4/20/25 - Double Vision 👀

🏁 Solve –> Double Vision by Victor Schmitt and Tracy Bennett

1A | Van Winkle of folklore

RIP

The classic tale of a man who falls asleep for 20 years and awakens to a changed world, "Rip Van Winkle" is one of 34 pieces (along with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") included in Washington Irving's The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

Published serially from 1819-1820, The Sketch Book helped solidify Irving as one of the first internationally renowned "American" authors. Among Irving's other lingering contributions to our world:

• "Knickerbocker" (referring to a person from New York City, and later applied to a type of loose-fitting pants of the kind shown in illustrations depicting popular Irving character Diedrich Knickerbocker, a fictional historian)
• "Gotham" (referring to New York City itself)
• the phrase "the almighty dollar"

9A | Italian restaurant frequently seen in food courts

SBARRO

Well-known to shoppers as a place to grab a quick slice of pizza (the big, New York-style kind you have to fold lengthwise to eat) in between stops at Bath & Body Works and Hot Topic, Sbarro started life in 1956 as a salumeria (Italian deli) operated by Carmela "Mama" Sbarro, her husband Gennaro, and their three children, all of whom had just immigrated to Brooklyn, NY from Naples, Italy.

Now owned by a private-equity firm, Sbarro has proven surprisingly resilient, bouncing back from two bankruptcies and the general decline of malls to continue slingin' slices at over 700 locations worldwide.

20A | Game with a Reverse card

UNO

The popular card game UNO – named after the rule requiring players to declare when they have one card left in their hand – was created in 1971 by Merle Robbins.

A barber from Ohio, Robbins hit on the idea after modifying a standard deck of cards with written reminders so that his family would stop arguing about the rules (a King reverses play, a Queen causes the next player to lose their turn, etc...) while playing the classic game Crazy Eights.

To finance the manufacturing of 5,000 of his version's 108-card decks, Robbins and his wife sold their house and also purchased a camper in order to travel the country and sell their product at campgrounds along the way.

⚠️ FYI: In 1981, Robbins sold the rights to UNO to a funeral parlor owner, who then started International Games, Inc. – a company subsequently purchased by toy titan Mattel (Barbie, Hot Wheels) in 1992.

32A | Corduroy fabric feature

WALE

The first real piece of furniture I bought after college was a couch. A corduroy couch, to be specific. Oh, how I loved that couch, ultimately spending thousands of hours lounging on its luxurious surface before the time came to finally part ways with it last year.

And yet, I was only today years old when I learned that its distinctive ridges have a unique name: wales! From the Old English "walu," meaning "stripe," wale was previously a word used to refer to the raised lines left behind in a plowed field.

[Wales are also known as "cords," hence "corduroy," a word formed from the combination of "cord" (as in "rope") and "duroy" (a type of coarse fabric).]

49A | Honcho

NABOB

Honcho and nabob are alike in that they are both terms that refer to a prominent person and entered English as loanwords (with altered spellings).

Honcho, from the Japanese hanchō ("squad leader"), was introduced by American soldiers returning from the Pacific front after WWII.

Nabob, from the Urdu & Hindi term nawāb (a provincial governor in the Mughal Empire), came into usage during England's colonial rule over India.

👉 BONUS BIT: Let's make it a hat trick! The Mughal Empire is also the source of the English word "mogul" – yet another synonym for a powerful individual.

118A | Mother of Perseus

DANAE

In order to thwart a prophecy that he would be killed by his daughter's son, King Acrisius of Argos imprisoned Danaë in a bronze chamber. The King, however, failed to account for Zeus turning himself into a golden rain so as to gain access to Danaë and impregnate her.

The fruit of their union was Perseus, a demi-god who would go on to slay Medusa and, as was foretold, his grandfather – the latter's demise occurring after he was struck in the head by a wind-blown discus thrown by his grandson.

6D | Certain queer identity, for short

ARO

Short for "aromantic" (as in "not romantic"), a person who identifies as "aro" feels little or no romantic desire or attraction toward others.

The term was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in June 2018, but references abound dating back to the early 2000s on Internet forums initially dedicated to discussions centered around sexual orientations. (Notably, though, one's romantic orientation is considered to be distinct from sexual orientation. In other words, aromanticism does not connote asexuality, or vice versa.)

The concept of aromanticism has much in common with the experiences of those whom American psychologist Dorothy Tennov termed "non-limerent" in her groundbreaking work Love and Limerence (1979). Rarely used today, the word "limerence" has no pre-existing etymology and was coined by Tennov to refer to feelings of romantic attraction.

29D | Gives the (pink) slip

FIRES

Although numerous theories have been advanced, no piece of definitive evidence – the "smoking slip," as it were – has yet been uncovered to corroborate any of the the apocryphal stories that purport to explain how "pink slip" came to represent the termination of one's employment.

👉 BONUS BIT: French and Germans also use colorful language to refer to being told your services are no longer needed, but in the former it's getting your "yellow papers," while the latter "get the blue letter."

42D | ___ apple

ADAMS

Located in the throat, a person's "laryngeal prominence" – more commonly known as the Adam's apple – is made up of thyroid cartilage that forms a protective layer over the front of the larynx (voice box).

Both males and females have this anatomical structure; however, it is often larger and more noticeable in men (typically increasing in size during puberty, a time when a boy's testosterone levels begin to rise).

While its unusual name is often ascribed Biblical origins (namely, that the bump is caused by a piece of the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden that became lodged in Adam's throat), more recent research suggests the moniker arose as the result of a translation error.

Hmm, that sounds familiar 🤔

62D | " ___ Nona" (children's book based on a folk tale)

STREGA [see The Sunday Glossword - 01/19/2025]