of the three. While not in the books, the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” also features a Red Brick Road.

58A Aussie hopper : ROO

The word “kangaroo” comes from the Australian Aborigine term for the animal. There’s an oft-quoted story that the explorer James Cook (later Captain Cook) asked a local native what was the name of this remarkable-looking animal, and the native responded with “Kangaroo”. The story is that the native was actually saying “I don’t understand you”, but as cute as that tale is, it’s just an urban myth.

62A Nocturnal bird of prey : OWL

Much of an owl’s diet consists of small mammals. As a result, humans have used owls for centuries to control rodent populations, usually by placing a nest box for owls on a property. Despite the fact that owls and humans live together in relative harmony, owls have been known to attack humans from time to time. Celebrated English bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye when attacked by a tawny owl that he was trying to photograph. Hosking wrote a 1970 autobiography with the wry title “An Eye for a Bird”.

63A __ Gras : MARDI

“Mardi Gras” translates from French as “Fat Tuesday”, and the holiday gets its name from the practice of eating rich foods on the eve of the fasting season known as Lent. Lent starts on the next day, called Ash Wednesday.

66A Clique : POSSE

Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”.

A clique is a small, exclusive group of people. The term “clique” comes to us from France, where it has the same meaning. In French, it somehow evolved in meaning from the original “clique” meaning a sharp noise, or as we would say today, “click”.

Down

2D City north of Carson City : RENO

Reno, Nevada was named in honor of Major General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer killed in the Civil War. The city has a famous “Reno Arch”, a structure that stands over the main street. The arch was erected in 1926 to promote an exposition planned for the following year. After the expo, the city council decided to keep the arch and held a competition to decide what wording should be displayed, and the winner was “The Biggest Little City in the World”.

Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada, and was named for the Carson River. The river was named for Kit Carson, the scout who accompanied the team of European Americans who first arrived in the area in 1843. Carson City was designated state capital in 1864.

5D Cyclone center : EYE

A cyclone is a weather system, something like a tropical storm. It is composed of air circulating rapidly around a low pressure center. In the northern hemisphere, cyclones circulate in a counterclockwise direction, whereas in the southern hemisphere they circulate clockwise.

9D Animated film about Spix’s macaws : RIO

The 2011 animated musical comedy film “Rio” is so named as it is mainly set in Rio de Janeiro. Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg voice Jewel and Blu, two Spix’s macaws, the last known female and male of the species, a blue parrot native exclusively to the forests of northeastern Brazil. In contrast to the movie’s uplifting ending, in real life the International Union for Conservation of Nature officially declared the Spix’s macaw extinct in the wild due to aggressive illegal trapping and extreme habitat loss.

22D Japanese sash : OBI

The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. It can be tied at the back in what is called a butterfly knot. The term “obi” is also used for the thick cotton belts that are an essential part of the outfits worn by practitioners of many martial arts. The color of the martial arts obi signifies the wearer’s skill level.

25D Pokémon that ultimately evolves into Alakazam : ABRA

In the “Pokémon” universe, the species known as “Abra” can evolve into “Kadabra”, and then into “Alakazam”.

26D Jason’s “Beverly Hills, 90210” role : BRANDON

“Beverly Hills, 90210” is a drama that aired on Fox from 1990 to 2000. The show follows the lives of little rich kids in Beverly Hills. Many of the cast members have made it big following their appearances on “90210”, including Jason Priestley, Luke Perry, Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling. I’ve never even seen one episode …

27D Modest Muslim robe : ABAYA

The abaya is a traditional, full-length outer garment predominantly worn by Muslim women to fulfill religious directives of modesty. It often covers the whole body, bar the head, feet and hands.

28D Bus passenger : RIDER

We use the term “bus” for a mode of transportation as it is an abbreviated form of the original “omnibus”. We imported “omnibus” via French from Latin, in which language it means “for all”. The idea is that an omnibus is a carriage “for all”.

29D Sushi bite topped with salmon : ALASKA ROLL

Despite its name, the Alaska roll wasn’t invented in Alaska. Typically made with salmon, avocado, and cucumber, it is believed to have originated in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s or 80s. The Alaska roll’s name likely reflects the popularity of salmon in the region.

31D Hairstyle that may begin with comb coils : LOCS

Dreadlocks (often just “locs”) are matted coils of hair that are usually formed intentionally, although if one lets hair grow out without grooming then it naturally forms twisted and matted dreadlocks. The hairstyle is associated with the Rastafarian movement in which “dread” is a very positive term meaning “fear of the Lord”.

32D “Stormy Weather” singer Lena : HORNE

Lena Horne was an American jazz singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne started her career as a nightclub singer and then began to get some meaty acting roles in Hollywood. However, she ended up on the blacklist during the McCarthy Era for expressing left wing political views. One of Horne’s starring roles was in the 1943 movie “Stormy Weather” for which she also performed the title song.

“Stormy Weather” is a 1933 song that is most associated with Lena Horne and Billie Holiday. It was first recorded by Ethel Waters, who debuted the song at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City. “Stormy Weather” spawned a 1943 movie of the same name in which Lena Horne starred and performed the title song.

33D Elephant pair : TUSKS

Tusks are the front teeth of certain animals that grow continuously. The tusks of wild pigs, hippos and walruses are elongated canine teeth. The tusks of elephants are elongated incisors.

38D If-then-__ statement : ELSE

In the world of computer programming, an “if-then-else” construct is a type of conditional statement. The idea is that IF a particular condition is met THEN a particular action is executed. The additional ELSE statement can be used to define an alternative action.

46D Big galoot : APE

“Galoot” is an insulting word describing an awkward or boorish man, an ape. The term comes from the nautical world, where it was originally what a sailor might call a soldier or marine.

47D Big Island county seat : HILO

Hilo is the largest settlement on the Big Island of Hawaii, and has a population of over 43,000 (that’s not very many!). I love the Big Island …

51D Amphibious hopper : FROG

Frogs are amphibians that undergo a complete metamorphosis during their lives, transforming from aquatic tadpoles into air-breathing, carnivorous adults. Along with powerful jumping legs, frogs have permeable skin that can absorb oxygen from water, supplementing the oxygen in the air breathed in with their lungs.

52D Corn Belt state : IOWA

The Corn Belt (sometimes “Grain Belt”) is a region in the Midwest where, since the mid-1800s, corn has been the major crop. Geographically, the Corn Belt covers Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and parts of Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota and Missouri. About 40% of the world’s corn production comes from the region, and most of that production is used for the feeding of livestock.

57D The Grand Ole __ : OPRY

The Grand Ole Opry started out as a radio show in 1925 originally called the WSM “Barn Dance”. In 1927, the “Barn Dance” radio show was broadcast in a slot after an NBC production called “Musical Appreciation Hour”, a collection of classical works including Grand Opera. In a December show, the host of “Barn Dance” announced, “For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the ‘Grand Ole Opry'”. That name was used for the radio show from then on.

60D Dim sum bun : BAO

A baozi (also “bou, bao”) is a steamed, filled bun in Chinese cuisine.

61D Persona __ grata : NON

A persona non grata (plural “personae non gratae”) is someone who is not welcome. The phrase is Latin for “an unacceptable person”. The opposite phrase is “persona grata”, meaning “acceptable person”.