Tag: Words often said sarcastically crossword clue

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Constructed by: Robert E. L. Morris

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: On Your Feet

Themed answers each end with something found ON YOUR FEET:

• 58A Jukebox musical featuring Gloria Estefan songs, or where to find the ends of 17-Across and 10-, 24-, and 33-Down : ON YOUR FEET

• 17A Architectural component of many a stained glass window : GOTHIC ARCH
• 10D Pencil game that often has no winner : TIC-TAC-TOE
• 24D Billiards game : SIX-BALL
• 33D Flatfish native to the northern Atlantic : DOVER SOLE

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

Bill’s time: 5m 25s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Animation pioneer Disney : WALT

Walt Disney was awarded a record 26 Oscars in his lifetime, winning 22 and receiving 4 honorary awards. He also holds the record for the number of Oscars won in the same year, taking away a total of four in the 1954 awards ceremony.

5A CGI emu who wears sunglasses in insurance ads : LIMU

Liberty Mutual is an insurance company based in Boston. The business was founded in 1912 as the Massachusetts Employees Insurance Association (MEIA). Liberty Mutual has a famous advertising icon named LiMu Emu.

9A Chichén __: Mayan ruins : ITZA

Chichén Itzá is a Mayan ruin located in the Mexican state of Yucatán. It is the second-most visited archaeological site in the country (after the ancient city of Teotihuacan). Chichén Itzá has seen a surge in the number of visitors since the development of nearby Cancún as a tourist destination.

16A “Carpe __!”: “Seize the day!” : DIEM!

“Carpe diem” is a quotation from Horace, one of ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets. “Carpe diem” translates from Latin as “seize the day” or “enjoy the day”. The satirical motto of a procrastinator is “carpe mañana”, “translating” as “seize tomorrow”.

17A Architectural component of many a stained glass window : GOTHIC ARCH

Gothic architecture is a style that dates back to the mid and late medieval period, following on from the Romanesque style. The style originated in France in the 12th century, and was prevalent until the 16th century, when it was largely superseded by the Renaissance style. Gothic buildings often feature pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. The best known example of Gothic edifices are magnificent cathedrals and abbeys across Europe, many of which are still used today. Examples of the style can be seen in Notre-Dame de Paris in France, Westminster Abbey in England, and Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin.

21A 2,240 pounds : LONG TON

Here in the US, a ton is equivalent to 2,000 pounds. In the UK, a ton is 2,240 pounds. The UK unit is sometimes referred to as an Imperial ton, long ton or gross ton. Folks over there refer to the US ton then as a short ton. To further complicate matters, there is also a metric ton or tonne, which is equivalent to 2,204 pounds. Personally, I wish we’d just stick to kilograms …

23A Big name in tractors : DEERE

John Deere invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Prior to Deere’s invention, farmers used an iron or wooden plow that constantly had to be cleaned as rich soil stuck to its surfaces. The cast-steel plow was revolutionary as its smooth sides solved the problem of “stickiness”. The Deere company that John founded uses the slogan “Nothing Runs Like a Deere”, and has a leaping deer as its logo.

25A Shape-fitting video game : TETRIS

Tetris is a very addictive video game that was developed in the Soviet Union in 1984. The name Tetris comes from a melding of the prefix “tetra-” (as all the game pieces have four segments) and “tennis” (a favorite sport played by the developer). Since 2005 there have been more than 100 million copies of the game installed on cell phones alone.

34A Bit of black magic : HEX

“Hexen” is a German word meaning “to practice witchcraft”. The use of the word “hex” in English started with the Pennsylvania Dutch in the early 1800s.

35A Cape __ Island, Nova Scotia : BRETON

Cape Breton Island is a large rugged island that makes up a substantial part of the province of Nova Scotia. The island played a significant part in the history of communication. The inventor of the telephone, Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell, spent much of his life on an estate that he built there. Guglielmo Marconi chose Table Head in Glace Bay, Cape Breton for his wireless station, from which he transmitted the first complete, two-way transatlantic radio messages, communicating with his station in Poldhu, Cornwall, England.

39A Lisbon greeting : OLA!

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. It is the westernmost capital city in Europe, and indeed is the westernmost large city on the continent. Lisbon is also the oldest city in Western Europe, and was founded hundreds of years before London, Paris and Rome.

42A One seeking platonic love, informally : ARO

Someone described as aromantic (“aro”, for short) experiences little or no romantic attraction. The opposite of aromanticism is alloromanticism.

The Greek philosopher Plato wrote a philosophical treatise on the nature of love called “Symposium”. “Symposium” is the source of the contemporary phrase “Platonic love”.

43A Slugger Matt who led the NL in homers in 2011 : KEMP

Matt Kemp is a retired MLB outfielder who played most of his career with the LA Dodgers. He dated singer Rihanna for about a year, starting in 2009.

44A Puccini work : OPERA

Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer who was famous for his operas that are so often performed all over the world. Included in the list of his works are “La bohème”, “Tosca”, “Madama Butterfly” and “Turandot”. Puccini died in Brussels, Belgium in 1924 having suffered from throat cancer. An audience attending a performance of “La bohème” in Rome heard of the composer’s death in the middle of the performance. At the news, the opera was stopped, and the orchestra instead played Chopin’s “Funeral March”.

49A Mookie of the Dodgers : BETTS

Mookie Betts is a professional baseball outfielder from Nashville who was drafted by the Red Sox in 2011. Betts is also a professional bowler, and has competed in the PBA’s World Series of Bowling. He has bowled several perfect (300) games.

53A Stronghold : BASTION

A bastion (also called a “bulwark”) is an angular structure that juts out from a fortified wall. Guards inside the bastion can fire along the outside of the wall. We now use the term “bastion” to describe any protection against external danger.

58A Jukebox musical featuring Gloria Estefan songs, or where to find the ends of 17-Across and 10-, 24-, and 33-Down : ON YOUR FEET

“Get on Your Feet” is a song released by Gloria Estefan in 1989. The song’s title gave rise to the name “On Your Feet!” being used for the 2015 musical based on the lives and music of Gloria Estefan and her husband Emilio.

61A Marshmallow treats : PEEPS

Peeps are marshmallow candies, usually in the shapes of chicks and bunnies, primarily sold around the Easter holiday. Peeps were introduced in 1952 by a Russian immigrant called Sam Born whose company “Just Born” makes the candies to this day. The original candies were yellow and hand-shaped to look like little chicks, hence the name “Peeps”.

63A Genesis garden : EDEN

According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers, including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.

Down

3D Starbucks order : LATTE

The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk; there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.

5D Lingerie trim : LACE

“Lingerie” is a French term. As used in France, it describes any underwear, worn by either males or females. In English we use “lingerie” to describe alluring underclothing worn by women. The term “lingerie” comes into English via the French word “linge” meaning “washables”, and ultimately from the Latin “linum”, meaning “linen”. We tend not to pronounce the word correctly in English, either here in the US or across the other side of the Atlantic. The French pronunciation is more like “lan-zher-ee”, as opposed to “lon-zher-ay” (American) and “lon-zher-ee” (British).

7D Crème de la __: luxury skin care product made with kelp : MER

Kelps are large seaweeds that grow in kelp forests underwater. Kelps can grow to over 250 feet in length, and do so very quickly. Some kelps can grow at the rate of 1-2 feet per day.

10D Pencil game that often has no winner : TIC-TAC-TOE

When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

11D Goose egg : ZERO

The use of the phrase “goose egg” to mean “zero” is baseball slang that dates back to the 1860s. The etymology is as expected: the numeral zero and a goose egg are both large and round.

12D Prayer ending : AMEN

The word “amen” translates as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is also likely to be influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

15D Suffix for a lengthy fundraising event : -THON

The world’s first telethon took place in 1949. It was a 16-hour fundraiser hosted by Milton Berle that raised over a million dollars for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The term “telethon”, a portmanteau of “television” and “marathon”, was coined in the news media the day after the event. One of the most famous annual telethons was the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, which raised funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association for over twenty years, from 1966 until 2010.

22D __ Dame: South Bend school : NOTRE

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a private school that was founded by French-born priest Edward Sorin in 1842, originally as a primary and secondary school. The nearby Saint Mary’s College was founded in 1844 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. The women’s school was needed as Notre Dame was a men-only university back then.

24D Billiards game : SIX-BALL

Eight-ball and nine-ball are arguably the most popular variants of pool played in North America. In eight-ball, one player sinks the striped balls and the other the solid balls. The first to sink all their balls and then the black 8-ball, without fouling, wins the game. In nine-ball, each player must hit the lowest numbered ball on the table first with the cue ball. The first player to sink the 9-ball wins. Sinking the nine ball can happen when first hitting the lowest bowl on the table, or possibly when balls numbered 1-8 have been sunk. Six-ball is essentially the same as nine-ball, but played with three fewer balls.

26D Calendar abbr. : THUR

The name “Thursday” comes from an Old English word meaning “Thunor’s day”. “Thunor” was the Anglo-Saxon name for the god of thunder, equivalent to the norse god Thor. The name “Thunor” means “thunder”.

27D L.L.Bean rival : REI

REI is a sporting goods store, with the initialism standing for Recreational Equipment Inc. REI was founded in Seattle by Lloyd and Mary Anderson in 1938 as a cooperative that supplies quality climbing gear to outdoor enthusiasts. The first full-time employee hired by the Andersons was Jim Whittaker, who was the first American to climb Mount Everest.

L.L.Bean (note the lack of spaces in the company name) was founded back in 1912 in Freeport, Maine as a company selling its own line of waterproof boots. The founder, Leon Leonwood Bean, gave his name to the enterprise. Right from the start, L.L.Bean focused on mail-order and sold from a circular he distributed and then from a catalog. Defects in the initial design led to 90% of the first boots sold being returned, and the company made good on its guarantee to replace them or give back the money paid.

29D Ian of “The Hobbit” : HOLM

English actor Sir Ian Holm was very respected on the stage in the UK, but is better known for his film roles here in the US. He played the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in two of the “Lord of the Rings” movies and two of “The Hobbit” movies, and also played the character who is revealed as an android in the film “Alien”.

31D Gucci of fashion : ALDO

Gucci was founded in Rome, in 1921, by Guccio Gucci. Guccio’s son Aldo took over the company after his father’s death in 1953. It was Aldo who established the international presence for the brand and opened the company’s first overseas store, in New York City.

33D Flatfish native to the northern Atlantic : DOVER SOLE

“Dover sole” is the name given to two different species of flatfish. The common sole found in the Atlantic is called “Dover sole” in Europe, taking its name from the fishing port of Dover on the English coast where a lot of the fish was landed. The second species found in the Pacific is known as “Dover sole” on the Pacific coast of America. The Pacific species is called “Dover sole” just because it resembles the European species.

35D Internet journal : BLOG

Many folks who visit this website regard it as just that, a website. That is true, but more specifically it is referred to as a blog, as I make regular posts (actually daily posts) that then occupy the “front page” of the site. The blog entries are in reverse chronological order, and one can just look back day-by-day, reading older and older posts. “Blog” is a contraction of the term “web log”.

37D Somewhat : QUASI

“Quasi” is a Latin word meaning “as if, as though”. We use the term in English to mean “having a likeness to something”.

38D Lingerie item : BRA

The first modern bra was invented by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob in 1913. Jacob was looking for a more comfortable and fashionable alternative to the corsets that were then commonly worn, and she fashioned a bra using two handkerchiefs and some ribbon. She later patented her invention, which she called the “Backless Brassiere.”

50D 1990s fitness fad : TAE BO

Tae Bo isn’t an ancient martial art, even though it perhaps sounds like one. The discipline was developed as a form of aerobic exercise in the 1990s by taekwondo expert Billy Blanks who gave it the name Tae Bo, a melding of “taekwondo” and “boxing”.