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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Utter rubbish : DRECK

Dreck is filth or trash. It is a word that comes into English from “drek”, the Yiddish for “rubbish”.

11A Showing a smirk, say : WRY

The Old English word “smearcian” means “to smile”, and gave us our verb “to smirk”, meaning “to smile in a self-satisfied manner”.

15A Actress Watts of “The Friend” : NAOMI

Actress Naomi Watts was born in the UK and moved to Australia when she was 14 years of age. It was in Australia that Watts got her break in television and movies. Probably her most acclaimed role was in the 2003 film “21 Grams” with Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro. Watts is best friends with fellow Australian actress Nicole Kidman.

17A Nuyoricans, e.g. : ETHNIC GROUP

The word “Nuyorican” refers to the Puerto Rican diaspora and their descendants living in and around New York City. The term is a portmanteau of “New York” and “Puerto Rican”.

19A Doc who’s seen for sinusitis : ENT

The suffix “-itis” is used to denote inflammation, as in laryngitis (inflammation of the larynx), otitis (inflammation of the ear), tendinitis (inflammation of a tendon), tonsillitis (inflammation of the tonsils) and sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses).

20A Went on the fritz : DIED

The American slang term “on the fritz” means “inoperative”. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive etymology for the term, although there are indications it has a theatrical origin.

21A Grand project begun by the London Philological Society, in brief : OED

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

22A Snowman in “Frozen” : OLAF

In the 2013 animated film “Frozen”, Olaf is a happy-go-lucky snowman who provides a lot of comic relief in the movie. He is voiced by actor and comedian Josh Gad.

24A Fender Stratocaster, e.g. : ELECTRIC GUITAR

The Stratocaster (often “Strat”) is an electric guitar that has been made by Fender since 1954. The company that made Fender electric guitars was founded in Fullerton, California in 1946 by Leo Fender.

29A Its base unit is the kilogram : MASS

The mass of an object differs from its weight. Mass measures the amount of matter present in the object, while its weight is the force exerted on the object by gravity. So, the mass of an object is the same on Earth as it is on the Moon. On the Moon, the same object weighs 16.5% of what it does on Earth.

34A Brand of squishy balls : NERF

Nerf is a soft material used in a whole series of toys designed for “safe” play indoors. The Nerf product is used to make darts, balls and ammunition for toy guns. By the way, “Non-Expanding Recreational Foam” is a popular backronym (an acronym created to fit an existing word) for “NERF”.

36A “The Disrobing of Christ,” e.g. : EL GRECO

El Greco (“the Greek”, in Spanish) was the nickname of the artist whose real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos. He was born in Crete in 1541, and moved to Venice to study art when he was in his early twenties. A few years later he moved to the city of Toledo in central Spain, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.

40A Fish in some onigiri : EEL

Onigiri is an item from Japanese cuisine, one often served in a bento box. It comprises white rice, usually formed into the shape of a pyramid or cylinder. The rice is wrapped in nori, dried edible seaweed.

48A One of the matriarchs in Judaism : LEAH

According to the Bible, Leah was one of the two wives of Jacob, the other being Leah’s sister Rachel. Jacob’s intention had been to marry Rachel, but Leah and Rachel’s father “switched” his daughters and provided Leah as the veiled bride. Jacob married Rachel a week later, and lived with the two wives concurrently.

50A Thyroid, e.g. : ENDOCRINE GLAND

An endocrine gland is one that secretes hormones directly into the bloodstream. Examples of endocrine glands are the hypothalamus, the thyroid and the adrenal glands. An exocrine gland is one that secretes its essential product by way of a duct. Examples of exocrine glands are sweat glands, salivary glands and mammary glands.

The thyroid gland is found in the neck, just below the Adam’s apple. The gland produces several thyroid hormones, some of which control the rate at which the body uses energy i.e. the body’s rate of metabolism.

56A Baby ones are joeys, familiarly : ROOS

In Australia, male kangaroos are known by several names including bucks, boomers, jacks or old men. Females are called does, flyers, or jills. There seems to be just one name for young kangaroos, i.e. joeys. A group of kangaroos might be called a mob, troop or court.

58A Sprightly dance : JIG

The jig is a dance most associated with Ireland and Scotland. In traditional Irish dancing, the jig is second in popularity only to the reel. The most famous Irish jig is probably “The Irish Washerwoman”. I may not dance a jig, but I sure do know the tune of “The Irish Washerwoman” …

59A Dress for a soirée, e.g. : EVENING GOWN

“Soir” is the French word for “evening” and a soirée is an evening party. The French word “soirée” has an acute accent over the first “e”, but we tend to drop this when using the word in English.

64A Protection against flooding : LEVEE

A levee is an artificial bank, usually made of earth, that runs along the length of a river. It is designed to hold back river water at a time of potential flooding. “Levée” is the French word for “raised” and is an American term that originated in French-speaking New Orleans around 1720.

65A Group of smarties : MENSA

Mensa is a high-IQ society that was founded in Oxford, England in 1946. The founders were two lawyers: Australian Roland Berrill and Englishman Lancelot Ware. Apparently, the elitist founders were unhappy with the development of Mensa, given that most members came from the working and lower classes.

66A “___ Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” : SGT

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was the alter-ego of the Beatles, and the title of a famous studio album released in 1967, as well as the name of the album’s title track.

67A Coffeehouse chain that owns the domain coffee.com : PEET’S

Peet’s is a chain of coffee houses based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was founded in 1966 by Dutch immigrant Alfred Peet. Peet served as a mentor to Jerry Baldwin, who co-founded Starbucks in 1971.

Down

1D Contacted quickly online, informally : DM’ED

Direct message (DM)

3D Blues legend Waters : ETHEL

Ethel Waters was a singer and actress. Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award (after Hattie McDaniel, for “Gone With the Wind”). Waters received the nomination as Best Supporting Actress in 1949 for her performance in the film “Pinky”, in which she played the title character’s grandmother.

5D Carp in a Japanese pond : KOI

Koi are fish that are also known as Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

7D ___ Gras : MARDI

“Mardi Gras” translates from French as “Fat Tuesday”, and the holiday gets its name from the practice of eating rich foods on the eve of the fasting season known as Lent. Lent starts on the next day, called Ash Wednesday.

9D LiMu ___ (insurance bird) : EMU

Liberty Mutual is an insurance company based in Boston. The business was founded in 1912 as the Massachusetts Employees Insurance Association (MEIA). Liberty Mutual has a famous advertising icon named LiMu Emu.

12D Festivals often featuring jousting knights, for short : REN FAIRES

A Renaissance faire (Ren faire) is an outdoor public event in which many participants recreate historical settings by dressing in costume. Usually held in North America, many such fairs are set during the English Renaissance, and more particularly during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The definition of “Renaissance” is often stretched quite a bit, with fairs also set during the reign of Henry VIII, and maybe even during medieval times.

23D Either bronze animal in front of the Art Institute of Chicago : LION

The magnificent Art Institute of Chicago is one of the oldest art museums in the world, having been founded in 1879 as the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. The beautiful building that is home to the museum’s collection was constructed in 1893 for the Chicago World’s Fair. Some of the museum’s more famous works are “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat, “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper, and “American Gothic” by Grant Wood.

27D Green dip, slangily : GUAC

Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.

28D [Hi-lar-ious!] : ROFL!

Rolling on floor laughing (ROFL)

31D President of China beginning in 2013 : XI JINPING

In China, the term “paramount leader” has been used since the days of Mao Zedong to describe the person who holds several leadership offices concurrently. The paramount leaders have been:

1. Mao Zedong (1949 – 1976)
2. Hua Guofeng (1976 – 1978)
3. Deng Xiaoping (1978 – 1992)
4. Jiang Zemin (1992 – 2004)
5. Hu Jintao (2004 – 2012)
6. Xi Jinping (2012 – )

38D Supermodel Hadid : GIGI

Gigi Hadid is a model from Los Angeles who started her career as a child model for the brand Baby Guess. Hadid has had an on-again, off-again relationship with British singer Zayn Malik since 2015, and they had a child together in 2020.

48D Imposes, as a tax : LEVIES

A levy is a tax. The term “levy” comes from Old French in which “levée” means “raising”. So a levy is a tax that has been “raised” (in the sense of “collected”, and not “increased”).

49D Jennifer who wrote “A Visit From the Goon Squad” : EGAN

Jennifer Egan is an author who grew up in San Francisco. Egan’s 2010 work “A Visit from the Goon Squad” won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Usually termed a novel, “A Visit from the Goon Squad” is structured in such a way that it is sometimes described as a collection of linked short stories.

53D Search for groundwater, in a way : DOWSE

Dowsing is the practice of divining, not just for water but also for buried metals and gemstones. Often a dowser will use a Y-shaped or L-shaped rod as a tool, which can also be called a dowser. Here in the US, the tool used might be referred to as a “witching rod”, as it is usually made from witch-hazel.

58D Au ___ (how roast beef may be served) : JUS

The French term “au jus” is usually translated as “with its own juice”.

60D Shape for flying geese : VEE

A collection of geese is referred to as a “gaggle” when on the ground. When geese are in V-formation in flight, they are referred to collectively as a “skein”.

Apparently, birds that fly in a V-formation do so for a couple of reasons. One is that it makes for efficient flight and conserves energy. The leading bird gets no advantage, but every following bird gets to “slipstream” a little. It has been noted that the lead bird drops to the back of the formation when they get fatigued. It’s also thought that the flock can stick together more easily when in formation, so it is more difficult to lose someone along the way.

61D Apple taster in Eden : EVE

According to the Bible’s Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden in order to prevent them from eating the fruit of the tree of life. Cherubim were assigned to guard the garden, and a flaming sword was installed to protect the path to the tree of life.

62D Car brand with the Hummer E.V. : GMC

GMC is a division of General Motors (GM) that was established in 1911 and started out as “GMC Truck”.

“Humvee” and “Hummer” are nicknames for the military vehicle developed by AM General. The full name is High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle i.e. HMMWV, or simply “Humvee”.