Tag: When a pilot takes off? crossword clue

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Constructed by: Rachel Fabi & Rebecca Goldstein
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 12m 14s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Body suit? : SKIN

The skin is the largest organ in the human body by surface area. The largest organ by mass is the liver.

5 Case study? : LSAT PREP

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

16 Coming out of anesthesia, maybe : POST-OP

“Aisthesis” is the Greek word for “feeling”, from which “anesthesia” is Greek for “want of feeling, lack of sensation”. And that’s how we get our English term “anesthesia”.

25 Couture initials : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

“Haute couture”, literally “high dressmaking” in French, is a name given to the creation of exclusive fashions. A couturier is someone who creates or sells such fashions.

28 Hollywood haze : SMOG

“Smog” is a portmanteau formed by melding “smoke” and “fog”. The term was first used to describe the air around London in the early 1900s. Several cities around the world have a reputation of being particularly smoggy. For example, the most smog-plagued city in Latin America is Mexico City, which is located in a highland “bowl” that traps industrial and vehicle pollution.

The iconic HOLLYWOOD sign located in the hills overlooking the Los Angeles district of Hollywood was erected in 1923. The sign originally read “HOLLYWOODLAND” and was placed as an advertisement for a new housing development with that name. The plan was for the sign to stay in place for 18 months, but as it became associated with the growing film industry, it was left in place. The sign was refurbished in 1949 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, with the stipulation that the “LAND” be dropped. A new version of the sign using more permanent materials was unveiled in 1978.

44 “going afk” : TTYL

Talk to you later (TTYL)

Away from keyboard (afk)

45 Dane of “Euphoria” : ERIC

Actor Eric Dane is perhaps best known for playing Dr. Mark “McSteamy” Sloan on TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy”.

“Euphoria” is an HBO teen drama show that is loosely based on a miniseries of the same name from Israel. Lead actress in the show is Zendaya, who plays a recovering teenage drug addict.

48 Letters on some kitchen gadgets : OXO

The OXO line of kitchen utensils and housewares is designed to be ergonomically superior to the average household tools. The intended user of OXO products is someone who doesn’t have the normal range of motion or strength in the hands e.g. someone suffering from arthritis.

49 The U.K.’s Auntie Beeb : BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is also known as “the Beeb”, a name given to the network by the great Peter Sellers on the classic British radio comedy called “The Goon Show”. Another nickname is “Auntie”, perhaps a reference to an old idiom “Auntie knows best”. As a result, the moniker “Auntie Beeb” has also become popular!. The BBC was founded in 1922, and was the world’s first national broadcasting organization.

59 Grin-and-bear-it philosophy : STOICISM

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). We get our adjective “stoic”, meaning “indifferent to pleasure or pain”, from the same root.

63 Garam masala element : CINNAMON

Garam masala is a mixture of ground spices that is particularly associated with Indian cuisine. A typical composition of garam masala includes:

• black and white peppercorns
• cloves
• cinnamon
• black and white cumin seeds
• black, brown, and green cardamom pods

All of the ingredients are toasted, and then ground together.

Down

1 [Raises eyebrows] : ‘SUP

“Sup?” is slang for “what’s up?”

4 Cold brew variety : NITRO

Most beers are carbonated due to the production (or introduction) of carbon dioxide. Some beers are made “sparkling” by introducing nitrogen gas into the liquid. Nitrogen bubbles are much smaller than CO2 bubbles. As a result, nitro beers are said to have a smoother mouthfeel than carbonated beers.

5 Occipital, limbic, et al. : LOBES

The occipital lobe is one of the four main lobes of the brain, the others being the frontal lobe, parietal lobe and the temporal lobe. The occipital lobe is at the posterior of the brain and is named for the occipital bone, which covers it. The term “occipital” comes from the Latin “ob” meaning behind, and “caput” meaning head. The occipital lobe’s main role is the processing of visual information.

The limbic lobe, often referred to as the “emotional brain,” is a network of structures located deep within the brain. It plays a crucial role in processing and regulating our emotions, memories, and motivations. The area is responsible for generating feelings like happiness, sadness, fear, and anger, as well as influencing behaviors such as eating, mating, and social interaction.

6 Shirley Jackson collection : SHORT STORIES

Shirley Jackson was an author noted for her works in the horror and mystery genres. Arguably, her most famous title is “The Lottery”, a short story published in 1948. It is a horror tale, one that shocked readers to the extent that Jackson was inundated with hate mail. However, “The Lottery” is often cited as one of the most famous short stories in American literature.

10 Creature in a crash : RHINO

Here are some colorful collective nouns:

• A pride of lions
• A shrewdness of apes
• A cloud of bats
• A bench of bishops
• A clowder of cats
• A waddling of ducks
• An army of frogs
• A knot of toads
• A memory of elephants
• A dazzle of zebra
• A tower of giraffe
• A crash of rhinos

17 Washington Post columnist Alexandra : PETRI

Alexandra Petri is a humorist and columnist. In 2010, at 22 years of age, she became the youngest person with a column in “The Washington Post”. Petri had worked as a summer intern at the paper prior to getting a job there.

20 Marine biologist posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter : RACHEL CARSON

DDT is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (don’t forget now!). DDT was used with great success to control disease-carrying insects during WWII, and when made available for use after the war it became by far the most popular pesticide. And then Rachel Carson published her famous book “Silent Spring”, suggesting there was a link between DDT and diminishing populations of certain wildlife. It was the public outcry sparked by the book, and reports of links between DDT and cancer, that led to the ban on the use of the chemical in 1972. That ban is touted as the main reason that the bald eagle was rescued from near extinction.

25 Where to go “when you’re short on your dough,” per a disco classic : YMCA

“YMCA” was released in 1978 by Village People and has been adopted as an anthem by the gay community. The song was written by Victor Willis, a straight member of the mostly gay band, and he clarifies that the lyrics extol the virtues of the “YMCA” as a source of recreation for black urban youth. I think he might have been winking when he said that …

26 Like some beer served in a tulip glass : SOUR

A tulip glass is bulbous like a brandy snifter, but with a top that flares out. That flared rim helps retain a head on beer, which is the beverage served most often in tulip glasses.

29 Symbol in many Chagall paintings : GOAT

Marc Chagall was a Russian-French artist, one of the most successful of the 20th century. Unlike so many painters, Chagall was able to achieve wealth and fame for his work during his own lifetime. It did help that Chagall lived to a ripe old age though. He passed away in 1985, when he was 97 years young. One of Chagall’s most famous works is the ceiling of the Paris Opera. The new ceiling for the beautiful 19th-century building was commissioned in 1963, and took Chagall a year to complete. Chagall was 77 years old when he worked on the Paris Opera project.

34 High wind : ALTO FLUTE

A flute is a woodwind instrument that doesn’t have a reed. Instead, sound is produced by blowing air across an opening. A flute player is often referred to as a flautist (sometimes “flutist”). Flutes have been around a long, long time. Primitive flutes found in modern-day Germany date back 43,000 to 35,000 years, which makes the flute the oldest known musical instrument.

35 Goddess of the underworld whose name means “shuddering” : STYX

In Greek mythology, Styx was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and the mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos and Bia (aka Eos).

36 Han’s son : KYLO

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

42 When a pilot takes off? : AIRTIME

That would be the pilot episode of a new TV series.

43 “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Velour : SASHA

“Sasha Velour” is the stage name of Brooklyn-based drag queen, artist and actor Alexander Steinberg. One notable element of her drag performances is that she chooses to be bald. This choice is a tribute to her mother who lost her hair while losing a battle with cancer.

47 Apple product brand : MOTT’S

Samuel R. Mott was a producer of apple cider and vinegar. In 1842 he founded his own company to market and sell his products. The Mott’s company owns brands such as Mr & Mrs T, Hawaiian Punch and ReaLime/ReaLemon.

49 European pears : BOSCS

Bosc is a cultivar of the European pear that is grown mainly in the northwest of the United States. It is named for French horticulturist Louis Bosc. The cultivar originated in Belgium or France in the early 19th century. The Bosc is that pear with a skin the color of a potato, with a long neck.

56 Cosecant reciprocal : SINE

The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio: a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are cosecant, secant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent.