Tag: Test pattern crossword clue

Advertisement

Constructed by: Emma Oxford

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: The Voice

Themed answers are all common phrases reinterpreted as types of soap:

• 17A Soap that’s easy to conceal? : POCKET DIAL
• 23A Soap that could use a friend? : LONESOME DOVE
• 37A Soap that’s super popular? : HOT LAVA
• 49A Soap that’s falling apart? : BREAKING DAWN
• 61A Soap that’s perfect for adding color to a shower routine? : ORANGE ZEST

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

Bill’s time: 8m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Easter month, often : APRIL

A movable feast, in the ecclesiastical sense, is a religious holiday that occurs on a different calendar date each year, determined by cycles of the moon or other astronomical phenomena. Easter is the prime example, as its date dictates many other Christian holidays.

6A Apple resource with curated guides : MAPS

Apple Maps replaced Google Maps as the default web mapping service on Apple devices in 2012. The release of Apple Maps went very, very badly, with names of cities misspelled, cities in the wrong location, and outdated information. Back in my homeland, the Irish government had to issue a warning to pilots as the application showed an airport near Dublin that didn’t even exist. The debut was so bad, that Apple CEO Tim Cook had to issue a public apology. I hear that things are going better now …

10A Bygone handhelds, for short : PDAS

Personal digital assistant (PDA)

17A Soap that’s easy to conceal? : POCKET DIAL

Dial was the first antibacterial soap introduced in the US. It was given the name “Dial” as it was touted as offering “round-the-clock” protection against any odors caused by perspiration.

19A Low-carb diet : KETO

A ketogenic (also “keto”) diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. When a body consumes insufficient carbohydrates to meet the need for energy, then the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies in order to make up the energy deficit. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the bloodstream is known as “ketosis”, a term that gives rise to the name “ketogenic diet”. Medical professionals sometimes prescribe a ketogenic diet in order to control epilepsy in children. A condition of ketosis can reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures.

21A Setting of the graphic novel “Persepolis” : IRAN

“Persepolis” is a series of French comic strips by Iranian-born French cartoonist Marjane Satrapi that were published as a graphic novel in the early 2000s. The title refers to the ancient capital of the Persian Empire. The strips are autobiographical in nature, and depict the author’s early life during and after the Islamic Revolution.

23A Soap that could use a friend? : LONESOME DOVE

“Lonesome Dove” is a Pulitzer-winning western novel by Larry McMurtry, first published in 1985. The novel was originally written as a screenplay for a feature film that never made it to the screen called “The Streets of Laredo”. The movie fell through because John Wayne pulled out of the project, whereas co-stars James Stewart and Henry Fonda were all set to go.

29A Relish : GUSTO

“Gusto” is an Italian word meaning “taste”. We use it in English in the phrase “with gusto” meaning “with great enjoyment”.

30A Big name in gaming monitors : 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 …

32A Dec. holiday : XMAS

The abbreviation “Xmas” that is used for “Christmas” comes from the Greek letter chi (X), which is the first letter of the Greek word for “Christ” (“Χριστός”).

37A Soap that’s super popular? : HOT LAVA

Lava is a brand of soap that was introduced as a heavy-duty cleanser in 1893. Unlike soaps that are marketed using a “soft” image, Lava touts the inclusion of ground pumice that is intended to abrade grime off the skin. Pumice is found in certain types of lava ejected from a volcano, hence the name of the soap.

40A Computer file suffix : -EXE

In the Windows operating system, a file with the extension “.exe” is an “executable” file.

41A School gps. : PTAS

Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)

43A Root vegetable related to Swiss chard : BEET

Chard is a lovely leafy vegetable, in my humble opinion. It is the same species as the garden beet, but chard is grown for the leaves and beet is grown for the roots. Chard also goes by the names Swiss chard, silver beet and mangold. In some parts of Australia, it’s even known as spinach.

44A SF NFLer : NINER

The 49ers football team in San Francisco takes its name from the gold prospectors who flooded into Northern California around 1849 during the California gold rush. These “1849 prospectors” became known as the “49ers”.

46A Astronomical light show : NOVA

A nova is a dramatic celestial event that results in a sudden and significant increase in the brightness of a star. The term “nova,” Latin for “new,” was coined because these events often make a previously dim star appear as a new, bright star in the night sky. Novae typically occur in binary star systems where one star is a white dwarf, the dense remnant of a sun-like star, and the other is a larger star like a red giant. The white dwarf’s strong gravity pulls material, primarily hydrogen, from its companion star onto its surface. Over time, this accumulated material heats up and becomes compressed, eventually triggering a runaway thermonuclear explosion on the white dwarf’s surface. This explosion causes a tremendous surge in luminosity, making the star visible to the naked eye for days or even weeks before it gradually fades back to its original brightness.

48A Birthplace of K-pop : SEOUL

Seoul is the capital city of South Korea. The Seoul National Capital Area is home to over 25 million people and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.

K-pop (Korean pop) is a genre of music from South Korea that emerged in the early nineties.

49A Soap that’s falling apart? : BREAKING DAWN

Procter & Gamble’s Dawn is the best-selling brand of dishwashing liquid in the US. Outside of the home, animal rescue crews routinely use a 10% solution of Dawn to clean animals that have been caught in oil spills.

55A Pop diva Celine : DION

French-Canadian singer Céline Dion first came to international attention when she won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, in which she represented Switzerland in the competition that was hosted in Dublin, Ireland. She is now the best-selling Canadian artist of all time.

56A American white __: Gulf Coast bird : IBIS

The American white ibis is a bird found in southern parts of the US East Coast, along the Gulf Coast, and along the Caribbean coast of Central America. It is sometimes referred to as the “hurricane bird”, as Native American folklore dictates that it is the last animal to seek cover before a major storm, and the first to emerge after the danger passes.

60A Org. with sponsored Medicare plans : AARP

AARP is the official name now for the interest group that used to be called “The American Association of Retired Persons”. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired. The AARP was founded by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus in 1958 and is a successor to the National Retired Teachers Association, also founded by Andrus over ten years earlier.

61A Soap that’s perfect for adding color to a shower routine? : ORANGE ZEST

Zest is a brand of soap introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1958. Zest was originally promoted as a cleansing product that wasn’t soap at all, one that did not leave a soap scum. However, the “not-soap” message has now been dropped, and Zest is marketed as a cleansing or deodorant bar.

65A Bowie’s role in “The Prestige” : TESLA

“The Prestige” is a 2006 film based on a 1995 novel of the same name by Christopher Priest. The story revolves around two rival magicians played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. The real-life inventor Nikola Tesla appears as a character in the movie, portrayed by the great David Bowie.

66A Where Anheuser-Busch is BUD : NYSE

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) can give some quite descriptive ticker symbols to companies, for example:

• Anheuser-Busch (BUD, for “Budweiser”)
• Molson Coors Brewing Company (TAP, as in “beer tap”)
• Steinway Musical Instruments (LVB, for “Ludwig van Beethoven”)
• Sotheby’s (BID, for the auction house)

67A Some specialist MDs : ENTS

Ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT)

68A Autumn bloom : ASTER

Apparently, most aster species and cultivars bloom relatively late in the year, usually in the fall. The name “aster” comes into English via Latin from the Greek word “astéri” meaning “star”, a reference to the arrangement of the petals of the flower.

Down

3D Costa __ : RICA

Costa Rica is a country in Central America that is bordered by Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south. Costa Rica is remarkable in my opinion, a leader on the world stage in many areas. It has been referred to as the “greenest” country in the world, the “happiest” country in the world, and has a highly educated populace. In 1948, the country unilaterally abolished its own army … permanently!

4D Test pattern? : INKBLOT

The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which a subject is asked to interpret a series of inkblots. The test was created by Swiss Freudian psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s.

5D 5G precursor : LTE

In the world of telecommunications, the initialism LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution, and is wireless broadband communication standard. In general terms, LTE improves broadband speeds. As I understand it, LTE technology allows a 3G network to perform almost as well as a true 4G network, and so LTE is sometimes marketed as 4G LTE, even though it’s really “3G plus”.

Telecommunication companies started deploying 5G broadband cellular networks in 2019. The name “5G” stands for “fifth generation”. 5G network speeds are about 100 times faster than 4G speeds. However, 5G uses a higher frequency signal than 4G. Higher-frequency signals are more easily blocked by walls and other structures, and so wireless carriers are forced to install many, many small cell sites around the network’s backbone sites in order to provide “seamless” coverage.

6D Spanish parent : MADRE

In Spanish, a “madre” (mother) is a member of “la familia” (the family).

8D Support for a key player? : PIANO SEAT

“Eighty-eight” is a slang word for a piano, coming from the fact that a modern piano usually has 88 keys: 36 black and 52 white.

9D Mo. town : STL

The city of St. Louis, Missouri was settled by French explorers in 1763. Sitting on the Mississippi River, it grew into a very busy port. By the 1850s, it was the second busiest port in the country, with only New York moving more freight. St. Louis was named for Louis IX of France. Louis was canonized in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII, and was the only French king to be declared a saint.

10D Progress tracker for one trying to “catch ’em all” : POKEDEX

In the Pokémon video game franchise, a Pokédex is a portable electronic encyclopedia that was introduced in 1996. It is used to automatically record the biological data, habitats, and distinctive traits of every Pokémon species encountered by a player. It is a “Pokémon index”.

12D When the fate of Ophelia is revealed : ACT IV

In William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Ophelia is courted by Hamlet, the man himself. She is the daughter of nobleman Polonius. Ophelia dies …

24D Letters of equivocation : OTOH

On the other hand (OTOH)

25D Harry’s accomplice in “Home Alone” : MARV

In the 1990 film “Home Alone”, the bad guys trying to get into the McCallister house are “the Wet Bandits”, Harry and Marv. Harry is played by Joe Pesci, and Marv by Daniel Stern.

27D Home of the NCAA’s Black Knights : USMA

The Army Black Knights are the athletic teams of the United States Military Academy. The teams used to be called the Black Knights of the Hudson, as the academy’s football team wore black uniforms and West Point is situated on the Hudson River in New York State.

31D Rock & Roll HoF city : CLE

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can be visited on the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was created in 1983 and started inducting artists in 1986. The Foundation didn’t get a home until the museum was dedicated in Cleveland in 1995. I had the great privilege of visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame some years ago and really enjoyed myself. The magnificent building was designed by famed architect I. M. Pei.

33D Grubhub link : MENU

Grubhub is an online food ordering and delivery company that was founded in Chicago in 2004. Users can access restaurant menus online, place an order, and receive home delivery of their meal.

34D Rink leap : AXEL

An axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. The maneuver was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 Vienna International Skating Tournament.

35D Title for a knight in Westeros : SER

Westeros is the main continent on which the story unfolds in George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series of novels. “Westeros” lies to the “west” of the continent of “Essos”.

38D Short “Duh” : OBVI

“Obvi” is a slang term, a clipping of the word “obvious” that has the same meaning. But, I guess that’s obvious …

42D Maker of Trop-a-Rocka tea : SNAPPLE

Originally, “Snapple” was the name of just one type of juice made by a company called Unadulterated Food Products. The drink’s name was a contraction of “snappy apple”. The company’s name was changed to the Snapple Beverage Corporation in the early 1980s.

49D Scarecrow’s desire : BRAIN

The movie “The Wizard of Oz” is full of irony. The Scarecrow wants to be intelligent and discovers he is already very smart. The Tin Man wants to be able to love and finds out that he already has a heart. The Lion thinks he is a coward but turns out to be fearless. And the big reveal is that the Wizard of Oz, who is positioned as all-powerful, is actually just a bumbling and eccentric old man.

51D Money in Monaco : EUROS

The Principality of Monaco is on the Mediterranean coast, and is otherwise surrounded by France, even though it is just under 10 miles from the Italian border. Monaco is the world’s most densely populated country, and the world’s second smallest country (the smallest being Vatican City). The principality has been very prosperous since the late 1800s, with the economy given a tremendous boost with the opening of several gambling casinos.

52D SF MLBer : GIANT

Today’s San Francisco Giants baseball team was founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams. The team’s name was changed to the Giants in 1885, and the franchise moved to San Francisco in 1958.

53D Taboos : DON’TS

The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

61D Be in arrears : OWE

To be in arrears is to have an unpaid obligation or debt. The term “arrears” came into English from the Old French “ariere” meaning “behind”.