Tag: Sub contractors crossword clue

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Constructed by: Kathy Lowden

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Princes

Themed answers all have the same clue, i.e. “Prince”:

• 17A Prince : TENNIS BALL BRAND
• 36A Prince : HIS ROYAL BADNESS
• 54A Prince : HEIR TO THE THRONE

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

Bill’s time: 6m 07s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Island ring : ATOLL

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring that encloses a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically, an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside inside the circling coral reef.

10A “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” essayist Didion : JOAN

“Slouching Towards Bethlehem” is the title essay in a 1968 collection published by journalist and writer Joan Didion. The piece chronicles her experiences in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in the 1960s. The title comes from the final lines of W.B. Yeats’s 1919 poem “The Second Coming”.

14A Hogwash : TRIPE

“Tripe” is an informal term meaning “rubbish, of little value”. Tripe is actually the rubbery stomach lining of an animal such as a cow. It is also a traditional dish in British cuisine, prepared by poaching it with onions in milk.

“Hogwash” means “rubbish, of little value”. The term was originally used to describe swill fed to pigs.

15A Job inspection org. : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

17A Prince : TENNIS BALL BRAND

Prince is a sporting goods supplier that was founded in 1970 to manufacture tennis-ball machines. Founder Bob McClure started the company in his garage in Princeton, New Jersey (from which came the name “Prince”).

23A Part of UCLA : LOS

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

24A Lacking scruples : AMORAL

A scruple is a moral consideration that inhibits certain actions. The term “scruple” comes from the Latin “scrupulus”, which has the same meaning, but is also the word for a small stone. The Latin word was first used in the figurative sense by Cicero to describe a source of uneasiness, most likely drawing on the notion of a pebble in one’s shoe.

25A Many a social media pic : SELFIE

A selfie is a self-portrait, one usually taken with a digital camera or cell phone. A “group selfie” is sometimes referred to as a “groufie” or “wefie”. A “couple selfie” is known as an “usie” or “ussie”, although those terms are sometimes also used for a group picture.

29A Action in Uno : DRAW

The classic card game Uno now comes in several versions. Uno ColorAdd allows people with color blindness to play, and there is also a Braille version that allows blind and sighted friends to play together.

31A Tortellini filling option : MEAT

Tortellini are stuffed pasta that are ring-shaped, or navel-shaped. The name “tortellini” comes from the Italian word for “little cakes”. Tortellini can also be called “umbellico”, coming from the Italian for “belly button”.

36A Prince : HIS ROYAL BADNESS

Singer Prince was born in Minneapolis, and he lived there most of his life. Born Prince Rogers Nelson, his given name honored his father, a jazz musician who used the stage name Prince Rogers. He was dubbed “His Royal Badness” by DJs in the 1980s, as many viewed him as the “baddest” (cool and rebellious) artist on the music scene at that time.

39A Flamenco cheers : OLES!

Flamenco is a style of Spanish music and dance. The origin of the word “flamenco” isn’t clearly understood, but the explanation that seems most credible to me is that it comes from Flanders in Northern Europe. Given that “flamenco” is the Spanish word for “Flemish” and Flanders is home to the Flemish people it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

40A Redding of R&B : OTIS

Otis Redding is often referred to as the “King of Soul”, and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”.

43A Alloy in some decorative plates : PEWTER

Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

44A __ Sapphire gin : BOMBAY

The Star of Bombay is a huge sapphire that was mined in Sri Lanka, with a weight of 182 carats. The gemstone was given as a gift to actress Mary Pickford by her husband Douglas Fairbanks. Pickford left the Star of Bombay in her will to the Smithsonian Institution, where it can be seen today. The British gin called Bombay Sapphire is named for the stone.

47A Letters at the end of a proof : QED

The initialism “QED” is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. QED stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

49A First word of the Lord’s Prayer : OUR

Our Father … (“Pater noster” in Latin) are the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, which is probably the best-known prayer in the Christian tradition.

50A DIY tutorial site : EHOW

eHow is a how-to website that was founded in 1999. eHow has an awful lot of content but doesn’t do a great job of assessing the value of that content. I wouldn’t recommend it …

58A Liu of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” : SIMU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings”. He also played one of the Ken dolls in 2023’s “Barbie”.

Down

1D Chapati flour : ATTA

Atta is a whole-wheat flour used to make flatbreads in South Asian cuisine, such as chapati and naan. “Atta” is the Hindi or Urdu word for “dough”.

2D Very, in Versailles : TRES

Versailles is a city located just 10 miles from the center of Paris. It is famous as home to the magnificent Palace of Versailles. The palace started out as a hunting lodge built in the village of Versailles in 1624, built for Louis XIII. Louis XIII extended the lodge into a full-blown château, but it was Louis XIV who expanded it into one of the largest palaces on the planet. Louis XIV moved the royal court from Paris to Versailles starting in 1678.

4D ICU employees : LPNS

Licensed practical nurse (LPN)

7D “By Jove!” : I SAY!

“By Jove!” is a mild oath that calls on the Roman god Jove, who was also known as Jupiter.

9D Greek city with a namesake olive : KALAMATA

The kalamata olive is a large, dark purple, almond-shaped olive that is perhaps the most common table olive from Greece. It is named for the city of Kalamata in the southern Peloponnese, which is at the center of the region where the olive variety is grown. Even though the EU reserves the name “kalamata” for only those olives grown in the region, we can buy kalamata olives grown elsewhere, from California for example.

The Peloponnese is a peninsula in southern Greece that was once home to the ancient city-state Sparta. Technically, the Peloponnese has been an island since 1893 when the Corinth Canal was completed, separating the peninsula from the mainland.

10D One of 12 in “12 Angry Men” : JUROR

The powerful, 1957 movie “12 Angry Men” was directed by Sidney Lumet, and has a stellar cast of “jury members” including Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman and Ed Begley. If ever there is a movie that clearly was based on a play, it’s this one. Practically the whole film takes place on one set, the jury room.

11D Nebraska city that’s home to the Great Plains Black History Museum : OMAHA

The Great Plains Black History Museum was founded in 1976 by Bertha Calloway, a community activist who spent over thirty years amassing a private collection of 100,000 artifacts before securing a permanent home for them. The museum was established in Omaha’s historic Webster Telephone Exchange Building, and moved in 2017 to the equally historic Jewell Building, once home to Omaha’s Dreamland Ballroom.

12D Yearly record : ANNAL

“Annal” is a rarely used word, and is the singular of the more common “annals”. An annal would be the recorded events of one year, with annals being the chronological record of events in successive years. The term “annal” comes from the Latin “annus” meaning “year”.

18D Manolo Blahnik creation : SHOE

Manolo Blahnik is a Spanish fashion designer who was born in the Canary Islands. He took some expert advice in the early seventies and decided to stick to shoe design. Apparently, his shoes are all the rage (women’s only, I think).

19D “Let’s __ this popsicle stand” : BLOW

Members of the underworld in the 1930s would “blow this joint” when making a hasty departure. A softer version of the phrase evolved in the mid-1900s, as we began “blowing this popsicle stand”.

23D __ deck: pool’s spot on a cruise ship : LIDO

The Lido de Venezia is a famous sandbar in Venice, Italy. About 11 km in length, it is home to about 20,000 residents, as well as the Venice Film Festival that takes place there every September. The Lido is also the setting for Thomas Mann’s famous novel “Death in Venice”. The name “lido” has become a term for any fashionable beach resort. In the UK, the term “lido” is often used for a recreation facility with a pool. This usage has been adopted on cruise ships, where the lido deck is home to the outdoor swimming pool(s) and related facilities.

24D Many Mecca residents : ARABS

Mecca is in the Makkah province of Saudi Arabia. It was the birthplace of Muhammad and is the holiest city in Islam. Every year, several million Muslims perform the Hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca.

25D NYC nabe : SOHO

The Manhattan neighborhood known today as SoHo was very fashionable in the early 1900s, but as the well-heeled started to move uptown the area became very run down and poorly maintained. Noted for the number of fires that erupted in derelict buildings, SoHo earned the nickname “Hell’s Hundred Acres”. The area was then zoned for manufacturing and became home to many sweatshops. In the mid-1900s artists started to move into open loft spaces and renovating old buildings as the lofts were ideal locations in which an artist could both live and work. In 1968, artists and others organized themselves so that they could legalize their residential use of an area zoned for manufacturing. The group they formed took its name from the name given to the area by the city’s Planning Commission i.e “South of Houston”. This was shortened from So-uth of Ho-uston to SoHo as in “SoHo Artists Association”, and the name stuck.

28D Trees at a Christmas tree farm : FIRS

Firs are evergreen coniferous trees, with several species being popular as Christmas trees. The most commonly used species during the holidays are the Nordmann fir, noble fir, Fraser fir and balsam fir. We also see a lot of Douglas fir trees at Christmas, but they’re not actually true firs.

31D Swabbie pal : MATEY

“Swabbie” (also “swabby, swab, swabber”) is a slang term meaning “sailor” that we’ve been using since the late 1700s. A swab was originally a member of the crew assigned to the swabbing (mopping) of the ship’s decks.

32D Chew like a beaver : GNAW

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. They are nocturnal animals and do all their construction work at night.

35D High-end camera, for short : DSLR

Digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR)

The initialism “SLR” stands for “single lens reflex”. Usually, cameras with changeable lenses are the SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.

37D Element of a Sun Salutation : YOGA POSE

In yoga, a sun salutation is a sequence of linked poses (asanas). A typical sequence involves twelve distinct asanas, starting and ending from a standing position, and including downward and upward dog poses.

45D Pico de gallo ingredient : ONION

Pico de gallo is a condiment in Mexican cuisine made from tomato, onion and chili peppers. “Pico de gallo” is Spanish for “beak of rooster”. Apparently this name was given as eating of the condiment with the thumb and forefinger resembled the pecking of a rooster. An alternative name for pico de gallo is “salsa fresca”, which translates literally as “fresh sauce”.

47D Waiting line : QUEUE

Our word “queue”, meaning “waiting line”, comes from French. “Queue” is the French word for “tail”, and the phrase “queue à queue” translates as “one after another” (literally “tail to tail”).

49D Units of electrical resistance : OHMS

The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied (V=IR), a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.