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Constructed by: Jodi Davenport

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Warm Fronts

Themed answers are each FRONTED by a hidden word, an item of WARM winter clothing:

• 59A Zones of air that bring less chilly weather, or what 17-, 23-, 38-, and 49-Across all have : WARM FRONTS

• 17A Manhattan thoroughfare known for ritzy residences : PARK AVENUE (PARKA in front)
• 23A Endure a book just to write a scathing review, perhaps : HATE READ (HAT in front)
• 38A Personal stakes : VESTED INTERESTS (VEST in front)
• 49A Brian De Palma crime classic starring Al Pacino : SCARFACE (SCARF in front)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 13s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16A Febreze target : ODOR

The odor-eliminating product we know today as Febreze was developed in England in the early nineties. It is now produced by Procter & Gamble.

17A Manhattan thoroughfare known for ritzy residences : PARK AVENUE (PARKA in front)

Park Avenue in New York City used to be known as Fourth Avenue, and for much of its length carried the tracks of the New York and Harlem Railroad. When the line was built, some of it was constructed by cutting through the length of the street and then forming underground tunnels by covering over the line with grates and greenery. This greenery formed a parkland between 34th and 40th Streets, and in 1860 the grassy section of Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue, a name that was eventually used for the whole thoroughfare.

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.

20A Nobel-winning Mother : TERESA

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in the city that is now called Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. At birth she was given the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (“Gonxha” means “little flower” in Albanian). She left home at the age of 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto, and headed to Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham in Dublin, Ireland in order to learn English. Her goal was to teach in India, and English was the language used there for instruction by the nuns. After Mother Teresa passed away in 1997 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II. She was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016, and is now known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

26A Coffee, in slang : JOE

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

27A Paris’s __ de Triomphe : ARC

L’Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile in Paris was built to honor those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. It is the second largest triumphal arch in the world, after the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, North Korea. If you are visiting Paris, don’t just take a picture of the arch, be sure to go inside and see the marvelous chambers and carvings, and wander around on top of the arch so that you can enjoy the magnificent view.

29A Big name in video streaming : ROKU

Roku is a manufacturer of digital media players and distributor of streaming services. The company was founded in Los Gatos, California in 2002 by Anthony Wood. He chose the name “Roku” as it is the Japanese word for “six”, and Roku was the sixth company that Wood founded.

30A Nautical “Halt!” : AVAST!

“Avast” is a nautical term used to tell someone to stop or desist from what they are doing. The word comes from the Dutch “hou vast” meaning “hold fast”.

32A Legal claim placed on a house : LIEN

A lien is a right that one has to retain or secure someone’s property until a debt is paid. When an individual takes out a car loan, for example, the lending bank is usually a lien holder. The bank releases the lien on the car when the loan is paid in full.

34A Former Cubs slugger Sammy : SOSA

Sammy Sosa was firmly in the public eye in 1998 when he and Mark McGwire were vying to be the first to surpass the home run record held by Roger Maris. McGwire fell out of public favor due to stories of steroid abuse (stories which he later admitted were true) while Sosa fell out of favor when he was found to be using a corked bat in a 2003 game.

38A Personal stakes : VESTED INTERESTS (VEST in front)

Here’s another word that often catches me out. What we call a vest here in the US is a waistcoat back in Ireland. And, the Irish use the word “vest” for an undershirt.

42A Egyptian cross : ANKH

The ankh was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character for “eternal life”. The ankh wasn’t just used in inscriptions but was often fashioned into amulets and as surrounds for mirrors (perhaps symbolizing a view into another world). The ankh is also known as “the key of the Nile” and “crux ansata” (Latin for “cross with a handle”).

44A Round flatbread : ROTI

In an Indian restaurant, naan bread is very popular. Roti is an unleavened cousin of naan.

46A Ctrl-__-Del : ALT

Ctrl-Alt-Delete is a keyboard command on IBM PC compatible systems used for a soft reboot, or more recently to bring up the task manager in the Windows operating system. Bill Gates tells us that the command was originally just a device to be used during development and was never meant to “go live”. He once said that “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” was a mistake, and that he would have preferred a dedicated key on the keyboard that carried out the same function.

48A Class with smocks : ART

A smock is an outer garment that is often worn as protection for one’s clothing. Today, the term often applies to the protective garment worn by a painter.

49A Brian De Palma crime classic starring Al Pacino : SCARFACE (SCARF in front)

“Scarface” is a 1983 gangster movie starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana, a Cuban expatriate drug lord in Miami. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and written by Oliver Stone, and is a remake of the 1932 film of the same name. In the original, the title character was played by Paul Muni.

Brian De Palma is a very successful film director from Newark, New Jersey. Examples of De Palma films are “Carrie”, “Dressed to Kill”, “Scarface”, “The Untouchables” and “Mission: Impossible”.

53A Chicago airport : O’HARE

The IATA airport code for O’Hare International in Chicago is ORD, which comes from Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field (OR-D).

55A Cupid’s partner on Santa’s sleigh : COMET

We get the names for Santa’s reindeer from the famous 1823 poem called “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, although we’ve modified a couple of the names over the years. The full list is:

• Dasher
• Dancer
• Prancer
• Vixen
• Comet
• Cupid
• Donder (originally “Dunder”, and now often “Donner”)
• Blitzen (originally “Blixem”)

Rudolph was added to the list by retailer Montgomery Ward, would you believe? The store commissioned Robert L. May to create a booklet that could be handed out to children around Christmas in 1939, and May introduced us to a new friend for Santa, namely Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

59A Zones of air that bring less chilly weather, or what 17-, 23-, 38-, and 49-Across all have : WARM FRONTS

A cold front is the leading edge of a relatively cold mass of air, and a warm front is the leading edge of a warm mass of air. Both warm and cold fronts can bring rain to the land below.

66A Stage accessory : PROP

We use the word “props” for objects that are used by actors on stage during a play. The term is a shortening of the older term “properties”, which was used with the same meaning up through the 19th century.

68A Curved cavalry sword : SABER

A saber (sometimes “sabre”) is a sword with a curved blade and a relatively large hand guard. It is thought that the term originated with the Hungarian verb “szabni” meaning “to cut”.

Down

3D New England locale : NORTHEAST

The geographical region of New England comprises the six northeastern states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The name “New England” was given to the region by English explorer John Smith in 1616.

4D George who played Sulu : TAKEI

Mr. Hikaru Sulu was played by George Takei in the original “Star Trek” series. Takei has played lots of roles over the years, and is still very active in television. Did you know that he appeared in the 1963 film, “Pt-109”? He played the helmsman steering the Japanese destroyer that ran down John F. Kennedy’s motor torpedo boat. From destroyer helmsman to starship helmsman …

5D Sci-fi time standard : STARDATE

“Stardates” are fictional dates used in the “Star Trek” universe.

7D Biblical man on the inside? : JONAH

The story of “Jonah’s Dilemma” can be found in the Bible. The story involves Jonah being swallowed by a whale and living inside the “big fish” for three days. I’ve never understood where the “dilemma” is in the tale, though …

8D Sun Devils sch. : ASU

Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, and was founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

12D Finnish telecom giant : NOKIA

Many of us probably think of the Finnish company Nokia as a mobile phone manufacturer, one that was the largest vendor for a decade starting in the late 1990s. Bad decisions by management led to Microsoft buying Nokia’s declining phone business in 2014. It is a very old company, established way back in 1865 as a wood pulp mill, believe it or not.

13D Avarice : GREED

Our word “avarice”, meaning “desire for wealth”, ultimately derives from the Latin word “avere” meaning “to crave”.

22D Group of witches : COVEN

“Coven” is an old Scottish word meaning simply “gathering”. The first known application of the word to witchcraft came during the trial of a Scotswoman in 1662 accused of being a witch. At that time, “coven” came to mean a group of 13 witches.

24D “Respect” singer Franklin : ARETHA

“Respect” is a song by Otis Redding, and one that he recorded himself in 1965. It became a hit when Aretha Franklin made her famous cover version in 1967. The Redding and Franklin versions have different storylines though, and different musical “feels”.

26D Coffee, in slang : 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.

28D Medical center : CLINIC

One use of the word “clinic” is to describe a medical facility at which one diagnoses and treats outpatients. Ultimately, the term “clinic” comes from the Greek “kline” meaning “bed”.

40D Investment options with tax advantages : ROTH IRAS

Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (Roth IRAs) were introduced in 1997 under a bill sponsored by Senator William Roth of Delaware, hence the name.

51D __ acids: protein components : AMINO

There are 20 different types of amino acids that make up proteins. However, only 11 of them can be synthesized by the human body, while the remaining nine essential amino acids must be obtained from food sources.

52D “The Thin Blue Line” documentarian Morris : ERROL

Errol Morris is a film director who is best known for his excellent 2003 documentary “The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara”. Morris also directed “The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld” that was released in 2013.

“The Thin Blue Line” is a 1988 documentary about Randall Adams, who was convicted of a murder that he did not commit. There was evidence presented in the film that actually helped obtain Adams’ release in 1989, after twelve years behind bars.

61D “The Waste Land” poet’s monogram : TSE

T. S. Eliot (TSE) wrote his poem called “The Waste Land” in 1922. “The Waste Land” opens with the famous line, “April is the cruellest month …”

62D Knight’s title in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” : SER

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is a live-action series in the “Game of Thrones” franchise, adapted from George R.R. Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas. It is set roughly a century before the events of the original series, and serves as a prequel to “Game of Thrones”.