Advertisement
Constructed by: Matthew Stock & Pravan Chakravarthy
Edited by: Patti Varol
Today’s Theme: None
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
… leave a comment
Bill’s time: 21m 02s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
11 Water color : CYAN
“Cyan” is short for “cyan blue”. The term comes from the Greek word “kyanos” meaning “dark blue, the color of lapis lazuli”.
18 Wasatch Mountains resort : ALTA
Alta ski resort actually lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont). The ski resort of Snowbird, located next to Alta, has been in operation since 1971.
The Wasatch Range is at the western edge of the Rocky Mountains and runs through Utah. “Wasatch” is a Ute word meaning “mountain pass”.
19 Oscar-nominated biopic about a Supreme Court justice : RBG
“RBG” is a 2018 documentary about the amazing life and career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The film was released two years before Ginsberg died. After her passing, it was re-released, with box office profits going to the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU).
20 “Your Movie Sucks” author : EBERT
“Your Movie Sucks” is a collection of movie reviews by film critic Roger Ebert, reviews that are all under two-out-of-five stars.
21 Dial on old TVs : VERT
Remember the “horizontal hold” (HOR) and “vertical hold” (VER) on old TV sets? Our kids have no idea what we had to go through …
22 Disney princess from Avalor : ELENA
“Elena of Avalor” is a Disney Channel TV show about a Latina princess and her family. The title character is a 16-year-old crowned princess of the magical king of Avalor.
25 Choler : IRE
Choler is anger, irritability. Choler (also “cholera”) was one of the body’s four basic substances of medieval science, the so-called four humors. All diseases were caused by these four substances getting out of balance. The four humors were:
- Black bile (melancholia)
- Yellow bile (cholera)
- Phlegm (phlegma)
- Blood (sanguis)
26 Pt. of VAT : VALUE
A value-added tax (VAT) is a tax paid only on the value added to a product or service by a seller. VAT is similar to sales tax, in that both taxes are paid in full by the end customer. The difference is that a government collects sales tax once, at the final purchase. The government collects VAT right along the production chain, each time a purchase is made. For example, VAT might be paid on raw materials by a manufacturer. A further payment of VAT is made on the “value added” by the manufacturer in using the raw material to make the final product.
27 Ditches : DESERTS
To desert is to leave, without the intent to return. The verb “to desert” comes from the Latin “deserere”, which has the same meaning. “Deserere” in turn comes from “de” (undo) and “serere” (to join together).
29 Cocktails flavored with orgeat syrup : MAI TAIS
The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.
Orgeat is an almond-flavored syrup, and an essential ingredient in a classic Mai Tai cocktail. Although today’s orgeat is made from almonds, the original recipe called for a blend of almonds and barley. The name “orgeat” comes from Latin via the French “orge” meaning “barley”.
31 Actor Millen of “Orphan Black” : ARI
Ari Millen is a Canadian actor who worked his way up to a regular role on the hit television show “Orphan Black”.
32 Change in holiday entertainment? : GELT
In the Jewish tradition, it is common to gift small amounts of money during the festival of Hanukkah. This money is referred to as Hanukkah gelt, or simply “gelt”. Recipients of the gelt are usually children, and perhaps teachers. “Gelt” is the Yiddish word for “money”.
33 “Spring forward” letters : DST
On the other side of the Atlantic, daylight saving time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring (“spring forward”), and backwards in the fall (“fall back”) so that afternoons have more daylight. Here in the US, DST starts on the second Sunday of March, and ends on the first Sunday of November.
34 Small wing nut : LEPIDOPTERIST
A lepidopterist is a person who studies butterflies and moths, a name coming from Lepidoptera, the order of insects that encompasses such flying insects. “Lepidoptera” comes from the Greek words for “scale” and “wing”.
38 “A __ upon thee!” : POX
A pox is any of the diseases that produces “pocks” on the skin, eruptive pustules. The pox might perhaps be smallpox or chickenpox. When cursing someone by saying “a pox on you”, the reference is to the “great pox”, namely syphilis.
A “pock” is an eruptive mark on the skin, usually caused by an infectious disease. The Middle English plural form “pokkes” gave rise to our term “pox”.
39 Checks : VETS
The verb “to vet” comes from the term “veterinarian”. The idea is that to vet something is to subject it to careful examination, like a veterinarian checking out an animal.
41 Black Friday exhortation : ACT FAST!
In the world of retail, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the US. It is also the day when many stores start the holiday shopping season, and so offer deep discounts to get ahead of the competition.
43 Made a course standard : SHOT PAR
That would be golf.
47 Burnett who appeared on the final season of “Better Call Saul” : CAROL
Comedian and actress Carol Burnett is perhaps best known for “The Carol Burnett Show” which ran on television for over ten years from 1967 to 1978. My favorite of Burnett’s performances is in the 1981 film “The Four Seasons”. The Golden Globe’s Carol Burnett Award for career achievement in television was inaugurated in 2019, with Burnett being the first recipient.
“Better Call Saul” is a spin-off drama series from the hit show “Breaking Bad”. The main character is small-time lawyer Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk, who featured in the original series. “Better Call Saul” is set six years before Goodman makes an appearance in the “Breaking Bad” storyline. The lawyer’s real name is James Morgan McGill, and his pseudonym is a play on the words “S’all good, man!”
48 Actress Longoria : EVA
Eva Longoria is a fashion model and actress who had a regular role on TV’s “Desperate Housewives”, playing Gabrielle Solis.
50 Pink bear in “Toy Story 3” : LOTSO
Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear (nicknamed “Lotso”) is the main antagonist in the Pixar movie “Toy Story 3”. Voiced by Ned Beatty, Lotso is revealed to be a ruthless prison warden holding the toys captive in the Sunnyside Daycare Center.
54 __-free: container label : BPA
Bisphenol A (BPA) is an organic chemical that is used extensively in the manufacture of plastics. The main source of the controversy surrounding the use of the chemical is that BPA has hormone-like properties and has been classified as an endocrine disruptor, meaning that it can interfere with human hormone systems. BPA is “everywhere”, given the amount of plastic that we use in society. The debate seems to be whether or not the levels that we are exposed to are sufficient to create a health risk.
55 Capital on the Gulf of Guinea : LOME
Lomé is the capital city of Togo in West Africa. It is located on the Gulf of Guinea, and is the country’s largest port.
The Gulf of Guinea is a large gulf that forms part of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Africa. One of the gulf’s claims to fame is that it is home to the intersecting point between zero degrees of latitude and zero degrees of longitude, i.e. where the Equator and Prime Meridian cross.
56 Website with a “Recipes & Menus” section : EPICURIOUS
Epicurious is a website owned by publisher Condé Nast. It is a sister operation to the magazine “Bon Appétit”, and serves as an archive for recipes featured in the magazine.
59 Son of Hera : ARES
The Greek god Ares is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of bloodlust and slaughter. Ares united with Aphrodite to create several gods, including Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror) and Eros (Desire). Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera, and the Roman equivalent to Ares was Mars.
62 “Studying, simplified” website : SPARKNOTES
SparkNotes is a resource that produces study guides. It was started in 1999 by a group of Harvard students as part of a literary website TheSpark.com. Apparently, many teachers aren’t fans of SparkNotes, arguing that the guides can be used as an alternative to completing reading assignments or even a way of cheating during exams.
Down
2 Ready for field work : ARABLE
Arable land is land suitable for farming. The term “arable” came into English from the Latin “arare” meaning “to plow”.
4 Meryl Sheep of “Sesame Street,” for one : EWE
The Muppet named “Meryl Sheep”, is what the name suggests: she is a sheep, and a parody of actress Meryl Streep.
7 Outs : ALIBIS
“Alibi” is the Latin word for “elsewhere” as in, “I claim that I was ‘elsewhere’ when the crime was committed, I have an ‘alibi’”.
9 French course final? : ENTREMET
In French cuisine, an “entremet” is a type of dessert. Historically, “entremets” were small dishes served between courses. “Entremet” translates from Old French as “between servings”.
11 Necktie : CRAVAT
The cravat originated in Croatia and was an accessory used with a military uniform. Cravats were introduced to the fashion-conscious French by Croatian mercenaries enlisted into a regiment of the French army. The English placed a lot of emphasis on the knot used for the cravat, and in the period after the Battle of Waterloo the cravat came to be known as a “tie”. What we now call a tie in English is still called a “cravate” in French.
12 Icelandic gift-givers of lore : YULE LADS
Icelandic folklore is a little scary for children at Christmas. Youngsters who misbehave are warned about mountain-dwelling monsters who descend into the town during the holiday. There are two giants named Grýla & Leppalúði. The former is fond of cooking up the flesh of children in a stew pot. The Yule Lads are the couple’s sons, thirteen pranksters who come to town individually for the thirteen nights before Yule. They leave gifts in the shoes of children who are well behaved, and rotten potatoes in the shoes of those who are naughty.
13 Selfless sort : ALTRUIST
An egoist (also “egotist”) is a selfish and conceited person. The opposite would be an altruist.
14 Marie Kondo superlative : NEATEST
Marie Kondo runs a very successful organizing consulting business that she founded when she was 19 years old, and while a student at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. She wrote an extremely successful book titled “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” that was first published in 2011. I’ve read it, and acted on at least some of the advice given therein …
23 With 28-Down, twice-daily occurrences : NEAP …
28 See 23-Down : … TIDES
Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.
24 End of a Google Maps route calculation : ARRIVAL
Google Maps was developed as a web mapping service for desktops. The (wonderful!) Google Maps mobile app was released in 2008, and is now the most popular smartphone app in the world.
26 Bile : VITRIOL
We use the term “vitriol” to mean “bitter or abusive feelings”. This usage stems from the original meaning of the term as a corrosive substance, a sulfate of iron that produces sulfuric acid when heated. Sulfuric acid used to be referred to as “oil of vitriol”. The use of the term in chemistry comes from the Latin “vitrium” meaning “glass”, as the iron sulfate sometimes had a glassy appearance.
30 First Hebrew letter : ALEPH
Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and beth is the second.
32 Way finder : GPS
A global positioning system (GPS) is known as a satellite navigation system (Sat Nav) in Britain and Ireland.
34 Neighborhood diner? : LOCAVORE
A locavore is someone who limits his or her diet to food that is produced locally, often within 100 miles of its point of purchase. There’s a great memoir by the author Barbara Kingsolver that discusses the experiences of her and her family with the locavore lifestyle called “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” An excellent read …
36 Treat with DJ Tropicool and Louie-Bloo Raspberry flavors : OTTER POP
Otter Pops are plastic tubes filled with frozen fruit juice. Well, Otter Pops are usually sold at room temperature and are frozen by the consumer before consumption.
42 Sylvan area : FOREST
A sylvan area is wooded, covered in trees. “Silva” is the Latin word for “forest”.
43 Flying __ : SAUCER
Disc-shaped flying objects have been reported in the sky since the Middle Ages. In the modern era, the event that launched the term “flying saucer” was a UFO sighting in 1947, which was covered widely in the media. Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine unidentified flying objects in formation near Mount Rainier in Washington. In describing the objects, he repeatedly used the words “saucer”, “disc” and “pie-plate”. Newspapers latched onto the terminology, and we’ve been seeing flying “saucers” ever since.
44 WWII craft : PT BOAT
PT boats were motor torpedo boats, small speedy vessels that used torpedoes as their primary weapon against large surface ships. The “PT” stands for “Patrol Torpedo”. The most famous PT boats that served during WWII were probably PT-41 that carried General Douglas MacArthur and his family from Corregidor to Mindanao in his escape from the Philippines, and PT-109 commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, future President of the United States.
49 “You can clap now!” : VOILA!
The French word “voilà” means “there it is”, and “voici” means “here it is”. The terms come from “voi là” meaning “see there” and “voi ici” meaning “see here”.
53 Gloaming : DUSK
“Gloaming” is an alternative word for “twilight, dusk”, and is often used poetically. The word is particularly associated with Scottish poetry, and notably the work of Robert Burns.
57 Akira Kurosawa’s retelling of “King Lear” : RAN
“Ran” is a 1985 Japanese-French film directed by Akira Kurosawa that is in part based on William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”. The movie tells of an aging warlord who steps down in favor of his three sons. The title translates from Japanese “Chaos” or “Rebellion”.
58 Shares time, for short? : IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).
Read on, or …
… return to top of page
Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Works on the margins, perhaps : SAVES PAPER
11 Water color : CYAN
15 “Were you followed here?” : ARE WE ALONE?
16 Hold sway : RULE
17 Ambitious workers : CAREERISTS
18 Wasatch Mountains resort : ALTA
19 Oscar-nominated biopic about a Supreme Court justice : RBG
20 “Your Movie Sucks” author : EBERT
21 Dial on old TVs : VERT
22 Disney princess from Avalor : ELENA
25 Choler : IRE
26 Pt. of VAT : VALUE
27 Ditches : DESERTS
29 Cocktails flavored with orgeat syrup : MAI TAIS
31 Actor Millen of “Orphan Black” : ARI
32 Change in holiday entertainment? : GELT
33 “Spring forward” letters : DST
34 Small wing nut : LEPIDOPTERIST
38 “A __ upon thee!” : POX
39 Checks : VETS
40 Sticker in a cushion : PIN
41 Black Friday exhortation : ACT FAST!
43 Made a course standard : SHOT PAR
47 Burnett who appeared on the final season of “Better Call Saul” : CAROL
48 Actress Longoria : EVA
50 Pink bear in “Toy Story 3” : LOTSO
51 Of all time : EVER
52 Puffed up : PROUD
54 __-free: container label : BPA
55 Capital on the Gulf of Guinea : LOME
56 Website with a “Recipes & Menus” section : EPICURIOUS
59 Son of Hera : ARES
60 Wildly incompatible : POLES APART
61 __ control : PEST
62 “Studying, simplified” website : SPARKNOTES
Down
1 “Is nothing __?” : SACRED
2 Ready for field work : ARABLE
3 Teeters (on) : VERGES
4 Meryl Sheep of “Sesame Street,” for one : EWE
5 Date : SEE
6 Cut (down) : PARE
7 Outs : ALIBIS
8 Someone who’s all style and no substance : POSER
9 French course final? : ENTREMET
10 Musical pause : REST
11 Necktie : CRAVAT
12 Icelandic gift-givers of lore : YULE LADS
13 Selfless sort : ALTRUIST
14 Marie Kondo superlative : NEATEST
23 With 28-Down, twice-daily occurrences : NEAP …
24 End of a Google Maps route calculation : ARRIVAL
26 Bile : VITRIOL
28 See 23-Down : … TIDES
30 First Hebrew letter : ALEPH
32 Way finder : GPS
34 Neighborhood diner? : LOCAVORE
35 Absolute ends : EXTREMES
36 Treat with DJ Tropicool and Louie-Bloo Raspberry flavors : OTTER POP
37 Wild about : INTO
38 Warmup stretch : PACE LAP
42 Sylvan area : FOREST
43 Flying __ : SAUCER
44 WWII craft : PT BOAT
45 Equally uncontaminated : AS PURE
46 Cooks slowly : ROASTS
49 “You can clap now!” : VOILA!
52 Fires (up) : PEPS
53 Gloaming : DUSK
57 Akira Kurosawa’s retelling of “King Lear” : RAN
58 Shares time, for short? : IPO
Leave a comment (below), or …
… return to top of page