Tag: Shortsighted solution? crossword clue

Advertisement

Constructed by: Freddie Cheng
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Fare Hikes

Themed answers are common FARE eaten at a meal, but hiked UP (“UP” inserted):

• 52A Concerns for commuters, or an apt title for this puzzle : FARE HIKES

• 20A Add bulk to cured meat? : BEEF UP JERKY (from “beef jerky”)
• 25A Treat haricot verts to extra plant food? : BUTTER UP BEANS (from “butter beans”)
• 42A Give some oomph to pot stickers? : SOUP UP DUMPLINGS (from “soup dumplings”)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 45s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Pave over : RE-TAR

The terms “tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call “tarmac”.

10 Business magnate : CZAR

The term “czar” (also “tsar”) is a Slavic word that was first used as a title by Simeon I of Bulgaria in 913 AD. “Czar” is derived from the word “caesar”, which was synonymous with “emperor” at that time. We tend to use the “czar” spelling, as opposed to “tsar”, when we describe a person today with great power or authority, e.g. “Drug Czar”.

14 Tailless cat : MANX

I’ve seen Manx cats by the dozen on their native island. They’re found all over the Isle of Man (hence the name “Manx”) that is located in the middle of the Irish Sea. Manx cats have just a stub of a tail, and hence are called “stubbins” by the locals.

18 Capacitance unit : FARAD

The SI unit of capacitance is the farad, a unit that is named after the physicist Michael Faraday.

19 Penny-__ : ANTE

Penny Ante poker is a game in which bets are limited to a penny, or some other small, friendly sum. The expression “penny-ante” has come to describe any business transaction that is on a small scale.

20 Add bulk to cured meat? : BEEF UP JERKY (from “beef jerky”)

Jerky is meat that has been trimmed of fat and dried. The term “jerky” comes into English via Spanish from the Incan Quechua “ch’arki” meaning “dried flesh”.

24 California’s Big __ : SUR

Big Sur is a lovely part of the California Coast located south of Monterey and Carmel. The name “Big Sur” comes from the original Spanish description of the area as “el sur grande” meaning “the big south”.

25 Treat haricot verts to extra plant food? : BUTTER UP BEANS (from “butter beans”)

The lima bean is also known as the butter bean or madagascar bean. It was introduced to Europe from the area around Lima, Peru, hence the name.

A navy bean is a white bean, and is the bean commonly found in the dish known as “baked beans”. It can also be called a haricot bean. The term “navy bean” is used because haricot beans were a staple for sailors in the 19th-century US Navy.

32 Longtime “Dancing With the Stars” judge Goodman : LEN

Len Goodman was a professional ballroom dancer. He was head judge on the US’s “Dancing with the Stars” until 2019, and head judge on the original UK version of the show called “Strictly Come Dancing” until 2017.

34 Zelenskyy’s country: Abbr. : UKR

Volodymyr Zelenskyy had no political experience when he won Ukraine’s presidential election and took office in 2019. He had a very successful career as a comedian and actor. He became famous for playing the president of Ukraine in a satirical comedy show “Servant of the People”, which ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2019.

40 __ del Carmen, Mexico : PLAYA

Playa del Carmen is a resort city located south of Cancún in Eastern Mexico. The city is named for Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patron saint of Cancún.

42 Give some oomph to pot stickers? : SOUP UP DUMPLINGS (from “soup dumplings”)

“Pot sticker” is the literal translation of “jiaozi”, the name of a Chinese dumpling.

48 Highway sign no. : RTE

Rand McNally is a company long associated with the city of Chicago. Its roots go back to 1856 when William Rand opened a printing shop in the city. Two years later he hired an Irish immigrant named Andrew McNally and the pair turned to printing tickets and timetables for the railroad industry. They diversified into “railroad guides” in 1870, including the first Rand McNally map in the December 1872 edition. When automobile travel started to become significant, Rand and McNally turned their attention to roads and they published their first road map in 1904, a map of New York City. Rand and McNally popularized the use of highway numbers, and indeed erected many roadside highway signs themselves, long before the state and federal authorities adopted the idea.

50 WWII carrier : LST

The initialism “LST” stands for Landing Ship, Tank. LSTs are the large vessels used mainly in WWII that have doors at either ends through which tanks and other vehicles can roll off and onto beaches. The design concept persists to this day in the huge fleet of commercial roll-on/roll-off car ferries, all inspired by the LST.

52 Concerns for commuters, or an apt title for this puzzle : FARE HIKES

Our verb “to commute”, meaning “to go back and forth to work”, ultimately derives from the Latin “commutare”, meaning “to often change”. Back in the late 1800s, a “commutation ticket” was a season pass, so named because it allowed one to “change” one kind of payment into another. Quite interesting …

55 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.

58 Shiraz resident : IRANI

The Iranian city of Shiraz has long been associated with wine, but there is no proven link between the city and the wine/grape we know today as “Shiraz” (also called “Syrah”). Having said that, some clay jars were found just outside of the city of Shiraz that contained wine; wine that was 7,000 years old!

59 Milton setting : EDEN

“Paradise Lost” is an epic poem written by Englishman John Milton. It is indeed an epic work, published originally in ten volumes with over ten thousand lines of verse. The “paradise” that is “lost” is the Garden of Eden, from which Adam and Eve were expelled by God in the “Fall of Man”.

Down

3 Stuffed shirt : SNOB

Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

5 Some drawings : RAFFLES

A raffle is a game of chance in which the prize can be won by numerous people who buy into the draw. Back in the 14th century, in Old French, a “rafle” was a dice game.

6 Biblical birthright seller : ESAU

According to the Bible’s Book of Genesis, Esau was the elder twin brother of Jacob, and son of Isaac and Rebekah. Esau sold his birthright, which entitled him to a double portion of his father’s inheritance, for a bowl of lentil stew because he was hungry and didn’t want to wait for his brother to cook food.

7 Renovator’s protective cover : TARP

Originally, tarpaulins were made from canvas covered in tar that rendered the material waterproof. The word “tarpaulin” comes from “tar” and “palling”, with “pall” meaning “heavy cloth covering”.

8 Key of Beethoven’s Sym. No. 7 : A MAJ

If I had to name which of Beethoven’s symphonies I listen to most often, at the top of the list comes the 7th followed closely by the 9th, and then the 5th a little further down. But, that four-note opening of the 5th; that is superb …

10 Yogic spiritual center : CHAKRA

Chakras are energy centers in the body that are believed to correspond to different aspects of the physical, emotional, and spiritual self. There are seven main chakras, located along the spine from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. Each chakra is associated with a different color, element, and emotion.

11 Off-the-wall : ZANY

Something described as zany is clownish and bizarre. “Zany” can also be a noun, a term used for a clown or buffoon. The original noun was “Zanni”, a Venetian dialect variant of Gianni, short for Giovanni (John). Zanni was a character who appeared in comedy plays of the day, and was someone who aped the principal actors.

13 Sturgeon delicacy : ROE

Sturgeons are sometimes classed a primitive fish, meaning that their characteristic features are relatively unchanged when compared to the earliest fossil records. Several species of sturgeon are farmed for their roe, which is made into caviar.

21 Young salamander : EFT

Salamanders are lizard-like amphibians found all across the northern hemisphere. They are the only vertebrate animals that can regenerate lost limbs.

28 Pakistani language : URDU

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

32 Shortsighted solution? : LASIK

LASIK surgery uses a laser to reshape the cornea of the eye to improve vision. The LASIK acronym stands for “laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis”.

37 Org. concerned with plastic pollution : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

38 Buddhist teaching : SUTRA

The word “sutra” is used in Hinduism for a learned text, one usually meant to be studied by students.

40 One in a buffet stack : PLATE

Our word “buffet” comes from the French “bufet” meaning “bench, sideboard”. So, a buffet is a meal served from a “bufet”.

41 Starbucks top : LID

Starbucks is a coffee company based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest coffeehouse company in the world and has over 19,000 stores. In the 1990s, Starbucks was opening one new store every single day! Starbucks is named after the chief mate on the Pequod in Herman Melville’s book “Moby Dick”.

43 Paralyze with fear : PETRIFY

To petrify is to turn organic matter into a hard, stone-like material (as in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona). We also use “petrify” figuratively, to me “paralyze with fear”.

44 “The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo” airer : PBS KIDS

“The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo” is a “Sesame Street” spinoff that debuted in 2020. Elmo had some high-profile guests the first season of his show, including Jimmy Fallon, the Jonas Brothers, John Oliver, Hoda Kotb, Andy Cohen and Olivia Wilde.

50 Hard-hit baseball : LINER

In baseball, a line drive (“liner”) is a ball that is hit low, hard and straight.

53 Mandlíková in the International Tennis Hall of Fame : HANA

Hana Mandlíková is a former professional tennis star from Czechoslovakia. She won four Grand Slam titles and then retired in 1990, at the ripe old age of 28.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame was established in 1954 in Newport, Rhode Island. It is located in the Newport Casino, which was an exclusive resort built in the late 1800s. The Tennis Hall of Fame complex is quite well equipped, and includes several indoor and outdoor tennis courts as well as a museum and theater.

55 Sharpness figs. : IQS

Although it is correct these days to say that the abbreviation IQ stands for “intelligence quotient”, the term was actually coined by German psychologist William Stern, and so is actually an abbreviation for the German “Intelligenz-Quotient”.

56 “Absolument!” : OUI!

“Absolument” is French for “absolutely”.

60 Auerbach of the Black Keys : DAN

Dan Auerbach is a musician and singer who is perhaps best known for his work with drummer Patrick Carney in the rock duo the Black Keys. Auerback and Carney met each other as children, living in the same neighborhood in Akron, Ohio.

61 “House of the Dragon” actress Best : EVE

Eve Best is an actress from London who perhaps is best known for playing Wallis Simpson in the marvelous 2010 film “The King’s Speech”. More recently, she joined the cast of “House of Dragons”, playing Princess Rhaenys Targaryen.

62 Word in four state names : NEW

The four US states starting with the word “New” are:

• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York