Tag: Word puzzles with hidden messages crossword clue

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Constructed by: Susan Gelfand

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Exit Strategy

Themed answers are all common phrases reinterpreted as EXIT STRATEGIES for individuals cited in the corresponding clues:

• 53A Plan for ending involvement, or an apt title for this puzzle : EXIT STRATEGY

• 20A Departure instructions for an ornithologist? : LEAVE THE NEST
• 35A Departure instructions for a railway worker? : MAKE TRACKS
• 42A Departure instructions for a student pilot? : TAKE FLIGHT

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

Bill’s time: 4m 51s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Closes, as a parka : ZIPS

A parka is a hooded jacket that is often lined with fur, and that is worn in cold weather. The original parka was a pullover design, but nowadays it is usually zipped at the front. “Parka” is the Russian name for the garment, and it was absorbed into English in the late 1700s via the Aleut language.

5A Animal that may sleep upside down : SLOTH

All four of the extant species of three-toed sloths are native to South and Central America. Cousins of the three-toed sloths are the two-toed sloths, of which there are two species still living.

10A Morning joe : JAVA

Back in 1850, the name “java” was given to a type of coffee grown on the island of Java, and the more general usage of the term spread from then.

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

15A Secret stash : CACHE

A cache is a secret supply. We imported the term “cache” into English from French-Canadian trappers in the 17th century. Back then, “cache” was slang for “hiding place for stores”, derived from the French verb “cacher” meaning “to hide”.

16A Decorative pitcher in still lifes : EWER

A pitcher is a container for liquid that has a handle, mouth and spout. The term “jug” is used for the same container in other English-speaking countries. “Ewer” is an older term describing a pitcher/jug. Today, a ewer is a highly decorative pitcher, often with a base and flared spout.

17A Silicon Valley city Palo __ : ALTO

The city of Palo Alto, California takes its name from a specific redwood tree called El Palo Alto (Spanish for “the tall stick”) that is located within the bounds of the city. The tree is 110 feet tall and over a thousand years old.

20A Departure instructions for an ornithologist? : LEAVE THE NEST

Ornithology is the scientific study of birds. The term “ornithology” comes from the Greek “ornis” meaning “bird” and “logos” meaning “theory, science”.

24A Behr product : PAINT

The name of the Behr brand of paint is pronounced “bear”, and the cans even have a bear logo. The company was founded in 1947 by Otho Behr, Jr.

28A Zodiac sign boundaries : CUSPS

The word “cusp” comes from the Latin “cuspis” meaning “spear, point”. In the world of astrology, a cusp is an imaginary line separating two signs of the zodiac. For example, some whose birthday is between April 16 and April 26 is said to have been born “on the cusp” between the signs Aries and Taurus.

33A Soccer star Hamm : MIA

Soccer star Mia Hamm is one of only two women to have their jersey retired by the US Women’s National Team. The other is Abby Wambach.

39A Box office bomb : FLOP

The term “box office” may date back to Shakespearean times. In those days long past, patrons would deposit fees for seeing theater performances in boxes. The full boxes would be collected and placed in an office called, imaginatively enough, the “box office”.

40A Stadium : ARENA

Our term “arena” comes from the Latin “harena”, describing a place of combat. Originally “harena” was used for sand or a sandy place. Those Ancient Roman places of combat were covered with sand to soak up blood.

The Greek word “stadion” was a measure of length, about 600 feet. The name “stadion” then came to be used for a running track of that length. That “running track” meaning led to our contemporary term “stadium” (plural “stadia”).

45A Blackjack card : ACE

In the card game blackjack, an ace has the point value of one or eleven. When one of the two cards dealt to a player is an ace, the hand is called “soft”. This means that the player cannot go bust by taking another card, as the ace can be revalued at “one” if necessary in order to stay under 21.

47A Back tooth : MOLAR

Molars are grinding teeth. The term “molar” comes from the Latin “mola” meaning “millstone”.

64A Machu Picchu country : PERU

Machu Picchu is known as “The Lost City of the Incas”, and it can be visited on a mountain ridge in Peru, 50 miles northwest of the city of Cuzco in the southeast of the country. The name Machu Picchu means “old peak”. The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu originates about 50 miles from Cusco on the Urubamba River in Peru. It can take travelers about 5 days to trek the full length of the trail, passing through many Incan ruins before reaching the Sun Gate on Machu Picchu mountain. The trail was becoming greatly overused, forcing the Peruvian government to limit the number of people on the trail each day to 500. Book early …

65A Crossword hints : CLUES

Arthur Wynne is generally credited with the invention of what we now know as a crossword puzzle. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England and emigrated to the US when he was 19-years-old. He worked as a journalist and was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1913 when he introduced a “Word-Cross Puzzle” in his page of puzzles written for the “New York World”. The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Shuster & Shuster, in 1924. The collection of puzzles was a huge hit, and crosswords were elevated to the level of “a craze” in 1924 and 1925.

66A Old Testament brother : CAIN

The story of Cain and Abel not only appears in the Christian and Hebrew Bibles, it also features in the Qur’an. In the Muslim account the brothers are named Qabil and Habil.

Down

4D Hat worn by Abraham Lincoln : STOVEPIPE

A stovepipe hat is also known as a top hat.

5D “Severance” star Adam : SCOTT

Adam Scott is an actor from Santa Cruz, California who is perhaps best known for playing Ben Wyatt on the hit sitcom “Parks and Recreation”. More recently, Scott has been playing the lead in the sci-fi TV show “Severance”.

“Severance” is a fascinating TV show about employees at a company who undergo a surgical procedure that completely separates their memories between their work lives and their personal lives. The show stars Adama Scott, and is executive-produced and mainly directed by Hollywood actor Ben Stiller.

8D Every now and __: sporadically : THEN

An event described as sporadic occurs in irregular instances. The term “sporadic” comes from the Greek “sporas” meaning “scattered, dispersed”. “Sporas” comes from “spora” meaning “a sowing”, and so our word “sporadic” is etymologically related to our word “spore”. Quite interesting …

10D Volkswagen sedan : JETTA

“Jetta” is one in a series of model names related to winds that has been used by Volkswagen. “Jetta” comes from the German for “jet stream”, and the model name “Passat” comes from the German for “trade wind”.

21D Coast Guard rank: Abbr. : ENS

Ensign (ens.)

The US Coast Guard (USCG) has the distinction of being the country’s oldest continuous seagoing service. The USCG was founded as the Revenue Cutter Service by Alexander Hamilton in 1790.

26D Inventor Tesla : NIKOLA

Nikola Tesla was born in the Austrian Empire in a village located in modern-day Croatia, and later moved to the US. Tesla’s work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

28D Flowy robe with long sleeves : CAFTAN

A kaftan (also “caftan”) is a long robe that has been associated for centuries with Islamic cultures.

30D Novelist Bram who created Dracula : STOKER

Bram Stoker was an Irish writer best known for the 1897 novel “Dracula”. Stoker’s fame as an author came after his death. During his lifetime he was better known as the personal assistant of renowned English actor Henry Irving. It is believed that Stoker used Irving as his inspiration for the title character in “Dracula”.

31D Phnom __, Cambodia : PENH

Phnom Penh (also “Pnom Penh”) is the capital of Cambodia, and has been so since the French colonized the country in the late 1800s. The city’s name translates from the Khmer language as “Hill of Penh”.

32D Coup d’__: sudden regime change : ETAT

A coup d’état (often just “coup”) is the sudden overthrow of a government, and comes from the French for “stroke of state”. The Swiss-German word “putsch” is sometimes used instead of “coup”, with “Putsch” translating literally as “sudden blow”. We also use the abbreviated “coup” to mean “sudden, brilliant and successful act”.

35D Like green-headed mallards : MALE

The mallard is perhaps the most recognizable of all ducks and is also known as the wild duck. The name “mallard” has the same Latin root as our word “male”, probably reflecting how flamboyant the coloring is of the male of the species relative to the female.

38D Word puzzles with hidden messages : ACROSTICS

An acrostic is a word puzzle. One part of the puzzle is a quote, which has been rendered unreadable by replacing each letter with a number. The second part of the puzzle gives clues (like a crossword) that reveal the numbers needed to unmask the quote.

49D Event site : VENUE

A venue is a specified locale used for an event. The term “venue” came into English via French from the Latin “venire” meaning “to come”. So, a “venue” is a place to which people “come” for an event.

50D Magazine edition : ISSUE

The word “magazine” was originally used to denote a place for storing goods, particularly military arms and ammunition, back in the late 1500s. This usage was extended to include packs of ammunition attached to automatic weapons. The first use of “magazine” in the sense of a periodical or journal dates back to 1731, with the publication of “Gentleman’s Magazine”. “Magazine” had come to mean a printed list of military stores, and the idea was that the new periodical was to be a “storehouse” of information.

51D Furry swimmer : OTTER

The fur of the sea otter is exceptionally thick. It is the densest fur in the whole animal kingdom.

52D Lovers’ meeting : TRYST

In the most general sense, a tryst is a meeting at an agreed time and place. More usually we consider a tryst to be a pre-arranged meeting between lovers. The term “tryst” comes from the Old French “triste”, a waiting place designated when hunting. Further, a tryst taking place at lunchtime is sometimes referred to as a nooner.

54D Machu Picchu native : INCA

Machu Picchu is known as “The Lost City of the Incas”, and it can be visited on a mountain ridge in Peru, 50 miles northwest of the city of Cuzco in the southeast of the country. The name Machu Picchu means “old peak”. The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu originates about 50 miles from Cusco on the Urubamba River in Peru. It can take travelers about 5 days to trek the full length of the trail, passing through many Incan ruins before reaching the Sun Gate on Machu Picchu mountain. The trail was becoming greatly overused, forcing the Peruvian government to limit the number of people on the trail each day to 500. Book early …

55D Like skyscrapers : TALL

According to many, the world’s first skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois, which was built in 1885. It was 10 stories tall and stood at 42 meters (138 feet). What made the building unique, at the time, was the use of structural steel in the internal frame. That frame bore the weight of each floor, as well as the weight of the external masonry.

56D Old Testament brother : ESAU

Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins “the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)”. As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father’s wealth (it was his “birthright”). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a “mess of pottage” (a meal of lentils).

58D Cravings : YENS

The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium.