Tag: Music box? crossword clue

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Constructed by: Amie Walker & Amanda Rafkin

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Teams Meeting

Themed answers are each formed by two NBA TEAMS MEETING, side-by-side:

• 58A Microsoft virtual work gathering, and what can be found in 20-, 28-, and 49-Across : TEAMS MEETING

• 20A Peddles pearls of wisdom? : HAWKS NUGGETS
• 28A Observes casual Friday at the office? : BUCKS BLAZERS
• 49A Gains barbers’ equipment? : NETS CLIPPERS

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

Bill’s time: 6m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4A Bridge action : BID

The version of the card game bridge that is played mostly today is contract bridge. Auction bridge is a similar game, and is a precursor to contract bridge.

13A “Good Grief” director Levy : DAN

Canadian actor Dan Levy’s career really took off with the success of the sitcom “Schitt’s Creek”, which he co-created with his father, fellow actor Eugene Levy. Outside of “Schitt’s Creek”, Levy co-hosted the first two seasons of “The Great Canadian Baking Show”.

The 2023 comedy-drama film “Good Grief” stars Canadian actor Dan Levy, who also wrote and directed. The story centers on a man whose husband unexpectedly dies, forcing him and his two best friends to confront uncomfortable truths about their relationships and the man they lost. The movie is set in London and Paris. Adding this one to my “Wanna See” list …

16A Iggy the Beanie Baby, for one : IGUANA
29D Humphrey the Beanie Baby, for one : CAMEL

There were originally just nine Beanie Babies when Ty Warner introduced the stuffed animal in 1993. In the late nineties the toy became a real fad, largely due to innovative marketing techniques. For example, there was no mass marketing with constant TV ads, and the production volume was limited pushing the line into the realm of collectibles. Beanie Baby models were also “retired” on a regular basis, fueling a “must have” behavior in the market.

18A Noodle with a sarashina variety : SOBA

Soba is a thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. While most soba noodles have a characteristic grayish-brown hue from the whole buckwheat grain, sarashina soba is known for its white color and smooth texture. This is because it’s made using only the very core (the endosperm) of the buckwheat seed, with the darker, outer layers milled away. This refined style was perfected by the Sarashina family during Japan’s Edo period.

20A Peddles pearls of wisdom? : HAWKS NUGGETS

The verb “to hawk” has a Germanic origin, and comes from the Low German word “hoken” meaning “to peddle”. A hawker is actually slightly different from a peddler by definition, as a hawker is a peddler that uses a horse and cart, or a van nowadays perhaps, to sell his or her wares.

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks started out as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946, although after only a few months the team was moved to Moline, Illinois as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were one of the 17 original teams playing at the founding of the National Basketball Association. There was another move in 1951 and a renaming to the Milwaukee Hawks, and yet again in 1955 when the team became the St. Louis Hawks. The latest move was to Atlanta, in 1968.

The Denver Nuggets basketball team started out as a founding member of the American Basketball Association in 1967, at which time they were known as the Denver Rockets. The team name was changed in 1974 as the franchise planned its transition to the NBA. The name change was needed as the NBA already had the Houston Rockets. As is tradition, the new name was chosen in a fan contest.

25A Sword handle : HILT

The hilt of a weapon is its handle. One might push in the blade of a knife to the hilt, to the maximum degree.

28A Observes casual Friday at the office? : BUCKS BLAZERS

A blazer is a less formal version of a suit jacket, usually one with a less formal cut and often metal buttons. The original “blazer” was a red jacket worn by members of the rowing club at Cambridge University in England. The “blazer” is so called because the Cambridge version was “blazing red” in color.

The Bucks are the NBA team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin who joined the league as an expansion team in 1968. There was a fan contest held to choose the team’s name, and the winning entry was “Robins”, in honor of Wisconsin’s state bird. However, the judges opted for “Bucks”, the second-most popular choice and a reference to the state’s official wild animal, the white-tailed deer.

The Trail Blazers are the NBA franchise in Portland, Oregon. The Blazers joined the league as an expansion team in 1970. A contest used to pick a team name came up with “Pioneers”, but this was dropped as it was already in use at Lewis & Clark College. Team management therefore opted for the fans’ second choice “Trail Blazers”.

32A Single-celled organism : 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.

35A “__ Te Ching” : TAO

Lao Tse (also “Lao-Tzu”, “Laozi”) was a central figure in the development of the religion/philosophy of Taoism. Tradition holds that Lao-Tzu wrote the “Tao Te Ching”, a classical Chinese text that is fundamental to the philosophy of Taoism.

36A Legend-ary achievement? : EGOT

The acronym “EGOT” stands for “Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony”, and is a reference to performers who have won all four awards.

“John Legend” is the stage name of singer-songwriter John Stephens. He has received many awards, and made many memorable performances. Notably, he played Jesus Christ in a live concert version of the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” produced for NBC in 2018. In 2019, Legend started appearing as a coach in the TV show “The Voice”. He married model Chrissy Teigen in 2013.

37A Fin. neighbor : NOR

The border between Norway and Finland extends almost 460 miles. It was defined in a 1751 treaty between Sweden and Denmark, because Sweden ruled Finland and Denmark ruled Norway. The westernmost end of the Finland-Norway border is at a point where both countries border Sweden. The easternmost end of the border is at a point where both border Russia.

38A Music box? : AMP

An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier (amp) to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

40A Emoji alternative : GIF

The Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) is an image format developed in the 1980s by CompuServe (remember CompuServe?). GIF images are compressed, reducing the file size, but without losing information. So, the original image can be reconstructed perfectly from the compressed GIF version. But, and it’s a big but, GIF images use only 256 individual colors. This means that GIF is a relatively poor choice of compression for color photographs, while it is usually fine for logos with large blocks of single colors.

42A “Kings & Queens” singer Max : AVA

“Kings & Queens” is a song co-written and recorded by Ava Max, released in 2020. It is an empowering anthem about female strength and equality.

49A Gains barbers’ equipment? : NETS CLIPPERS

The NBA’s Brooklyn Nets were the New Jersey Nets until 2012, and were based in Newark. Prior to 1977, the team was known as the New York Nets and played in various locations on Long Island. Ten years earlier, the Nets were called the New Jersey Americans and were headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey.

The Los Angeles Clippers NBA team started off life as the Buffalo Braves in 1970. The Braves took on the Clippers name when the franchise moved to San Diego in 1978. The new team name was chosen in honor of the great clipper ships that used to pass through San Diego Bay. The San Diego Clippers were sold in 1982 to real estate developer Donald Sterling, who moved the team to his native Los Angeles two years later. That move was not approved by the NBA, which resulted in a lawsuit and a $6 million fine, but the team was allowed to stay in its new home.

53A __ Tomé and Príncipe : SAO

The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe is an island nation off the west coast of Africa comprising mainly two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe. São Tomé and Príncipe is located in the Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of Gabon. It was colonized by Portugal after Portuguese explorers discovered the islands in the 15th century. After gaining independence in 1975, São Tomé and Príncipe became the smallest Portuguese-speaking country in the world.

54A Athlete Ledecky who went viral by swimming with a glass of chocolate milk on her head : KATIE

Katie Ledecky is a swimmer who won her first Olympic gold medal at just 15 years of age, in the 800-meter freestyle. In 2016, Ledecky also became the youngest person to make “Time” magazine’s “Time 100” annual list of most influential people in the American world. Katie’s uncle is Jon Ledecky, an owner of the New York Islanders hockey team.

58A Microsoft virtual work gathering, and what can be found in 20-, 28-, and 49-Across : TEAMS MEETING

Microsoft Teams is a videoconferencing application that competes directly with the like of Google Meet and Zoom. One feature of Teams that I quite like is “Together Mode”, which places meeting participants together in a shared virtual space like a 3-D meeting room, or an auditorium if there are numerous participants. To me, this is a more “normal” interface, and preferable to a grid of boxes.

61A Wyndham chain : RAMADA

The Ramada Inn hotel chain takes its name from the Spanish word for a shady resting place. A ramada is a shelter with a roof and no walls, mainly found in the American southwest. Nowadays a ramada can be temporary or permanent, but originally ramadas were makeshift shelters constructed by aboriginal Indians from branches or bushes.

65A Sully : MAR

To sully is to stain, tarnish. The term is often used in the context of sullying or tarnishing a reputation.

66A Exposure therapy target : PHOBIA

Exposure therapy is a psychological technique that helps people overcome anxiety by gradually and repeatedly facing the very objects or situations they fear in a safe, controlled environment. A modern form of the technique, especially for phobias that are difficult or dangerous to replicate, uses virtual reality (VR). This has proven effective for treating fears like fear of flying (aviophobia), heights (acrophobia), and public speaking, as well as for treating PTSD in combat veterans by recreating specific traumatic scenarios.

67A Garment worn under a dress : SLIP

A slip is an undergarment worn that is primarily worn under a dress. It is designed to be hidden away to help a dress hang smoothly and prevent it from being see-through.

69A Sitcom about a couple living in a haunted house : GHOSTS

“Ghosts” is an American sitcom that is based on a British series of the same name. I enjoyed the British version (haven’t seen the US show), which starred Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe. The leads play a married couple who inherit a country mansion that is haunted by some pretty wild ghosts. Only the wife can see the ghosts, and hilarity ensues …

Down

1D State that’s home to the Museum of Clean : IDAHO

The Museum of Clean in Pocatello, Idaho was founded in 2011 by Don Aslett, an entrepreneur who built a cleaning empire and who was often called the “King of Clean”. The 80,000-square-foot facility features an immense collection of cleaning tools, and one of the world’s largest assortments of vacuum cleaners (over 1,000 models), The Museum of Clean promotes the concept of “clean” in all aspects of life, including clean homes, clean air, clean water, clean language, and even features a gallery of clean jokes.

2D Weather tracker : RADAR

Scientists have been using radio waves to detect the presence of objects since the late 1800s, but it was the demands of WWII that accelerated the practical application of the technology. The British called their system RDF standing for Range and Direction Finding. The system used by the US Navy was called “Radio Detection And Ranging”, which was shortened to the acronym “RADAR”.

4D Low-pitched brass instrument : BASS TUBA

The tuba is the lowest-pitched of all brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is just one tuba included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”. Oom-pah-pah …

6D Prove false : DEBUNK

The word “bunk” is short for “bunkum”, the phonetic spelling of “Buncombe”, which is a county in North Carolina. Supposedly, a state representative made a dull and irrelevant speech that was directed to his home county of Buncombe, bringing the term “bunkum” into the language with the meaning of “nonsense”. The derivative word “debunk” first appeared in a novel by William Woodward in 1923, when he used it to describe “taking the bunk out of things”.

8D “__ All Along”: “WandaVision” spinoff : AGATHA

“Agatha All Along” is a dark comedy miniseries set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It is a spin-off from “WandaVision” (about Scarlet Witch and Vision), delving deeper into the backstory of the witch Agatha Harkness, played by Kathryn Hahn. Following the events of “WandaVision,” Agatha finds herself stripped of her powers and trapped in a New Jersey town under a magical spell.

11D Musician Brian : ENO

Brian Eno is a musician, composer and record producer from England who first achieved fame as the synthesizer player with Roxy Music. As a producer, Eno has worked with David Bowie, Devo, Talking Heads and U2.

12D Beaver project : DAM

Beavers build dams so that they can live in and around the slower and deeper water that builds up above the dam. This deeper water provides more protection for the beavers from predators such as bears. Beavers are nocturnal animals and do all their construction work at night.

21D Expensive Japanese beef : KOBE

Kobe is a port city on the island of Honshu in Japan. Here in North America, the city of Kobe is perhaps most famous for its beef. And yes, basketball star Kobe Bryant was named after that very same beef.

22D Evacuation kit : GO BAG

A bug-out bag (also “go bag”) is a portable collection of items that one would grab when evacuating from a disaster. One well-accepted guideline is that a bug-out bag contains all that would be needed to survive for 72 hours. A related kit is a get-home bag that might be kept in one’s car or place of work. A get-home bag contains the items needed to get back home in the absence of public transportation. My wife and I put together bug-out bags a few years ago, after moving into an area that is at high risk for wildfires …

27D Treasure __ : TROVE

The term “treasure trove” comes from the Anglo-French “tresor trové “ meaning “found treasure”.

30D French wine valley : LOIRE

The Loire is the longest river in France. It is so long that it drains one-fifth of the nation’s land mass. The Loire rises in the southeast, in the Cevennes mountain range, then heads north then due west, emptying into the Bay of Biscay at the city of Nantes. The Loire Valley is home to some of France’s most famous wine production, and includes the wine regions of Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and Muscadet. It is also home to some of the nation’s most spectacular châteaux. There are over 300 castles along the river, built by French kings and their courtiers.

39D Rainbow producer : PRISM

When light passes through a prism, it splits up (disperses) into differing wavelengths. It then becomes clear that white light is actually a mixture of different colors, which show up as a beautiful spectrum.

44D Papers needed for some trips? : LSD TABS

The drug LSD is often sold impregnated into blotting paper. The paper blotter is usually divided into squares with ¼-inch sides, with each square referred to as a “tab”.

48D Future DA’s exam : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

50D Make changes with a collaborator : COEDIT

A collaborator is someone who works with another person or group. More recently, since WWII, “collaborator” has been used in a negative sense, implying traitorous cooperation with an enemy. Ultimately, the term comes from the Latin “com” (with) and “laborare” (to work).

51D Large citrus fruit : POMELO

A pomelo is a very large, pear-shaped citrus fruit that is native to Southeast Asia.

57D “Snowy” bird : EGRET

The snowy egret is a small white heron that is native to the Americas. At one time the egret species was in danger of extinction due to hunting driven by the demand for plumes for women’s hats.

61D D&D, for one : RPG

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D, DnD) is a complex role-playing game (RPG) introduced in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my youngest son …