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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16A Kachina-carving people : HOPI

Kachina dolls are wooden figures representing various Hopi spirits and deities. Traditionally, Kachina dolls were made by men and then passed on to the daughters of the village in a ceremony feting a particular spirit.

17A Going against the grain? : GLUTEN-FREE

Gluten is a protein mixture found in foods processed mainly from wheat. The sticky properties of gluten are used in making bread, giving dough its elasticity and making the final product chewy. “Gluten” is the Latin word for “glue”.

20A Pesos or euros : DINERO

“Dinero” is a Spanish word meaning “money”, as well as a slang term for money here in the US.

23A World capital split by the world’s longest river : CAIRO

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. It is nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” because of its impressive skyline replete with Islamic architecture. The name “Cairo” is a European corruption of the city’s original name in Arabic, “Al-Qahira”.

Depending on definition, the Nile is regarded generally as the longest river on the planet. The Nile forms from two major tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, which join together near Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. From Khartoum the Nile flows north, traveling almost entirely through desert making it central to life for those living along its length.

25A Some scenery in “The Road Runner Show” : MESAS

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner are two much-loved cartoon characters from Warner Bros. Road Runner was created first, and Wile E. Coyote was invented as the necessary pursuer. I love this cartoon; it’s definitely one of the best …

26A Fare ways to go? : BUS RIDES

We use the term “bus” for a mode of transportation as it is an abbreviated form of the original “omnibus”. We imported “omnibus” via French from Latin, in which language it means “for all”. The idea is that an omnibus is a carriage “for all”.

28A Law with an “individual mandate” provision, for short : ACA

The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA).

29A Athlete nicknamed “O Rei” : PELE

“Pelé” was the nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento, a soccer player who used the name “Pelé” for most of his life. For my money, Pelé was the world’s greatest ever player of the game. He was the only person to have been a member of three World Cup winning squads (1958, 1962 and 1970), and was a national treasure in his native Brazil. One of Pelé’s nicknames was “O Rei do Futebol” (the King of Football).

32A Giant Jesus : ALOU

Jesus Alou played Major League Baseball, as did his brothers Matty and Felipe, and as did Felipe’s son Moisés.

40A Exec who leads software engineers : CTO

Chief technology officer (CTO)

41A Philosophy of a devil’s advocate? : SATANISM

Satan is the bringer of evil and temptation in the Abrahamic religions. The name “Satan” is Hebrew for “adversary”.

44A Danish money : KRONE

“Krone” translates into English as “crown”, and was the name given to coins that bore the image of the monarch in several countries. Today, the krone is the name given to the currency of Norway, and of Denmark. Some of the Norwegian and Danish kroner have holes in the middle, giving them a “doughnut” or “torus” shape.

47A Word repeated in “With a ___ ___ here and a ___ ___ there …” : MOO

There was an American version of the English children’s song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (E-I-E-I-O) that was around in the days of WWI. The first line of the older US version goes “Old MacDougal had a farm, in Ohio-i-o”.

55A Biological building blocks : AMINO ACIDS

Proteins are synthesized in the body from amino acids, which are linked together in specific sequences that are determined by the genetic code. The language of the code is a sequence of nucleotides. The nucleotides are arranged in groups of three called “codons”, with each codon determining a specific amino acid.

59A Give guff : SASS

The word “guff” has been around since the late 1800s and means “empty talk”. The term comes from the sense of “puff of air”.

Down

1D Texas A&M athlete : AGGIE

Texas A&M is the largest university in the United States by enrollment on a single campus, and was the first public higher education institute in Texas when it accepted its first students in 1876. The full name of the school was the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (hence “A&M”) and its primary mission used to be the education of males in the techniques of farming and military warfare. That’s quite a combination! Because of the agricultural connection, the college’s sports teams use the moniker “Aggies”. Texas A&M is also home to the George Bush Presidential Library.

4D Pro-vegan org. : PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a large animal rights organization, with about 400 employees and nine million members and supporters worldwide. Although the group campaigns for animal rights across a broad spectrum of issues, it has a stated focus in opposition of four practices:

• Factory farming
• Fur farming
• Animal testing
• Use of animals in entertainment

5D Applies a certain hair dye to : HENNAS

Henna has been used for centuries as a dye, for leather and wool as well as hair and skin. In modern days, henna is often used for temporary tattoos.

11D Zillow data : HOME SALES

Zillow is a company that is primarily known for providing a website and app the public can use to value properties.

13D Very old-fashioned sort : DINOSAUR

Dinosaurs were reptiles that roamed the Earth from the late Triassic period until the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. The term “dinosaur” was coined by English paleontologist Sir Richard Owen in 1842. He used the Greek words “deinos” meaning “terrible” and “sauros” meaning “lizard” to come up with the name.

21D Pings, for short : IMS

In the world of computer science, a ping is a test message sent over a network between computers to check for a response and to measure the time of that response. We now use the verb “to ping” more generally, meaning to send someone a message, usually a reminder.

26D Sandwiches that are neither kosher nor halal : BLTS

According to Jewish dietary laws, kosher food is fit to eat, and food that is not fit to eat is referred to as treif (or “tref”). The usage of “kosher” has extended to include anything considered legitimate.

“Halal” is a term describing an action or object that is permissible under Islamic Law. In particular “halal” is used to describe food that can be consumed. Anything that is not allowed is described as “haram”.

33D Lotto prizes : JACKPOTS

The term “jackpot” dates back to the 1800s and comes from the game of poker. In some variants there are progressive antes. This means that players have to ante up, add to the “pot”, when no player has a pair of “jacks” or better. They build a “jackpot”.

34D Greeting often followed by “Como vai?” : OLA

In Portuguese, someone who greets you with “Olá!” (Hello!), might follow up with “Como vai?” (How’s it going?).

35D British engineer James : WATT

James Watt was a Scottish inventor. He figured prominently in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, largely due to the improvements he made to the fledgling steam engine. The SI unit of power is called the watt, and was named in his honor.

36D Be a hero, say : COSPLAY

Cosplay (costume play)

42D Viral 2010s dance that Hillary Clinton performed on TV : NAE NAE

The Nae Nae is a hip hop dance that is named for the 2013 song “Drop that NaeNae” recorded by We Are Toonz. The main move in the dance involves swaying with one hand in the air and one hand down, with both feet firmly planted on the dancefloor. Go on, do it. You know you want to …

47D It has more than 4,000 islands off its coast : MAINE

Maine is the least-densely populated state east of the Mississippi, with almost 90% of its land covered with forests. Perhaps that’s why the state’s nickname is “The Pine Tree State” …

56D Approaches, in brief : MOS

“Modus operandi” (plural “modi operandi”) is the Latin for “mode of operating”, a term we’ve been using since the mid-1600s. It’s often used by the police when referring to the methods typically employed by a particular perpetrator of a crime, and is usually abbreviated to “M.O.”