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Constructed by: Doug Peterson
Edited by: Patti Varol
Today’s Reveal Answer: Parting Shot
The grid includes synonyms of “SHOT” spelled out in circled letters, each broken in two PARTS by a black square:
- 60A End of a testy exchange, and what can be found four times in this puzzle, thanks to four black squares : PARTING SHOT
- 17A Song from “Anything Goes” : YOU’RE THE TOP
- 19A Shaved __ : ICE (a parting “PIC“)
- 22A “Lodge 49” actor __ Russell : WYATT
- 24A Like some hockey goals : EMPTY-NET (a parting “ATTEMPT“)
- 35A Wet/dry garage cleaner : SHOP VAC
- 38A HBO subsidiary : CINEMAX (a parting “VACCINE“)
- 52A Pain relief brand : EXCEDRIN
- 54A Olympic swimmer Ledecky : KATIE (a parting “DRINK“)
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
… leave a comment
Bill’s time: 8m 07s
Bill’s errors: 3
- NBA (ABA)
- RIG (wig)
- ARIANA (Nwiana!)
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
11 Dr. J’s first pro league : ABA
Julius Erving is a retired professional basketball player who is known as “Dr. J”, a nickname he picked up in high school. Dr. J was a trailblazer in many ways, being the first player associated with slam dunking and other moves above the rim.
14 Bleachers sign : HI, MOM!
At a sports event one might sit in the bleachers. “Bleachers” is a particularly American term used to describe the tiered stands that provide seating for spectators. These seats were originally wooden planks, and as they were uncovered they would be bleached by the sun, giving them the name we use today. Sometimes the fans using the bleachers might be referred to as “bleacherites”.
17 Song from “Anything Goes” : YOU’RE THE TOP
“Anything Goes” is a musical by Cole Porter, from a book by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, that tells of the goings on aboard an ocean liner sailing from New York to London. Some of the famous songs from the show are “Anything Goes”, “You’re the Top”, “I Get a Kick Out of You” as well as “The Gypsy in Me”.
20 Comic Boosler : ELAYNE
Elayne Boosler is a stand-up comedian and was one of the first female comedians to have her act aired as a special on cable television. She does have some funny lines, and here’s one that I particularly like:
When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country.
21 Crunch at breakfast? : CAP’N
The first Cap’n Crunch commercials aired in 1963, at the time the product line was launched. The Cap’n’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch, would you believe? Crunch’s voice was provided for many years by Daws Butler, the same voice actor who gave us Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Cap’n Crunch is commander of the S.S. Guppy.
22 “Lodge 49” actor __ Russell : WYATT
Wyatt Russell is an American actor and former ice hockey player. He is the son of actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.
27 Pixar short about a steamed dumpling : BAO
“Bao” is a 2018 short film produced by Pixar. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Domee Shi, it is the first Pixar movie directed by a woman. “Bao” won the 2018 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
28 Alien-seeking org. : SETI
“SETI” is the name given to a number of projects searching for extraterrestrial life. The acronym stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence”. One of the main SETI activities is the monitoring of electromagnetic radiation (such as radio waves) reaching the Earth in the hope of finding a transmission from a civilization in another world.
30 Kidneys, e.g. : ORGANS
The kidneys have several functions in the body, including the removal of toxins from the blood. This function is carried out by nephrons, the main structural units in the kidneys. Each human kidney comprises about a million nephrons.
33 Arthurian island : AVALON
Avalon is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legends. The name Avalon probably comes from the word “afal”, the Welsh word for “apple”, reflecting the fact that the island was noted for its beautiful apples. Avalon is where King Arthur’s famous sword “Excalibur” was forged, and supposedly where Arthur was buried.
42 Clicker : REMOTE
The first television remote control was introduced by Zenith Radio Corporation, in 1950. That remote was hard-wired to the TV, and was marketed as “Lazy Bones”. Personally, my first “remote” was a broomstick that I used by pushing in large mechanical buttons that selected each of the three channels that were available back then on the east coast of Ireland …
44 Rummikub piece : TILE
Rummikub is a tile-based game that was created in the 1940s by Ephraim Hertzano in Israel. Hertzano’s game combines elements of mahjong with the card game rummy. Rummikub was the best-selling game in the US back in 1977.
48 Caspian country : IRAN
The Caspian Sea is a landlocked body of water lying between Asia and Europe. By some definitions, the Caspian is the largest lake on the planet. The name “Caspian” comes from the Caspi people who lived to the southwest of the sea in the South Caucasus.
52 Pain relief brand : EXCEDRIN
Excedrin is a brand of over-the-counter pain reliever introduced in 1962 by Bristol-Myers Squibb. It contains a combination of aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine.
54 Olympic swimmer Ledecky : 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.
56 Checkout IDs : UPCS
The initialism “UPC” stands for Universal Price Code or Universal Product Code. The first ever UPC-marked item to get scanned in a store was on June 26, 1974 at 08:01 a.m. at Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio. It was a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum.
57 Fool’s gold : PYRITE
Pyrite is a mineral also known as iron pyrite. Famously, it has an appearance very similar to gold, so has the nickname “fool’s gold”. Pyrite does find its way into some baubles, which go by the name of marcasite jewelry.
59 __ Speedwagon : REO
REO Speedwagon is an American rock band that formed in 1967, and is still going strong. The band’s biggest hits are “Keep On Loving You” (1980) and “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (1985). The founding members chose the name for the REO Speed Wagon flatbed truck. Note that the band’s name is one word “Speedwagon”, whereas the vehicle’s name uses two words “Speed Wagon”.
68 Agcy. with a “3-1-1” rule for liquids : TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) loosened the ban on liquids, aerosols and gels in carry-on baggage in 2006, From that date onwards, passengers had to abide by the 3-1-1 rule, i.e. 3.4-ounce or less containers (3), in a one-quart ziploc bag (1), one bag per person (1).
70 Like Cheerios : OATEN
Cheerios breakfast cereal has the distinction of being the first oat-based cereal introduced into the market, hitting the grocery store shelves in 1941. Back then, Cheerios were known as CheeriOats.
Down
2 Christ the Redeemer locale : RIO
The iconic statue of Jesus overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is known as “Cristo Redentor” (Christ the Redeemer). The statue was constructed between 1922 and 1931. It is the largest Art Deco statue in the world, as it stands over 30 meters tall.
3 Earthbound bird : EMU
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.
4 Peninsula near Japan : KOREA
Korea was occupied by the Japanese military from 1910 until Japan surrendered at the end of WWII in 1945. While the UN was working towards a trusteeship administration for Korea, the Soviet Union managed the Korean Peninsula north of the 38th parallel and the US managed the south. The UN’s plans came to naught as the Cold War dictated the establishment of the two separate states of North Korea and South Korea. North Korea invaded the South in 1950, leading to the Korean War. After three years of fighting, the border between the two states became the demarcation line between the two military forces on the day the Armistice Agreement was signed. That line runs diagonally across the 38th parallel, and is better known as the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
5 Refines, as ore : SMELTS
Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and, a greenhouse gas).
7 When, in Act I, Lear curses “a thankless child” : SCENE IV
In William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”, the title character is betrayed by two of three daughters. He refers to this betrayal, by Goneril in particular, with the words:
If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatur’d torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
8 Sacred carving : TOTEM
“Totem” is a word used to describe any entity that watches over a group of people. As such, totems are usually the subjects of worship. Totem poles are really misnamed, as they are not intended to represent figures to be worshiped, but rather are heraldic in nature, and often celebrating the legends or notable events in the history of a tribe.
9 2019 Uber event, briefly : IPO
When transportation company Uber went public in 2019, it was a well-subscribed offering. However, Uber’s shares dropped in value soon after trading opened, and finished the day 11% down. As a result, Uber shares suffered the biggest IPO first-day dollar loss in US history.
11 “West Side Story” Oscar winner DeBose : ARIANA
Actress Ariana DeBose’s breakthrough role was the lead in the jukebox musical “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical”, which opened on Broadway in 2018. She reached a wider audience playing Anita in the 2021 film adaptation of the musical “West Side Story”. That performance won her the season’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
12 Popular writer? : BIC PEN
Société Bic is a company based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.
13 Boris and Natasha, e.g. : AGENTS
Fearless Leader, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale are all characters in the cartoon show “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. Fearless Leader is the dictatorial ruler of Pottsylvania, and Boris and Natasha are two of his minions, two inept government agents.
18 “Girls Trip” actor Larenz : TATE
“Girls Trip” Is a 2017 comedy movie. I haven’t seen this one, but I hear good things about it. It was chosen as one of the top 10 films of 2017 by “Time” Magazine. The four “girls” that go on the trip are played by Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish and Jada Pinkett Smith.
21 Baby swan : CYGNET
An adult male swan is a cob and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.
23 Artist Ono : YOKO
Yoko Ono is an avant-garde artist. She met her future husband John Lennon for the first time while she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit called “Hammer a Nail”. Visitors were encouraged to hammer in a nail into a wooden board, creating the artwork. Lennon wanted to hammer in the first nail, but Ono stopped him as the exhibition had not yet opened. Apparently Ono relented when Lennon paid her an imaginary five shillings to hammer an imaginary nail into the wood.
25 __ sci : POLI
Political science (poli sci)
26 Jumbo suffix : -TRON
A Jumbotron is a big-screen television system that is often seen in sports stadiums. The brand name “JumboTron” was introduced by Sony in 1985. “Jumbotron” is used pretty generically now for any big-screen system in such venues as Sony exited the business in 2001.
27 Some four-year degs. : BAS
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
34 Taiwan-based computer brand : ACER
Acer is a Taiwanese company that I visited a couple of times when I was in the electronics business. I was very impressed back then with the company’s dedication to quality, although I have heard that things haven’t gone so well in recent years …
37 From the States: Abbr. : AMER
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer. Vespucci was the man who established that the landmass discovered by Christopher Columbus was not the eastern coast of Asia, but rather was a “New World”. The newly-discovered supercontinent was named “America”, coming from the Latin version of Vespucci’s first name “Amerigo”.
41 Millennial preceder : XER
The term “Generation X” originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By one definition, Gen-Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.
The Millennial Generation are sometimes referred to as “Generation Y” (Gen-Y). Millennials were born after the “Gen-Xers”, from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.
43 “A Christmas Carol” child : TINY TIM
“Tiny Tim” is the nickname of Timothy Cratchit, a character in the Charles Dickens novella “A Christmas Carol”. Tiny Tim is the son of Ebenezer Scrooge’s underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit, and is a sickly child. Famously, the child utters the words “God bless us, every one!” at Christmas dinner, which words are repeated by the author at the end of the story.
45 “Bathers at Asnières” painter Georges : SEURAT
Georges Seurat was a French Post-Impressionist. His most famous work is “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884”, a work in the pointillist style that can be viewed in the Art Institute of Chicago. If you’ve seen the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, it features quite prominently in a wonderful, wonderful scene shot at the gallery. The painting features ordinary people enjoying a day at a park, and is the inspiration for the 1984 musical by Stephen Sondheim called “Sunday in the Park with George”.
“Bathers at Asnières” is an 1884 painting by Georges Seurat. It is a very large work, measuring almost 10 feet across. The depicted scene features bathers on the bank of the River Seine just outside Paris. The people who bathed at Asnières tended to be working class. Seurat’s more famous painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” features upper-class Parisians in a park on the opposite bank of the river.
47 Pepsi alternative : RC COLA
Claude A. Hatcher ran a grocery store in Columbus, Georgia. He decided to develop his own soft drink formula when he balked at the price his store was being charged for Coca-Cola syrup. Hatcher launched the Union Bottling Works in his own grocery store, and introduced Royal Crown Ginger Ale in 1905. The Union Bottling Works was renamed to Chero-Cola in 1910, the Nehi Corporation in 1925, and Royal Crown Company in the mid-fifties. The first RC Cola hit the market in 1934.
50 “Wicked Tuna” channel, familiarly : NAT GEO
“Wicked Tuna” is a reality TV show that first aired in 2012. It is filmed in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and follows the working lives of several commercial tuna fishermen as they compete to make the most money out catching Atlantic bluefin tuna in the North Atlantic.
55 Rock band named for an inventor : TESLA
The rock band Tesla formed in Sacramento, California in 198i, originally using the name “City Kidd”. Because there was another band with a similar name, City Kidd changed their name to Tesla, after the inventor Nikola Tesla, in 1986 just before recording their first album.
61 “Sweet but Psycho” singer __ Max : AVA
Singer-songwriter Ava Max’s birth name is Amanda Ava Koci. She was born in Milwaukee to Albanian immigrants. Max has music in her blood, as her mother was an opera singer and her father a pianist. Her debut single “Sweet but Psycho” was released in 2018 and became a global hit.
64 X, on a Rolex : TEN
My most-prized possession is a beautiful stainless steel Rolex watch that my uncle bought while serving with the RAF in Canada during WWII. Rolex watches were made available to the Canadian servicemen at that time as they were shipping overseas. My uncle brought his Rolex home to Ireland after the war. He needed money one weekend and so sold the watch to my Dad, for five pounds. My Dad gave it to me just before he died, as he knew I loved the watch, and my brothers weren’t interested in it all. Not so long ago I had the watch appraised ($3,000), and my brothers suddenly took a liking to it! Still, it’s not something that will ever be sold, that’s for sure …
Read on, or …
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Arduous journeys : TREKS
6 On the move : ASTIR
11 Dr. J’s first pro league : ABA
14 Bleachers sign : HI, MOM!
15 Extent : SCOPE
16 Big finish? : … RIG
17 Song from “Anything Goes” : YOU’RE THE TOP
19 Shaved __ : ICE
20 Comic Boosler : ELAYNE
21 Crunch at breakfast? : CAP’N
22 “Lodge 49” actor __ Russell : WYATT
24 Like some hockey goals : EMPTY-NET
27 Pixar short about a steamed dumpling : BAO
28 Alien-seeking org. : SETI
30 Kidneys, e.g. : ORGANS
31 Does some grilling : ASKS
33 Arthurian island : AVALON
35 Wet/dry garage cleaner : SHOP VAC
38 HBO subsidiary : CINEMAX
42 Clicker : REMOTE
44 Rummikub piece : TILE
45 Unruffled : SERENE
48 Caspian country : IRAN
51 Here-there connection : NOR
52 Pain relief brand : EXCEDRIN
54 Olympic swimmer Ledecky : KATIE
56 Checkout IDs : UPCS
57 Fool’s gold : PYRITE
59 __ Speedwagon : REO
60 End of a testy exchange, and what can be found four times in this puzzle, thanks to four black squares : PARTING SHOT
65 Each and every : ALL
66 Prove useful : AVAIL
67 Slip away from : ELUDE
68 Agcy. with a “3-1-1” rule for liquids : TSA
69 “I did awesome!” : YAY ME!
70 Like Cheerios : OATEN
Down
1 Archaic possessive : THY
2 Christ the Redeemer locale : RIO
3 Earthbound bird : EMU
4 Peninsula near Japan : KOREA
5 Refines, as ore : SMELTS
6 Like a used barbecue pit : ASHY
7 When, in Act I, Lear curses “a thankless child” : SCENE IV
8 Sacred carving : TOTEM
9 2019 Uber event, briefly : IPO
10 Weight room iteration : REP
11 “West Side Story” Oscar winner DeBose : ARIANA
12 Popular writer? : BIC PEN
13 Boris and Natasha, e.g. : AGENTS
18 “Girls Trip” actor Larenz : TATE
21 Baby swan : CYGNET
22 Clean : WASH
23 Artist Ono : YOKO
25 __ sci : POLI
26 Jumbo suffix : -TRON
27 Some four-year degs. : BAS
29 Folded fast food : TACO
32 Bouts of indulgence : SPREES
34 Taiwan-based computer brand : ACER
36 Peddle : VEND
37 From the States: Abbr. : AMER
39 Smaller version : MINI
40 Skin-healing plant : ALOE
41 Millennial preceder : XER
43 “A Christmas Carol” child : TINY TIM
45 “Bathers at Asnières” painter Georges : SEURAT
46 Boots out : EXPELS
47 Pepsi alternative : RC COLA
49 Analogous : AKIN
50 “Wicked Tuna” channel, familiarly : NAT GEO
53 “Here’s hoping … ” : I PRAY …
55 Rock band named for an inventor : TESLA
58 Tick off : RILE
60 Prove useful : PAY
61 “Sweet but Psycho” singer __ Max : AVA
62 Rough house : HUT
63 Verse of exaltation : ODE
64 X, on a Rolex : TEN
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