Tag: Trail sighting crossword clue

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Constructed by: Sam Cordes

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Tail Ends

Together, the two letters (circled) at either END of the themed answers spell out a word that often follows “TAIL”:

• 40D Final parts, and what this puzzle’s circled letters create : TAIL ENDS

• 18A New Jersey nickname : GARDEN STATE (tailgate)
• 30A Vino that doesn’t require a corkscrew : BOXED WINE (tailbone)
• 45A Headwear at a 29-Down : COWBOY HAT (tailcoat)
• 59A Full house, at times : WINNING HAND (tailwind)
• 2D Lifting a beer bottle with just a straw, e.g. : BAR TRICK (tailback)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 20s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A “The Graham Norton Show” airer : BBC

Graham Norton is an Irish comedian, actor and television host who is based in the UK. He is best known perhaps for his chat show “The Graham Norton Show” that started airing in 2007. Fans of the sitcom “Father Ted” might remember him playing the character named Father Noel Furlong.

4A Owner of a bed deemed too hard : PAPA

The story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” was first recorded in 1837 in England, although the narrative was around before it was actually written down. The original fairy tale was rather gruesome, but successive versions became more family-oriented. The character that eventually became Goldilocks was originally an elderly woman, and the three “nameless” bears became Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.

8A Puccini opera set in Rome : TOSCA

Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Tosca” is famous for its dramatic plot and unforgettable arias, but it’s also notable for its compressed, real-time setting: the entire opera unfolds over less than 24 hours in Rome, during events related to the Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800. The plot centers on the tempestuous opera singer Floria Tosca, her lover Mario Cavaradossi, and the sadistic Chief of Police Baron Scarpia, who lusts after Tosca. The opera includes intense scenes of torture, attempted rape, assassination, and suicide. Be warned …

13A “Homemade” pasta sauce maker : RAO

Rao’s Italian restaurant opened in East Harlem in New York City in 1896. Rao’s also sells a small line of Italian foodstuffs in supermarkets, such as pasta, sauces and olive oil.

14A __-garde : AVANT

Someone or something described as avant-garde is especially innovative. “Avant-garde” is French for “advance guard”.

16A Theme park with a geodesic dome : EPCOT

Spaceship Earth is perhaps the structure that comes to mind when we think of Epcot in the Walt Disney World Resort. It is a large, white, 18-story geodesic sphere.

The term “geodesic” originally applied to the shortest route between any two points on the Earth’s surface. In this sense, a geodesic is an arc, a segment of a great circle that goes around the whole of the Earth. A geodesic dome is a structure that gets its strength from an interlocking network of triangular elements. The sides of those triangles are geodesics, arced segments of great circles that encompass the dome.

18A New Jersey nickname : GARDEN STATE

Apparently, New Jersey was nicknamed “The Garden State” by former Attorney General of the state Abraham Browning. While speaking at the Philadelphia Centennial exhibition in 1876, he described his “garden state” as an immense barrel, filled with good things to eat and open at both ends, with Pennsylvanians grabbing from one end and New Yorkers from the other.

23A NYC bus org. : MTA

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has public transportation responsibility in the state of New York (as well as part of Connecticut).

24A Many a Qatari : ARAB

Qatar is a sovereign state in the Middle East occupying the Qatar Peninsula, itself located in the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar lies on the Persian Gulf and shares one land border, with Saudi Arabia to the south. The emirate has more oil and gas reserves per capita of population than any other country in the world. In 2010, Qatar had the fastest growing economy in the world, driven by the petrochemical industry.

30A Vino that doesn’t require a corkscrew : BOXED WINE

The “box wine” package was invented in Australia, back in 1935. The original design had no tap, so the corner had to be cut off the bladder to get at the wine. The bladder with a tap was also invented in Australia, but not until 1967. I’ve done blind taste tests featuring bottled and boxed wines, and love the box concept, especially for a half-decent red wine …

32A Health law since 2010, initially : ACA

The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA).

33A Major work : OPUS

The Latin for “work” is “opus”, with the plural being “opera”. We sometimes use the plural “opuses” in English, but that’s just to annoy me …

35A Diner pour : JOE

It seems that no one really knows why we refer to coffee as “joe”, but we’ve been doing so since early in WWII.

38A Yellowjacket kin : HORNET

A hornet is a large type of wasp, with some species reaching over two inches in length.

“Yellowjackets” is a name commonly used in North America for what are often referred to simply as “wasps” in other English-speaking parts of the world. Both terms describe several different species.

41A Fish that can shock its prey : EEL

“Electrophorus electricus” is the biological name for the electric eel. Despite its name, the electric “eel” isn’t an eel at all, but rather what is called a knifefish, a fish with an elongated body that is related to the catfish. The electric eel has three pairs of organs along its abdomen, each capable of generating an electric discharge. The shock can go as high as 500 volts with 1 ampere of current (500 watts), and that could perhaps kill a human.

42A Desert that’s home to the world’s rarest bear : GOBI

The Gobi Desert is known for its extreme temperatures, from freezing winters to scorching summers. Its most remarkable resident might be the Gobi bear, known locally as the Mazaalai. It is an endangered subspecies of brown bear that is found only in the Gobi Desert. It is considered the rarest bear in the world, with a population estimated to be fewer than 40 individuals.

59A Full house, at times : WINNING HAND

In early versions of poker, straights and flushes had no value as the game was focused on two, three, four-of-a-kind etc. Two-of-a-kind and three-of-a-kind in the same hand was “special” in those days as it was the only hand in which all five cards were of value. This hand was therefore called a “full” hand, which eventually became a “full house”.

64A Utopias : EDENS

The word “Utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More in his book “Utopia” published in 1516 to describe an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More’s use of the name Utopia comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning “place”. By calling his perfect island “Not Place”, More was apparently making the point that he didn’t think that the ideal could actually exist.

66A Princeton URL suffix : EDU

Princeton University was founded by New Light Presbyterians in 1746 as the College of New Jersey in the city of Elizabeth. Ten years later, the college moved to Nassau Hall in Princeton. That same building hosted the Continental Congress during the summer of 1783. As a result, Princeton was the US capital for four months.

68A Trees used for longbows : YEWS

Yew is the wood of choice for the longbow, a valued weapon in the history of England. The longbow is constructed with a core of yew heartwood (as the heartwood resists compression) that has a sheath of yew sapwood (as the sapwood resists stretching). The yew was in such demand for longbows that for centuries yew trees were in short supply in Britain and the wood had to be imported from all over Europe.

69A Mar.-to-Nov. hrs. : 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.

Down

3D “Karate Kid” spinoff series : COBRA KAI

“Cobra Kai” is a TV show that premiered in 2018 as a sequel to “The Karate Kid” series of films, the first of which was released in 1984. Actor Ralph Macchio reprises his role from the movies, playing protagonist Daniel LaRusso. William Zabka also reprises his role from the big screen, playing Johnny Lawrence, LaRusso’s rival in karate competitions. The title of the show “Cobra Kai” is the name of the karate dojo in which Johnny Lawrence trained as a youth, and which he decides to reopen 34 years later.

5D Mariner’s shout : AVAST!

“Avast” is a nautical term used to tell someone to stop or desist from what they are doing. The word comes from the Dutch “hou vast” meaning “hold fast”.

10D Garlicky shrimp dish : SCAMPI

The Italian dish known as “scampi” is a serving of shrimp in garlic butter and dry white wine.

15D Fax forerunner : TELEX

Telex grew out of the world of the telegraph. What telex brought to telegraphy was the ability to route messages. Instead of having to talk to an operator to route a particular message to the intended party, the user of a telex could route the message directly to another telex machine by way of a rotary dial, one very similar to that on a telephone.

A facsimile is a copy. The term comes from the Latin phrase “fac simile” meaning “make similar”, with “fac” being the imperative form of “facere”, to make. The term “fax” (as in “fax machine”) is an abbreviated form of “facsimile”.

19D Rhinoplasty, informally : NOSE JOB

The earliest recorded rhinoplasty procedures date back to ancient India around 600 BCE, described by the physician Sushruta in his text “Sushruta Samhita”, using skin from the forehead to reconstruct noses.

21D Purple yam : UBE

Ube is a species of yam that is purple in color. I’m a big fan of ube ice cream. Potato-flavored ice cream; what’s not to like?!

26D Cris Cyborg stat : KOS

Cristiane Justino Venâncio, better known as Cris Cyborg, is a Brazilian-American mixed martial artist. She holds the distinction of being the only MMA fighter in history, male or female, to become a quintuple champion, holding world titles in five major mixed martial arts promotions.

27D Longtime “Washington Week” journalist Ifill : GWEN

Gwen Ifill was a television journalist who was regularly seen on PBS’s “Newshour”. Ifill was also the moderator on the weekly PBS show “Washington Week”, and was also selected to moderate the US Vice Presidential debates in 2004 and 2008.

29D Sport with roping and riding : RODEO

“Rodeo” is a Spanish word that is usually translated into English as “round up”.

31D Historian __ Kearns Goodwin : DORIS

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a noted biographer and historian. She has authored biographies of several US presidents, and won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995 for “Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt”. Her book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” was adapted into the marvelous 2012 film “Lincoln” directed by Steven Spielberg.

34D Square, e.g. : POLYGON

The suffix -gon comes from the Greek “gonia” meaning “angle, knee”. An octagon, for example, has eight angles, and a polygon has many angles.

37D Tech __: coder’s concern : DEBT

“Technical debt” is a term used in the world of computer programming. It’s like borrowing money: when coders choose a quick, easy solution for a problem now, they might have to pay it back later with more work to fix or improve that quick fix. It’s a trade-off that can speed things up initially but often creates more effort down the road.

42D Shell product : GAS

Royal Dutch Shell is the fourth largest company in the world in terms of revenue (Walmart is the largest) and is headquartered in the Hague, in the Netherlands. The company was formed in 1907 with the merger of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading company of the UK. The two companies merged in order to compete globally with the biggest US oil company of the day, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. Shell Oil Company is a US-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell that is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

44D “Butter” K-pop group : BTS

“Butter” is a 2021 song released by BTS, the boy band from South Korea. It was the band’s second single recorded in English (after “Dynamite” in 2020).

46D Upstate New York lake : ONEIDA

Oneida Lake is the largest lake lying entirely within the state of New York. It is situated close to New York’s Finger Lakes, but it isn’t one of them. Having said that, some regard Oneida Lake as the “thumb” that goes along with the “fingers”.

47D __ dog: dachshund : WIENER

The dachshund breed of dog was originally bred to chase and flush out badgers. The name “dachshund” is German and translates as “badger dog”.

56D Cobra’s warning : HISS

“Cobra” is the name given to a group of snakes, some of which are in different families. The term is reserved for those snakes that can expand their neck ribs to create a hood. The name “cobra” is an abbreviated form of “cobra de capello” which translates from Portuguese as “snake with hood”.

60D Coos Bay-to-Portland dir. : NNE

Coos Bay, located on the southern Oregon coast, is home to Oregon’s largest deep-draft harbor. The Port of Coos Bay is a significant economic hub for the region, and in the mid-20th century was known as the world’s largest lumber shipping port.