Day: April 2, 2020

Today’s Reveal Answer: Five-Dollar Words

We have FIVE rebus squares in the grid, with each containing a WORD meaning DOLLAR:

• 57A Fancy-schmancy language … or the contents of some special squares in this puzzle : FIVE-DOLLAR WORDS

• 9A Places for to-do lists : NOTEPADS
• 17A Social media fad that went viral in 2014 : ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE
• 24A Large-beaked bird found in Africa : HORNBILL
• 28A Only card of its suit in a hand : SINGLETON
• 38 Ado : CLAMOR
• 9D Tryst locale : NO-TELL MOTEL
• 18D Cowpoke : BUCKAROO
• 27D TV host once with an “Explaining Jokes to Idiots” segment : BILL MAHER
• 28D Places where business is picking up? : SINGLES BARS
• 38D Manhattan, for one : CLAM CHOWDER

… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 10m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 High-hat : SNOOT

“Snoot” is a variant of “snout”, and is a word that originated in Scotland. The idea is that someone who is snooty, or “snouty”, tends to look down his or her nose at the rest of the world.

14 Potential resource on an asteroid : ORE

The vast majority of asteroids in the Solar System are found in the main asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Four large asteroids (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygeia) make up about half the mass of the asteroid belt and are 400-950 km in diameter. The total mass of the belt is just 4% of the mass of our Moon. The larger asteroids are also known as “planetoids”.

15 Dessert not for the diet-conscious : TORTE

A torte is a type of cake made primarily with eggs, sugar and ground nuts (but no flour).

17 Social media fad that went viral in 2014 : ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was a viral phenomenon in which participants were challenged to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured over their heads. Each participant then got to nominate up to three other people to do the same. Usually the nominees were given a day or two to comply, but could make a charitable donation if they wanted to avoid the icy shower. Happily, many participants opted to take the challenge, and also make a donation.

20 Animal also called a zebra giraffe : OKAPI

The okapi is closely related to the giraffe, although it does have markings on its legs and haunches that resemble those of a zebra. The okapi’s tongue is long enough to reach back and wash its eyeballs, and can go back even further to clean its ears inside and out.

21 Jack of “Rio Lobo” : ELAM

Jack Elam was a movie actor noted for playing the bad guy in Westerns. When Elam was a Boy Scout, he was accidentally stabbed in the eye with a pencil. The incident left him blind in that eye, and the iris remained skewed to the outside of his face. This gave him a crazed, wide-eyed look that helped add a sense of menace to the characters Elam played.

“Rio Lobo” is a Western movie that was released in 1970, starring John Wayne. “Rio Lobo” is the third film in a trilogy that was directed by Howard Hawks, the other two films being “Rio Bravo” (1959) and “El Dorado” (1966). “Rio Lobo” was the last film that Hawks directed.

22 “OMG, that is soooo funny!” : ROTFL

Rolling on the floor, laughing (ROTFL)

30 Certain public transports : ELS

Elevated railroad (El)

33 Golfer Aoki : ISAO

Isao Aoki is one of Japan’s greatest golfers. Aoki’s best finish in a major tournament was runner-up to Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 US Open.

37 Network with the all-time greatest number of Emmys : NBC

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has had a number of different logos in its history, including the famous peacock with which we are familiar today. The first peacock logo was introduced in the early days of color television and was designed to illustrate how wonderful color television would be, so go buy one! (NBC was owned by RCA, and so had a vested interest in sales of color television sets).

45 Philip who wrote “American Pastoral” : ROTH

Author Philip Roth’s two most famous works are probably his 1959 novella “Goodbye, Columbus” for which he won a National Book Award, and his extremely controversial 1969 novel “Portnoy’s Complaint”. The latter title was banned in some libraries in the US, and was listed as a “prohibited import” in Australia. The controversy surrounded Roth’s treatment of the sexuality of the main character, a young Jewish bachelor undergoing psychoanalysis for his “complaint”.

50 Old PC software : MS-DOS

MS-DOS (short for “Microsoft Disk Operating System”) was the main operating system used by IBM-compatible PCs in the eighties and for much of the nineties.

54 “Star Wars” droid, informally : ARTOO

Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2 (also “Artoo-Detoo”). R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stood just 3 ft 8 ins tall, was the man inside the R2-D2 droid for the first six of the “Star Wars” movies.

64 Bloke : FELLA

“Bloke” is British slang for “fellow”. The etymology of “bloke” seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

Down

1 Response when playing innocent : MOI?

“Moi” is the French word for “me”. One might say “Moi?” when feigning innocence.

2 Gas brand that’s also a musical direction : ARCO

The company name “ARCO” is an acronym standing for “Atlantic Richfield Company”. One of ARCO’s claims to fame is that it is responsible for the nation’s largest Superfund site. Mining and smelting in the area around Butte, Montana polluted the region’s water and soil, and ARCO has agreed to pay $187 million to help clean up the area.

“Arco” is a musical direction instructing a string player to return to normal bowing technique after a passage played using some other technique (perhaps pizzicato).

6 Elf’s evil counterpart : ORC

Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction as well as in fantasy video games.

8 Relative of turquoise : TEAL

The beautiful color teal takes its name from the duck called a teal, which has dark greenish-blue (teal) markings on its head and wings.

9 Tryst locale : NO-TELL MOTEL

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 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.

11 ___ Wilson, lead singer of Heart : ANN

Heart is a rock band from Seattle, Washington, founded in the seventies and still going strong. The band has had a changing lineup, except for sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson.

12 M.B.A., e.g.: Abbr. : DEG

The world’s first Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree was offered by Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, in 1908.

13 Glasgow-to-Liverpool dir. : SSE

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and sits on the River Clyde. Back in the Victorian Era, Glasgow earned a reputation for excellence in shipbuilding and was known as “Second City of the British Empire”. Glasgow shipyards were the birthplaces of such famous vessels as the Lusitania, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. People for Glasgow are known as Glaswegians.

Liverpool is a large port city in the northwest of England located on the estuary of the River Mersey. With a sense of humor that is typical of the area, people from Liverpool are often called “Liverpudlians”. The term comes from the jocular “Liver-puddle”, a diminutive of “Liver-pool”.

18 Cowpoke : BUCKAROO

The American-English word “buckaroo” (sometimes “buckeroo”) comes from “vaquero”, the Spanish for cowboy.

“Cowpoke” is a term used nowadays for any cowboy, but it was originally limited to the cowboys who prodded cattle onto railroad cars using long poles.

25 Monopoly quartet: Abbr. : RRS

The four railroad (RR) properties in the Monopoly board game are:

• Reading Railroad
• Pennsylvania Railroad
• B&O Railroad
• Short Line

27 TV host once with an “Explaining Jokes to Idiots” segment : BILL MAHER

Bill Maher is a stand-up comedian and political commentator. Maher has an HBO television show called “Real Time with Bill Maher” which is essentially a follow-on from the very successful “Politically Incorrect” program that started out on Comedy Central.

31 Slowpokes : SNAILS

Back in the early 1800s, a “poke” was a device attached to domestic animals such as pigs or sheep to keep them from escaping their enclosures. The poke was like a yoke with a pole, and slowed the animal down, hence the term “slowpoke”.

33 Abbr. on a bank statement : INT

A bank account (acct.) usually earns interest (int.)

34 Manhattan, e.g.: Abbr. : BOR

The five boroughs of New York City were created in 1898. Those five boroughs are:

• Manhattan
• The Bronx
• Brooklyn
• Queens
• Staten Island

35 Spot on the face, informally : ZIT

The slang term “zit”, meaning “pimple”, came into the language in 1966, but no one seems to know its exact derivation.

38 Manhattan, for one : CLAM CHOWDER

The type of soup known as “chowder” is possibly named for the pot in which it used to be cooked called a “chaudière”, a French term.

42 Ike’s W.W. II command: Abbr. : ETO

Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE) was the 34th US president, but he wanted to be remembered as a soldier. He was a five-star general during WWII in charge of the Allied Forces in the European Theater of Operations (ETO). President Eisenhower died in 1969 at Walter Reed Army Hospital. He was buried in an $80 standard soldier’s casket in his army uniform in a chapel on the grounds of the beautiful Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas.

44 Green sauce : PESTO

Pesto sauce is more completely called “pesto alla genovese”, i.e. pesto from Genoa. A traditional recipe calls for crushed garlic, pine nuts, salt, basil leaves, parmesan cheese and olive oil. Yum …

47 Winter Olympics powerhouse : NORWAY

Norway has been ranked as the country in the world with the highest standard of living almost every year since 2001. Norway is rich in natural resources and has a relatively low population. The people benefit from a comprehensive social security system, subsidized higher education for all citizens and universal health care. And Norway is famous for her success at the Winter Olympic Games, having won more gold medals than any other nation in the world.

51 Alfalfa’s love in “The Little Rascals” : DARLA

Alfalfa’s love interest in “Our Gang” was Darla, whose real name was Darla Hood. Hood became quite a successful singer after she grew out of her “Our Gang” role.

53 Popular Italian car, informally : ALFA

The “Alfa” in “Alfa Romeo” is actually an acronym, one standing for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (“Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company”). ALFA was an enterprise founded in 1909 and which was taken over by Nicola Romeo in 1915. In 1920 the company name was changed to Alfa Romeo.

55 Ricelike pasta : ORZO

Orzo is pasta that has been formed into granular shapes, much like barley. And indeed, “orzo” is the Italian word for “barley”. Orzo is also called “risoni”, meaning “large rice”.

57 A-OK : FAB

Our term “A-OK” is supposedly an abbreviation for “A(ll systems are) OK”, and arose at NASA in the sixties during the space program.

59 Website with the slogan “Understand the news” : VOX

“Vox” is a news and opinion website that was founded by former “Washington Post” journalist Ezra Klein in 2014. “Vox” is Latin for “voice”.

61 What 17-Across raised money for, in brief : ALS
(17A Social media fad that went viral in 2014 : ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE)

Baseball legend Lou Gehrig was known as a powerhouse. He was a big hitter and just kept on playing. Gehrig broke the record for the most consecutive number of games played, and he still holds the record for the most career grand slams. His durability earned him the nickname “The Iron Horse”. Sadly, he died in 1941 at 37-years-old suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an illness we now call “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. The New York Yankees retired the number four on 4th of July 1939 in his honor, making Lou Gehrig the first baseball player to have a number retired.