Tag: Unprocessed information crossword clue

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Constructed by: Amie Walker
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Household Name

Themed answers each include the NAME of a member of a HOUSEHOLD as a hidden word:

• 36A Instantly recognizable brand, and what can literally be found in this puzzle’s circles? : HOUSEHOLD NAME

• 17A “Sounds reasonable to me” : YES, I SUPPOSE (hiding “SIS”)
• 29A Setting for floor-model electronics : DEMO MODE (hiding “MOM”)
• 47A Core-working fitness device with a wheel : AB ROLLER (hiding “BRO”)
• 58A Personalized promos : TARGETED ADS (hiding “DAD”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Volcano’s output : LAVA

Our word “volcano” comes from “Vulcano”, the name of a volcanic island off the coast of Italy. The island’s name comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. The Romans believed that the island of Vulcano was the chimney of the forge belonging to the god Vulcan. The Romans also believed that the eruptions on Mount Etna in Sicily were caused by Vulcan getting angry and working his forge so hard that sparks and smoke flew out of the top of the volcano.

19 French fashion brand monogram : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

21 Unprocessed information : RAW DATA

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

23 Dress with a flared skirt : A-LINE

An A-line skirt is one that fits snugly at the hips and flares towards the hem. The term “A-line” was first used in fashion by French designer Christian Dior in his 1955 spring collection.

26 Cyberchats, briefly : IMS

Instant message (IM)

31 Waterslides : CHUTES

A chute is an inclined plane or channel through which things pass under the influence of gravity.

50 Light brown shade : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

51 __-Hulk: superhero played by Tatiana Maslany : SHE

Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany had her work cut out in the show “Orphan Black”. That’s because she had to play several different characters, all clones born by in vitro fertilization. She also plays the title character Jennifer Walter in the Superhero TV show “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law”.

57 Rainbow shape : ARC

Sunlight reflected by airborne water droplets can produce rainbows. The water droplets act as little prisms, dispersing the white light into its constituent colors. Sometimes we see double rainbows. If we look carefully, we can see that the order of the colors in the first and second arcs is reversed.

Down

1 Tissue layer : PLY

Even though “Kleenex” is sometimes used today as a generic term for a tissue, “Kleenex” is a brand name owned by Kimberly-Clark. Kleenex facial tissues came about after WW1. The material used in the tissue had been developed as a replacement for cotton that was in high demand as surgical tissue during the war. The material developed was called “Cellucotton” and was used in gas mask filters. It was first sold as a facial tissue under the name “Kleenex” in 1924.

2 Federation in OPEC : UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates (states) in the Middle East. Included in the seven are Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with the city of Abu Dhabi being the UAE capital and cultural center.

The OPEC cartel was formally established in 1960 and has been headquartered in Vienna since 1965. The US is actually the third largest oil producer in the world (after Russia and Saudi Arabia). One reason America isn’t in OPEC, even though we are a big producer, is that we import a lot more than we export. But we all probably knew that already …

9 Anna’s “Frozen” sister : ELSA

“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. The film is all about the exploits of Princess Anna, the younger sister of Elsa, Snow Queen of Arendelle. Spoiler alert: Prince Hans of the Southern Isles seems to be a good guy for most of the film, but turns out to be a baddie in the end. And, a snowman named Olaf provides some comic relief.

10 Whole bunch : SLEW

Our usage of “slew” to mean “large number” has nothing to do with the verb “to slew” meaning “to turn, skid”. The noun “slew” came into English in the early 1800s from the Irish word “sluagh” meaning “host, crowd, multitude”.

11 Lane __: plus-size clothing chain : BRYANT

Lane Bryant is a women’s clothing store that specializes in plus-size items. It was founded way back in 1904 by Lena Himmelstein Bryant Malson, when It focused on the sales of maternity clothes.

12 Whip (up), as some snacks : RUSTLE

To rustle up or scare up something is to find it by searching, by using some effort.

22 Childbirth attendant : DOULA

A doula is a person who provides non-medical support for women and their families during childbirth as well as in the period immediately following the arrival. The term “doula” comes from the Ancient Greek word “doule” which means “female slave”. Given such a negative association, “doula” is often dropped in favor of “labor companion” or “birthworker”.

23 Tally : ADD

Back in the mid-1600s, a tally was a stick marked with notches that tracked how much one owed or paid. The term “tally” came from the Latin “talea” meaning “stick, rod”. The act of “scoring” the stick with notches gave rise to our word “score” for the number in a tally.

24 Remini of “Kevin Can Wait” : LEAH

Leah Remini is an actress and comedian who is best known for playing Carrie Heffernan on the sitcom “The King of Queens”. More recently, in 2013, Remini competed on “Dancing with the Stars”. After that, Remini appeared as a guest co-host on the show several times. Famously, Remini was a member of the Church of Scientology, and left the organization in 2013. Since leaving, Remini has been very vocal in her criticism of the practices and policies of the church.

“Kevin Can Wait” is a sitcom starring comedian Kevin James that premiered in 2016. James plays retired police officer. In season one, he co-starred with Erinn Hayes, who played the police officer’s wife. Things didn’t work out between the show’s producers and actress Hayes, so her character was killed between seasons one and two, and a new female lead character was introduced, played by Leah Remini. James and Remini had played husband and wife on the very successful sitcom “The King of Queens”.

25 Texter’s modest “I think … ” : IMHO …

In my humble opinion (IMHO)

26 State known for potatoes : IDAHO

Idaho has the nickname “Gem State”, mainly because almost every known type of gemstone has been found there. Idaho is also sometimes called the Potato State, as potatoes are such a popular crop in the state. I’d go for the potatoes over the gems, but that’s probably just me. Oh, and Idaho license plates have borne the slogan “Famous Potatoes” for decades …

27 Hanukkah candleholder : MENORAH

There is a seven-branched menorah used symbolically in ancient temples. However, the Hanukkah menorah is a nine-branched lampstand that is lit during the eight-day holiday called Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights. “Menorah” is the Hebrew word for “lamp”.

The term “Hanukkah” (also “Chanukah”) comes from the Hebrew for “to dedicate”. Hanukkah is a holiday lasting eight days that commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem after a successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucids in the 2nd-century BCE. The story of Hanukkah includes the miracle of the one-day supply of oil that kept the menorah alight for eight days.

35 Academy trainee : PLEBE

A plebe is a freshman in the US military and naval academies. The term “plebe” is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of “plebeian”, and is a term used outside of the military schools.

37 Company for DIY movers : U-HAUL

The U-Haul company was started by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Haul dealers across the country.

38 Scouring pad brand : SOS

S.O.S is a brand of scouring pads made from steel wool impregnated with soap. The product was invented as a giveaway by an aluminum pot salesman in San Francisco called Ed Cox. His wife gave it the name “S.O.S” as an initialism standing for “Save Our Saucepans”. Note the punctuation! There is no period after the last S, and that is deliberate. When Cox went to register the trademark, he found that “S.O.S.” could not be a trademark because it was used as an international distress signal. So he dropped the period after the last S, and I hope made a lot of money for himself and his wife.

39 Ice cream drink : MALT

Walgreens claims to have introduced the malted milkshake, back in 1922.

40 Fencing sword : EPEE

The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.

44 One paying rent to a landlord : TENANT

A tenant is a person or entity “holding” property by virtue of title or lease. The term “tenant” comes from the Latin “tenere” meaning “to hold”.

45 Beltway region, briefly : DC AREA

The phrase “inside the Beltway” is used to refer to the infrastructure and politics of Washington, D.C. The Beltway in this case is Interstate 495, also known as the Capital Beltway.

48 Dimwitted cartoon dog : ODIE

Odie is Garfield’s best friend, and is a slobbery beagle. Both are characters in Jim Davis’ comic strip named “Garfield”.

51 __ throat : STREP

Streptococcus bacteria multiply and divide along a single axis so that they form linked chains. That behavior gives the genus of bacteria its name, as “streptos” is Greek for “easily twisted, like a chain”. I had to battle with streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat) twice in the past few years and it was not at all pleasant, I must say. Another species of streptococcus is responsible for that terrible “flesh-eating” infection that makes the news from time to time.

55 Sitarist Shankar : RAVI

Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Shankar was the father of the pop singer Norah Jones.

59 Test for M.A. hopefuls : GRE

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

60 College URL ending : EDU

The .edu domain was one of the six original generic top-level domains specified. The complete original list is:

• .com (commercial enterprise)
• .net (entity involved in network infrastructure e.g. an ISP)
• .mil (US military)
• .org (not-for-profit organization)
• .gov (US federal government entity)
• .edu (college-level educational institution)