Day: January 13, 2020

Today’s Reveal Answer: Middle Seat

Themed answers each include a type of SEAT somewhere in the MIDDLE as a hidden word:

• 62A Cramped spot for an plane passenger … or a hint to something hidden in 17-, 26-, 34-, 42- and 51-Across : MIDDLE SEAT

• 17A Plumber’s tool : PIPE WRENCH (middle “PEW”)
• 26A Reaches adulthood : COMES OF AGE (middle “SOFA”)
• 34A KLM is a “royal” one : DUTCH AIRLINE (middle “CHAIR”)
• 42A Too much on one’s plate : A LOT TO MANAGE (middle “OTTOMAN”)
• 51A “Oops, missed the deadline” : IT’S TOO LATE (middle “STOOL”)

… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 5m 25s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Mountain lion : PUMA

The mountain lion is found in much of the Americas from the Yukon in Canada right down to the southern Andes in South America. Because the mountain lion is found over such a vast area, it has many different names applied by local peoples, such as “cougar” and “puma”. In fact, the mountain lion holds the Guinness record for the animal with the most number of different names, with over 40 in English alone.

10 Speaker’s platform : DAIS

A dais is a raised platform for a speaker. The term “dais” comes from the Latin “discus” meaning a “disk-shaped object”. I guess that the original daises had such a shape.

14 Letter before beta : ALPHA

The Greek alphabet starts off with the letters alpha, beta, gamma …

15 401(k) alternatives : IRAS

A 401(k) account resembles an IRA in that contributions can be made from a paycheck prior to the deduction of income taxes. A 401(k) differs from an IRA in that it is an employer-sponsored plan, with payments taken by the employer directly from an employee’s paycheck. Additionally, contributions can be fully or partially matched by an employer.

17 Plumber’s tool : PIPE WRENCH (middle “PEW”)

A pew is a bench in a church, one usually with a high back. The original pews were raised and sometimes enclosed seats in the church used by women and important men or families. “Pew” comes from the Old French “puie” meaning “balcony, elevation”.

20 One catching morays : EELER

Morays are a large group of about 200 species of eels found across the world’s oceans. They are carnivorous and look pretty scary but they’re quite shy when confronted and present no threat to humans. One interesting thing about morays is that they will sometimes work in cooperation with the grouper fish found in reefs, the two helping each other hunt for food.

21 Three-time All-Star pitcher Robb ___ : NEN

Robb Nen is a former relief pitcher, and best known as a player with the San Francisco Giants. When Nen entered a game in the ninth inning, fans referred to it as the “Nenth” inning.

26 Reaches adulthood : COMES OF AGE (middle “SOFA”)

“Sofa” is a Turkish word meaning “bench”.

32 Moo goo ___ pan (Chinese chicken dish) : GAI

Moo goo gai pan is the American version of a traditional Cantonese dish. In Cantonese, “moo goo” means “button mushroom”, “gai” is “chicken” and “pan” is “slices”.

34 KLM is a “royal” one : DUTCH AIRLINE (middle “CHAIR”)

The initialism “KLM” stands for “Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij”, which translates from Dutch as “Royal Aviation Company”. KLM is the flag carrier for the Netherlands, and is the oldest airline in the world still operating with its original name. It was founded in 1919. KLM merged with Air France in 2004.

42 Too much on one’s plate : A LOT TO MANAGE (middle “OTTOMAN”)

The piece of furniture known as an ottoman can be a couch, usually one with a head but no back or sides. Here in the US, the term more commonly applies to a padded and upholstered seat or bench that can also be used as a footrest. The original ottoman couch came from the Ottoman Empire, hence the name.

46 Instrument for Billy Joel : PIANO

“Piano Man” is a great 1973 song released by Billy Joel, his first ever single. The song reflects Joel’s own experiences working a piano-lounge singer in a Los Angeles bar called the Executive Room. The lyrics mention a “waitress practicing politics”. That waitress was Elizabeth Weber who worked at the Executive Room. Weber became Joel’s first wife.

49 Snake in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” : ASP

According to the “Indiana Jones” series of films, Indy’s fear of snakes goes back when he was a young man. In “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, we see actor River Phoenix playing young Indie as a Boy Scout and falling into a huge pit of snakes during a chase scene.

50 Zeus : Greek :: Jupiter : ___ : ROMAN

Jupiter, also known as Jove, was the king of the gods in the Roman tradition, as well as the god of sky and thunder. Jupiter was the Roman equivalent to the Greek god Zeus.

54 Big name in ice cream : EDY

Dreyer’s ice cream sells its products under the name Dreyer’s in the Western United States, and Edy’s in the Eastern states. The company’s founders were William Dreyer and Joseph Edy.

56 D.C. insider : POL

Politician (pol)

60 Bread spread : OLEO

Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

66 Where a cashier puts money : TILL

What we usually call a cash register here in North America, we mostly call a “till” in Ireland and the UK. I haven’t heard the word “till” used much here in that sense …

67 Mani-___ (salon combo) : PEDI

Manicure & pedicure (mani-pedi)

68 Cow in classic Borden ads : ELSIE

Elsie the Cow is the mascot of the Borden Company. Elsie first appeared at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, introduced to symbolize the perfect dairy product. She is so famous and respected that she has been awarded the degrees of Doctor of Bovinity, Doctor of Human Kindness and Doctor of Ecownomics. Elsie was also given a husband named Elmer the Bull. Elmer eventually moved over to the chemical division of Borden where he gave his name to Elmer’s Glue.

70 Yemeni port : ADEN

Aden is a seaport in Yemen that is located on the Gulf of Aden by the eastern approach to the Red Sea. Aden has a long history of British rule, from 1838 until a very messy withdrawal in 1967. A native of Aden is known as an Adeni. Some believe that Cain and Abel are buried in the city.

71 Car company with so-called “Gigafactories” : TESLA

Tesla Motors shortened its name to just “Tesla” in early 2017.

Down

2 ___ Lilly & Co. : ELI

Eli Lilly is the largest corporation in the state of Indiana. Founder Eli Lilly was a veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War, and a failed Mississippi plantation owner. Later in life he returned to his first profession and opened a pharmaceutical operation to manufacture drugs and sell them wholesale. Under Lilly’s early guidance, the company was the first to create gelatin capsules to hold medicines and the first to use fruit flavoring in liquid medicines.

5 Two-masted sailing vessel : YAWL

A yawl is a two-masted sailing vessel. There is a main mast forward, and a smaller mizzen mast close to the stern. A yawl is similar to a ketch, in that both rigs have two masts. The mizzen mast is forward of the rudderpost in a ketch, and aft of the rudderpost in a yawl.

6 Polish dumpling : PIEROGI

Pierogi (also “pirogi”) are stuffed dumplings made using unleavened dough, and are a traditional dish from Poland. The term “pierogi” is the Polish name for any filled dumplings.

8 Newsman Robert, former PBS partner of Jim Lehrer : MACNEIL

Robert MacNeil is a retired Canadian journalist who co-anchored “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” on PBS for twenty years.

10 Disney dwarf with the shortest name : DOC

In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale called “Snow White”, the seven dwarfs were not given any names. The names were added for the 1937 classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The seven dwarfs are:

• Doc (the leader of the group)
• Grumpy (that would be me, according to my wife …)
• Happy
• Sleepy
• Bashful
• Sneezy
• Dopey

13 Storyteller’s segue : … SO THEN …

A segue is a transition from one topic to the next. “Segue” is an Italian word that literally means “now follows”. It was first used in musical scores directing the performer to play into the next movement without a break. The oft-used term “segway” is given the same meaning, although the word “segway” doesn’t really exist. It is a misspelling of “segue” that has been popularized by its use as the name of the personal transporter known as a Segway.

24 One-named hitmaker born in Nigeria : SADE

Singer Sade’s real name is Helen Folasade Adu. Although she was born in Nigeria, Sade grew up and lives in the UK. She was the lead vocalist for the English group Sade, and adopted the name of the band. The band’s biggest hits were “Smooth Operator” (1984) and “The Sweetest Taboo” (1985).

28 San Joaquin Valley city : FRESNO

Fresno is the largest inland city in the state of California. The city was named for the many ash trees that lined the San Joaquin River, as “fresno” is the Spanish for “ash tree”.

The San Joaquin Valley is in the southern part of the Central Valley of California (the northern part is the Sacramento Valley). The San Joaquin Valley is plagued with smog due to the surrounding mountains holding in pollution generated by traffic in built-up areas. The smog is bad that it is one of the three worst areas in the country for pollution, along with Los Angeles and Houston.

31 Business district in downtown Chicago : THE LOOP

The historic commercial center of Chicago is known as the Loop. One theory is that the “loop” got its name from the cable loops in the city’s old cable car system. An alternative theory is that term only arose with the construction of the elevated railway “loop” that forms the hub of the city’s “L” system.

36 Company behind the Watson project : IBM

Watson is a computer system developed by IBM. Watson is designed to answer questions that are posed in natural language, so that it should be able to interpret questions just as you and I would, no matter how the question is phrased. The program is named after the founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson. Today’s Watson competed in a few memorable episodes of “Jeopardy!” in 2011 taking out two of the best players of the quiz show. That made for fun television …

41 Gainsay : DENY

“To gainsay” is to deny or contradict, literally “to say again”.

43 Added up, as a score : TALLIED

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.

44 Passenger-screening org. : TSA

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

47 Home of Milano and Firenze : ITALIA

In Italian, “Milano” (Milan) and “Firenze” (Florence) are cities in “Italia” (Italy).

52 ___-Loompa (Willy Wonka worker) : OOMPA

The Oompa-Loompas are characters in the Roald Dahl book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and indeed in the sequel story “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator”. Willy Wonka came across the Oompa-Loompas on an isolated island in the Atlantic and invited them to work in his factory in order to escape those hunting them on the island. Right before Dahl’s book was first published, he was intending to call the Oompa-Loompas “Whipple-Scrumpets”.

59 ___ of Capri : ISLE

The island of Capri off the coast of Southern Italy has been a tourist resort since the days of ancient Rome. Capri is home to the famous Blue Grotto, a sea cave that is illuminated with sunlight that’s colored blue as it passes through the seawater into the cave.

61 World Cup cheer : OLE!

The FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious tournament in the sport of soccer. The competition has been held every four years (excluding the WWII years) since the inaugural event held in Uruguay in 1930. The men’s World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, even outranking the Olympic Games. And, the women’s World Cup is fast catching up …

63 1950s presidential monogram : DDE

President Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE) was replaced in office by President John F. Kennedy (JFK).

65 Wimbledon service? : TEA

Wimbledon is a suburb of London located in the southwest of the metropolis. Wimbledon translates from Old English as “Wynnman’s Hill”, with “dun” being an archaic word for “hill”. And, the district is home to the All England Club where the Wimbledon tennis championships are played each year.