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Constructed by: John Michael Currie
Edited by: Rich Norris
Today’s Reveal Answer: Double Team
Themed answers each comprise TWO professional sports TEAM players:
- 64A Pass coverage tactic … and a hint to the answers to starred clues : DOUBLE TEAM
- 17A *Striped marine predator : TIGER SHARK
- 10D *Navy stunt pilot : BLUE ANGEL
- 24D *Boeing 737, for one : TWIN JET
- 35D *Pollux, for one : GIANT STAR
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
… leave a comment
Bill’s time: 6m 21s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Whale newborn : CALF
Male whales are referred to as “bulls”, females are “cows”, and the young are “calves”.
5 Mallorcan seaport : PALMA
Palma is the main city and port on the island of Majorca in the Mediterranean Sea off the east coast of Spain.
The Island of Majorca (“Isla Mallorca” in Spanish) is Spain’s largest island, and is located in the Mediterranean Sea. The population of the island ballooned over the past few decades as Majorca became a mecca for tourists from all over Europe.
10 “Jazz Samba” guitarist Charlie : BYRD
Charlie Byrd was a jazz guitarist from Suffolk, Virginia. Byrd’s most successful and celebrated recording is the 1962 album “Jazz Samba” which was a collaboration with saxophonist Stan Getz. “Jazz Samba” kicked off American interest in the bossa nova style of music.
15 Neptune’s realm : OCEAN
Neptune was a Roman god, of both the sea and of freshwater. He was sometimes known as “Neptunus Equester” as he was also the god of horses and patron of horse-racing.
17 *Striped marine predator : TIGER SHARK
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 Tucson school, for short : U OF A
The University of Arizona (UA, or “U of A”) was the first university founded in the state, opening its doors for students in Tucson in 1885 (which was actually 27 years before the territory was granted statehood).
20 Adjoining, in hotel lingo : EN SUITE
The expression “en suite” is an example of the French language being used in English, but with a new meaning. Firstly, the word “ensuite” translates from French as “then” or “later”. The phrase “en suite” translates as “as a set, series”. The French also use the term “suite” as we do sometimes, as in a suite of connecting rooms. Over in Britain and Ireland, “en suite” is a phrase used in the hotel industry for a bedroom that has a private bathroom or shower room attached. Some smaller establishments in that part of the world might rent out bedrooms with the occupants having to share bathing facilities.
Lingo is specialized vocabulary. Journalese and legalese would be good examples.
24 “Rooted in real” chip brand : TERRA
TERRA Chips are a range of vegetable chips that were the creation of two New York chefs. The chips first went up for sale in 1990.
25 Landlocked Afr. land : ETH
Ethiopia is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation on the continent (after Nigeria) and, with 90 million inhabitants, the most populous landlocked country in the world. Most anthropologists believe that our Homo sapiens species evolved in the region now called Ethiopia, and from there set out to populate the planet.
28 Put in the cargo hold : STOW
Cargo is freight carried by some vehicle. The term “cargo” comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.
30 Epic featuring the Trojan Horse : AENEID
Aeneas was a Trojan hero of myth who traveled to Italy and became the ancestor of all Romans. Aeneas’s story is told in Virgil’s epic poem “The Aeneid”.
The story of the Wooden Horse of Troy is told in the Virgil’s poem “The Aeneid”. According to the tale, the city of Troy finally fell to Greeks after a siege that had lasted for ten years. In a ruse, the Greeks sailed away in apparent defeat, leaving behind a large wooden horse. Inside the horse were hidden 30 crack soldiers. When the horse was dragged into the city as a victory trophy, the soldiers sneaked out and opened the city’s gates. The Greeks returned under cover of night and entered the open city.
34 Bit of sediment : DREG
The dregs in wine, the sediment that settles during fermentation (and sometimes in the bottle), are also called “lees”.
39 Like some bonds : IONIC
An ionic bond is formed between two oppositely-charged ions. A common example is the bond between positively-charged sodium atoms and negatively-charged chlorine atoms to form table salt (NaCl). A covalent bond, on the other hand, is formed when two atoms share electrons. Atoms sharing electrons tend to be stable, so they prefer to stay together rather than apart.
41 Platform-promoting org. : RNC
National leadership of the Republican Party is provided by the Republican National Committee (RNC). Only one former chairperson of the RNC has been elected to the office of US president, and that was George H. W. Bush.
42 Grand __ National Park : TETON
Grand Teton National Park (NP) is located just south of Yellowstone NP, and a must-see if you are visiting the latter. The park is named after the tallest peak in the magnificent Teton Range known as Grand Teton. The origins of the name “Teton” is not very clear, although my one story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French is a slang term meaning “breasts”.
43 Bat mitzvah scroll : TORAH
A Torah scroll (also “Sefer Torah”) is a handwritten copy of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.
A Jewish girl becomes a bat mitzvah at 12 years of age, the age at which she becomes responsible for her actions. Boys become bar mitzvahs at 13. The terms translate into English as daughter and son of the commandments.
44 Barely open : AJAR
Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.
46 Chaps : LADS
“Chap” is an informal term meaning “lad, fellow” that is used especially in England. The term derives from “chapman”, an obsolete word meaning “purchaser” or “trader”.
47 Kind of column or cord : SPINAL
The vertebral column is also known as the spinal column.
The vertebrae are the individual bones that give strength and flexibility to the spinal column. The word “vertebra” is Latin. The term probably derives from the verb “vertere” meaning “to turn”, the idea being that the individual bones in the back allow turning and twisting.
The spinal cord is nervous tissue that extends from the lower spine to the medulla in the brain stem. There is a fluid-filled space that runs the length of the cord known as the central canal.
49 Flightless Aussies : EMUS
The large flightless birds called emus make sounds by manipulating inflatable neck-sacs. The sac is about a foot long, has a thin wall and allows the bird to emit a booming sound. The type of sound emitted is the easiest way to differentiate between male and female emus.
51 Mao __-tung : TSE
Mao Zedong (also “Mao Tse-tung”) was born on December 16, 1893 in the Hunan Province of China. As Mao was the son of a peasant farmer, his prospects for education were limited. Indeed he left school at age 13 to work on the family farm but did eventually get to secondary school in Changsha, the provincial capital. In the years following, Mao continued his education in Beijing and actually turned down an opportunity to study in France.
52 Avocado __ : TOAST
The wonderful avocado comes from a tree that is native to Mexico and Central America. The avocado fruit is sometimes called an avocado pear, because of its shape, even though it is not related to the pear at all. The fruit might also be referred to as an alligator pear, due to the roughness of the green skin of some avocado cultivars.
56 Modern Library title, e.g. : CLASSIC
Modern Library is a publishing house that was founded in 1917. The company’s editors produced the “Modern Library List of Best 20th Century Novels” in 1998. The top 10 of that list of 100 titles are:
- “Ulysses” by James Joyce
- “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce
- “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov
- “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
- “The Sound and the Fury ” by William Faulkner
- “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller
- “Darkness at Noon” by Arthur Koestler
- “Sons and Lovers” by D. H. Lawrence
- “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck
64 Pass coverage tactic … and a hint to the answers to starred clues : DOUBLE TEAM
Double teaming is a tactic used in basketball to bring a particularly effective player on the opposing team under control. A double team involves two defensive players guarding that one individual.
69 King with three daughters : LEAR
“King Lear” is one of William Shakespeare’s tragedies. Lear’s three daughters figure prominently in the story line. The three are, in order of age:
- Goneril
- Regan
- Cordelia
70 Bay Area-based coffee company : PEET’S
Peet’s is a chain of coffee houses based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was founded in 1966 by Dutch immigrant Alfred Peet. Peet served as a mentor to Jerry Baldwin, who co-founded Starbucks in 1971.
Down
1 République de __ d’Ivoire : COTE
The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire is located in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea. The country is often referred to in English as “the Ivory Coast”, the direct translation from the French. The official language of the country is French, as for many years it was a French colony.
2 Deuce follower : AD IN
In tennis, if the score reaches deuce (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the advantage. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. The player calling out the score announces “ad in”, or more formally “advantage in”, if he/she has the advantage. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?
3 Enters in a record book : LOGS
The word “logbook” dates back to the days when the captain of a ship kept a daily record of the vessel’s speed, progress etc. using a “log”. A log was a wooden float on a knotted line that was dropped overboard to measure speed through the water.
4 Anna who was an early pioneer of psychoanalytic child psychology : FREUD
Anna Freud was a psychoanalyst who was the youngest child of Sigmund Freud, the founder of the discipline. Anna left Vienna along with her family and settled in London after the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. She is considered, along with Melanie Klein, to have founded psychoanalytic child psychology.
5 Colorful reminders : POST-ITS
The Post-it note was invented at 3M following the accidental discovery of a low-tack, reusable adhesive. The actual intent of the development program was the discovery of a super-strong adhesive.
8 Simpson with a blue do : MARGE
Marge Simpson is the matriarch of the family in “The Simpsons” animated sitcom. Marge is voiced by actress Julie Kavner, who is also well known for playing Brenda Morgenstern in the TV show “Rhoda” in the seventies.
9 Turkish metropolis : ANKARA
Ankara is the second largest city in Turkey, after Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). After WWI, the Ottoman Empire had been defeated and the Allies occupied the Ottoman capital of Istanbul. The victors planned to break up most of Turkey, leaving native Turks just part of their country for their own. In the inevitable War of Independence that followed, the Turkish Nationalists used Ankara as their base. When the Nationalists emerged victorious, they declared Ankara the new capital of Turkey.
10 *Navy stunt pilot : BLUE ANGEL
“Blue Angels” is the popular name for the US Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron. The group was formed in 1946 and is the oldest of the US military’s flying aerobatic teams. The squadron took its nickname back in ‘46 from the Blue Angel nightclub that was around at that time in New York City.
12 Tennis nickname : RAFA
Rafael “Rafa” Nadal is a Spanish tennis player. He is noted for his expertise on clay courts, which earned him the nickname “The King of Clay”.
13 WWII turning point : D-DAY
The Allied Invasion of Normandy during WWII was given the codename “Operation Overlord”. The Normandy landings that kicked off the invasion on D-Day (6 June 1944) were given the codename “Operation Neptune”.
18 Kia subcompacts : RIOS
Kia have made the subcompact model called a Rio since 2000.
24 *Boeing 737, for one : TWIN JET
A twinjet is a twin-engine jet, one powered by two engines. The most prolific passenger airliner with a twinjet configuration is the Boeing 737.
27 Artist Matisse : HENRI
Henri Matisse was a French artist renowned for his contribution to modern art. In his early career, Matisse was classed as a “fauve”, one of the group of artists known as the “wild beasts” who emphasized strong color over realism in their works. He was a lifelong friend of Pablo Picasso, and the two were considered to be good-natured rivals so their works are often compared. One major difference between their individual portfolios is that Picasso tended to paint from his imagination, whereas Matisse tended to use nature as his inspiration.
29 Fried side : OKRA
The plant known as okra is mainly grown for its edible green pods. The pods are said to resemble “ladies’ fingers”, which is an alternative name for the plant. Okra is known as “ngombo” in Bantu, a name that might give us the word “gumbo”, the name for the name of the southern Louisiana stew that includes okra as a key ingredient.
32 Devices with earbuds : IPODS
The iPod is Apple’s signature line of portable media players. The iPod first hit the market in 2001 with a hard drive-based device, now known as the iPod Classic. Later models all use flash memory, allowing a smaller form factor. The smallest of the flash-based models is the iPod Shuffle, which was introduced in 2005.
35 *Pollux, for one : GIANT STAR
The constellation of Gemini contains 85 stars that are visible with the naked eye, but the two brightest are Pollux and Castor. These two stars are named for the twins Pollux and Castor of Greek mythology. The name “Gemini” is Latin for “twins”.
45 Ridged chips : RUFFLES
Ruffles are a brand of crinkle-cut potato chips. The chips take their name from their “ruffled” shape. The ruffles are designed to make the chip more sturdy, and better for dipping.
50 Call at home : SAFE!
That would be baseball.
53 Quick bread that may have raisins : SCONE
“Raisin” is the French word for “grape”. The French for “raisin” is “raisin sec”, which translates literally as “dried grape”.
58 The Bosporus borders it : ASIA
The Bosphorus (also “Bosporus”) is one of the two Turkish Straits, the other being the Dardanelles. The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles lie either side of the Sea of Marmara, allowing continuous navigation from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea. The Turkish Straits also form the boundary between Europe and Asia.
59 Parting words? : OBIT
Our word “obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”. The Latin term was used for “record of the death of a person”, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.
60 Missing fish in a Pixar film : NEMO
“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 animated blockbuster from Pixar. The film was the winner of the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Believe it or not, “Finding Nemo” is the best-selling DVD of all time and, until 2010’s “Toy Story 3”, it was the highest-grossing, G-rated movie at the box office.
62 Ambulance pros : EMTS
Emergency medical technician (EMT)
65 Sporty truck, briefly : UTE
A utility vehicle is often called a “ute” for short. Nowadays one mainly hears about sport-utes and crossover-utes.
Read on, or …
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Whale newborn : CALF
5 Mallorcan seaport : PALMA
10 “Jazz Samba” guitarist Charlie : BYRD
14 Stench : ODOR
15 Neptune’s realm : OCEAN
16 Show the way : LEAD
17 *Striped marine predator : TIGER SHARK
19 Tucson school, for short : U OF A
20 Adjoining, in hotel lingo : EN SUITE
21 Portal : GATEWAY
23 Words after boy or so : … DO I
24 “Rooted in real” chip brand : TERRA
25 Landlocked Afr. land : ETH
28 Put in the cargo hold : STOW
30 Epic featuring the Trojan Horse : AENEID
34 Bit of sediment : DREG
36 Hits the slopes : SKIS
38 Wide open : AGAPE
39 Like some bonds : IONIC
41 Platform-promoting org. : RNC
42 Grand __ National Park : TETON
43 Bat mitzvah scroll : TORAH
44 Barely open : AJAR
46 Chaps : LADS
47 Kind of column or cord : SPINAL
49 Flightless Aussies : EMUS
51 Mao __-tung : TSE
52 Avocado __ : TOAST
54 Fleeting trend : FAD
56 Modern Library title, e.g. : CLASSIC
59 Players with possession : OFFENSE
63 Overthrow : OUST
64 Pass coverage tactic … and a hint to the answers to starred clues : DOUBLE TEAM
66 Song often sung in Italian : ARIA
67 Loosen, as laces : UNTIE
68 Send forth : EMIT
69 King with three daughters : LEAR
70 Bay Area-based coffee company : PEET’S
71 Towel holders : RODS
Down
1 République de __ d’Ivoire : COTE
2 Deuce follower : AD IN
3 Enters in a record book : LOGS
4 Anna who was an early pioneer of psychoanalytic child psychology : FREUD
5 Colorful reminders : POST-ITS
6 Feel yesterday’s workout, say : ACHE
7 Grassy ground : LEA
8 Simpson with a blue do : MARGE
9 Turkish metropolis : ANKARA
10 *Navy stunt pilot : BLUE ANGEL
11 “That smarts!” : YEOW!
12 Tennis nickname : RAFA
13 WWII turning point : D-DAY
18 Kia subcompacts : RIOS
22 Pup’s reward : TREAT
24 *Boeing 737, for one : TWIN JET
25 Prepares to publish : EDITS
26 Scout group : TROOP
27 Artist Matisse : HENRI
29 Fried side : OKRA
31 Bother greatly : EAT AT
32 Devices with earbuds : IPODS
33 Thick : DENSE
35 *Pollux, for one : GIANT STAR
37 Con : SCAM
40 Disorderly state : CHAOS
45 Ridged chips : RUFFLES
48 Under the weather : LAID UP
50 Call at home : SAFE!
53 Quick bread that may have raisins : SCONE
55 Try to stop : DETER
56 Steamboat fuel : COAL
57 It may be at the end of the line : LURE
58 The Bosporus borders it : ASIA
59 Parting words? : OBIT
60 Missing fish in a Pixar film : NEMO
61 Voiced : SAID
62 Ambulance pros : EMTS
65 Sporty truck, briefly : UTE
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