Tag: Divination crossword clue

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Constructed by: Laura Dershewitz
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Go Sideways

Themed answers are all in the down-direction, and include the word “GO” written SIDEWAYS, in the across direction:

• 31D Completely fall apart, as a deal, or an apt title for this puzzle? : GO SIDEWAYS

• 3D Mid-March cry : ERIN GO BRAGH!
• 9D Gentle carnival ride : MERRY-GO-ROUND
• 24D Without a care in the world : HAPPY-GO-LUCKY

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

Bill’s time: 9m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Use a Keurig, say : BREW

Keurig is a supplier of beverage brewing machines and pods used in those machines. The company was founded in 1992, in Massachusetts. The name “Keurig” was chosen, as it is the Dutch word for “excellence”.

5 Name associated with a philosophical razor : OCCAM

Ockham’s (also “Occam’s”) razor is a principle in philosophy and science that basically states that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. This explanation is a corollary to the more exact statement of the principle, that one shouldn’t needlessly use assumptions in explaining something. The principle is referred to as “lex parsimoniae” in Latin, or “the law of parsimony”. Parsimony is being thrifty with money or resources. The principle was developed by 14th-century logician and Franciscan Friar William of Ockham (or “Occam” in Latin). The principle is dubbed a “razor” as it is used as a philosophical tool used to cut out absurd and spurious reasoning in an argument.

10 Branded tees or mugs, maybe : SWAG

Swag is loot, stolen property, and a term that started out as criminal slang in England in the 1830s. “Swag” is also the name given to the promotional freebies available at some events. That said, there’s an urban myth that the promotional version of “swag” is an acronym standing for “stuff we all get”.

19 Alan of “Marriage Story” : ALDA

“Marriage Story” is a 2019 movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a couple going through a messy divorce. The critics loved this one. Me, not so much …

20 Lunch option on the Shinkansen, say : BENTO

A bento is a single-person meal that is eaten quite commonly in Japan. A bento can be purchased as a take-out meal, or it may be packed at home. A bento is usually sold as a “bento box”.

The Shinkansen is the network of high-speed train lines in Japan. The term “shinkansen” translates as “new main line”. In English, we started to refer to the whole project as “bullet train” back in 1939, when it was only in its planning stages. The first Shinkansen went into service in 1964, just a few weeks before the first Tokyo Olympics.

26 PD alert : APB

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

37 Surname in a classic Styx song : ROBOTO

“Mr. Roboto” is a song on the 1983 album “Kilroy Was Here” by the Chicago band Styx. The first lines of the song are:

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Mata ah-oo hima de
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Himitsu wo shiri tai

which translates as:

Thank you very much, Mr. Robot
Until the day (we) meet again
Thank you very much, Mr. Robot
I want to know your secret

39 Meat in Hawaiian cuisine : SPAM

Spam is a precooked meat product that is sold in cans. It was introduced by Hormel Foods in 1937. The main meat ingredients are pork shoulder meat and ham. The name “Spam” was chosen as the result of a competition at Hormel, with the winner earning himself a hundred dollars. According to the company, the derivation of the name “Spam” is a secret known by only a few former executives, but the speculation is that it stands for “spiced ham” or “shoulders of pork and ham”. Spam is particularly popular in Hawaii, so popular that it is sometimes referred to as “the Hawaiian steak”.

43 Divination : AUGURY

The verb “to augur” means “to bode, serve as an omen”. The term comes from the name of religious officials in ancient Rome called augurs whose job it was to interpret signs and omens.

50 Twin set? : DNA

A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

54 Screwdriver, in a pinch : DIME

The term “dime”, used for a 10-cent coin, comes from the Old French word “disme” meaning “tenth part”.

56 Chewy candy bars introduced in 1921 : BABY RUTHS

One might be forgiven for thinking that the candy bar called a Baby Ruth was named after baseball legend Babe Ruth. However, the Curtiss Candy Company that introduced the confection in 1921 has stated that it was in fact named for Ruth Cleveland, the daughter of President Grover Cleveland. That said, there seems to be some debate …

64 Fresh start : CLEAN SLATE

Tabula rasa (plural “tabulae rasae”) is the idea that people are born with a “blank, clean slate”, and that knowledge comes from experience and perception. “Tabula rasa” translates literally from Latin as “scraped tablet”.

66 U2 singer : BONO

Irish singer Bono is a Dubliner who was born Paul David Hewson. As a youth, Hewson was given the nickname “Bono Vox” by a friend, a Latin expression meaning “good voice”, and so the singer has been known as Bono since the late seventies. His band’s first name was “Feedback”, later changed to “The Hype”. The band members searched for yet another name and chose U2 from a list of six names suggested by a friend. They picked U2 because it was the name they disliked least …

68 Cannon of film : DYAN

Actress Dyan Cannon is perhaps best known for playing Alice in the 1969 film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Cannon is also famous for having been on Cary Grant’s long list of wives, from 1965 to 1968 (and he was 33 years her senior).

70 Matzo’s lack : YEAST

Matzo is an unleavened bread that is very brittle. The bread is crushed, creating a Matzo meal that is then formed into balls using eggs and oil as a binder. The balls are usually served in a chicken stock.

Down

3 Mid-March cry : ERIN GO BRAGH!

“Erin go bragh!” is an anglicization of the Irish phrase “Éirinn go brách!”, which translates as “Ireland forever!”

The first Saint Patrick’s Day celebration in the US was held in 1600, in St. Augustine, Florida. There is some evidence that the first St. Paddy’s Day parade was held the following year, in the same locale. The annual parade in Boston dates back to 1737, in New York City dates back to 1762, and in Chicago dates back to 1843.

6 African lake in four countries : CHAD

Lake Chad is a very large and shallow lake in Africa, one that changes size dramatically in a very short space of time. Lake Chad shrunk by a massive 95% from 1963 to 1998, but has been recovering ever since. Parts of the lake lie within the four countries Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria.

8 First name in soul : ARETHA

I think that Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul”, had a tough life. Franklin had her first son when she was just 13-years-old, and her second at 15. In 2008, “Rolling Stone” magazine ranked Franklin as number one on its list of the greatest singers of all time.

9 Gentle carnival ride : MERRY-GO-ROUND

The merry-go-round amusement park ride can be a little confusing as one travels the world. In North America, we tend to use the term “carousel” for the ride, whereas it’s a “roundabout” in Britain and Ireland, and a “hurdy-gurdy” in Australia. Yet another difference is the direction of rotation. Carousels typically rotate counterclockwise in North America, and roundabouts rotate clockwise in Britain and Ireland.

10 Gwen __: Spider-Man’s first love : STACY

Gwen Stacy is one of two romantic interests in the life of Spider-Man/Peter Parker. Gwen was Peter Parker’s first love, until he transferred his affections to Mary Jane Watson.

11 Sky’s “Breaking Bad” spouse : WALT

Walter White is the protagonist of the hit TV drama “Breaking Bad”. Played by Bryan Cranston, White is a high school chemistry teacher who resorts to manufacturing high-grade crystal meth in order to ensure his family’s security after his death.

13 Chuffed : GLAD

“Chuffed” is British slang meaning “quite pleased”. It is a derivative of the 16th-century word “chuff” meaning “swollen with fat”. Go figure …

22 __ gobi: South Asian potato dish : ALOO

Aloo gobi is a very tasty vegetarian dish in Indian cuisine made from potatoes and cauliflower, flavored with traditional Indian spices. “Aloo” translates to “potato” and “gobi” to “cauliflower”.

26 State in northern India : ASSAM

Assam is a state in the far northeast of India, and just south of the Himalayas. It is noted for its tea, as well as its silk.

27 Temporary, as a bar or restaurant : POP-UP

A pop-up store (or restaurant) is one that is temporary. The idea is that a pop-up store opens in empty retail space for a limited period of time, often to meet the needs of a particular season or holiday. Examples of the genre might be Halloween stores or Christmas stores.

29 Publisher with a mountain peak logo : TOR

Tor Books is a publishing house in New York City that specializes in science fiction and fantasy novels.

32 Marine mammal that uses rocks to crack shells : OTTER

Sea otters actually hold hands while sleeping on their backs so that they don’t drift apart. When sea otter pups are too small to lock hands, they clamber up onto their mother’s belly and nap there.

33 State capital in the Treasure Valley : BOISE

The Treasure Valley is in southwestern Idaho. Once known as the Lower Snake River or the Boise River Valley, the contemporary name was chosen in 1959 by a local businessman, who wanted to bring more people into the valley.

41 Online admin : MOD

Moderator (mod)

52 Church council : SYNOD

The word “synod” comes from the Greek word for “assembly, meeting”. A synod is a church council, usually one in the Christian faith.

53 Angle symbol, in trigonometry : THETA

The Greek letter theta is commonly used in geometry to represent the angle between two lines (say at a corner of a triangle).

56 Lobsterfest wear : BIBS

A male lobster is called a cock, and a female a hen. A lobster weighing less than a pound is called a chicken.

57 Missing GI : AWOL

AWOL (absent without leave)

58 Fillet’s lack : BONE

A fillet is a boneless cut of meat or fish. The term “fillet” comes from the Old French “filet” meaning “small thread, filament”. Apparently, we applied the term to food because the piece of fish or meat was tied up with string after it was boned. Here in the US, we tend to use the French spelling “filet”.

61 Superfan : STAN

“Stan” is a song by rapper Eminem (featuring Dido) that was recorded in 2000. The title refers to a fictional Eminem fan named “Stan” who becomes obsessed with the rapper, and who grows irate when his letters to his idol go unanswered. Stan’s final act is to make a voice recording as he drives into a river, with his pregnant girlfriend locked in the trunk. One of the legacies of the song is that “stan” is now used as a slang term for an obsessed and maniacal fan.

65 “The 1619 Project” publisher, for short : NYT

The 1619 Project is an active project at “The New York Times”. It is focused on slavery, and re-examining its position in the history of the United States. The project name commemorates the arrival of a group of captive Africans in the Virginia Colony in 1619.