Day: September 20, 2019

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 15m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

20 Batteries : ASSAULTS

“Battery” is intentional contact with another person that is deemed to be either harmful or offensive. The related “assault” is the act of creating apprehension that such harmful or offensive contact is imminent.

22 Grp. organizing trips abroad : USO

The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

24 Balm with an oxymoronic name : ICY HOT

Icy Hot is a topical heat rub that is used to relieve muscular discomfort and pain from arthritis and rheumatism. The active ingredient doesn’t provide any heat or cold, but it does stimulate nerve receptors in the skin causing the user to experience a cool sensation followed by warmth.

The word “oxymoron” is in itself an oxymoron. It derives from the Greek words “Oxys” and “moros” meaning “sharp” and “stupid”.

33 Ingredient in an old-fashioned : RYE

An Old Fashioned cocktail is usually made from whiskey or brandy that is muddled with sugar and bitters, and then a twist of citrus rind added.

35 Master’s follower : PHD

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

37 “Cum on Feel the Noize” band, 1973 : SLADE

Slade is a favorite band from my youth, a rock band from the north of England who made it big during the seventies. One of Slade’s hallmark marketing techniques was a deliberate misspelling of their song titles. A couple of those titles are “Gudbuy T’Jane” and my personal favorite “Cum On Feel the Noize”.

42 Home of the Big Bear ski resort, informally : SOCAL

Southern California (SoCal)

48 End of a nonprofit, maybe : ORG

The .org domain was one of the six original generic top-level domains specified. The complete original list is:

• .com (commercial enterprise)
• .net (entity involved in network infrastructure e.g. an ISP)
• .mil (US military)
• .org (not-for-profit organization)
• .gov (US federal government entity)
• .edu (college-level educational institution)

59 Fashion portmanteau exemplified by wearing yoga pants all day : ATHLEISURE

The wearing of clothing designed for athletic activity in casual, non-athletic environments is termed “athleisure”, which is a portmanteau of “athletic” and “leisure”.

Down

2 Enrique ___ Nieto, former president of Mexico : PENA

Enrique Peña Nieto became President of Mexico in 2012. President Nieto quickly struggled with a plummeting approval rating that was initially due to a sluggish economy and a weakened Mexican Peso.

6 Passed-down code : DNA

Nucleobases are molecules that form the backbone of DNA and RNA chains. It is the sequence of these bases in the DNA chain that makes up the so-called “genetic code”. In DNA, the four bases are adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T) and cytosine (C). The same bases are found in RNA, except that thymine is replaced by uracil (U). In DNA, the nucleobases exist in “base pairs”.

7 Home of yaks and zebus : ASIA

The English word “yak” is an Anglicized version of the Tibetan name for the male of the species. Yak milk is much prized in the Tibetan culture. It is made into cheese and butter, and the butter is used to make a tea that is consumed in great volume by Tibetans. The butter is also used as a fuel in lamps, and during festivals the butter is even sculpted into religious icons.

Zebu cattle are most often seen on the Indian subcontinent. They’re the sub-species with the fatty hump on their shoulders, droopy ears and a large dewlap (flap of skin under the neck).

9 “Romanian Rhapsodies” composer : ENESCU

George Enescu (aka Georges Enesco) was a Romanian composer and performer. Enescu’s most popular works are two “Romanian Rhapsodies” (1901-2) and the opera “Oedipe” (1936).

26 Parent company of Mack Trucks : VOLVO

Mack Trucks was founded by John Mack in the early 1900s, after he had spent some years working in companies that made carriages and electric motor cars. Along with his two brothers, Mack started their company to focus on building heavy-duty trucks and engines.

27 Remove the contents of : EVISCERATE

To eviscerate is to take out the viscera, the internal organs.

36 Rap’s Run-___ : DMC

Run-DMC was a hip hop group from Queens, New York. The trio took its name from two of the group’s members: Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.

37 They’re known for their wrinkles : SHAR-PEIS

The shar-pei breed of dog is that one with the wrinkly face and really dark tongue. The breed originated in China, with “shar-pei” being the British spelling of the Cantonese name.

41 Soup whose name rhymes with “duh,” not “dough” : PHO

Pho is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food.

43 Pulitzer-winning novelist ___ Lurie : ALISON

Alison Lurie is an American novelist. Lurie won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for her novel “Foreign Affairs”. Three of her works have been adapted for television: “The War Between the Tates”, “Imaginary Friends” and “Foreign Affairs”.

44 “Frankenstein” setting : LAB

Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel has the full title of “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”. The subtitle underscores one of the themes of the book, i.e. a warning about the expansion into the Industrial Revolution.

45 Acme : ZENITH

The nadir is the direction pointing immediately below a particular location (through to the other side of the Earth for example). The opposite direction, that pointing immediately above, is called the zenith. We use the terms “nadir” and “zenith” figuratively to mean the low and high points in a person’s fortunes.

47 First name in 1990s rap : TUPAC

Rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur adopted the inventive stage name “2Pac”. He was a hard man, spending eleven months in prison for sexual assault. He was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at only 25 years of age.

50 ___ land : LA-LA

“La-la land” is a euphemism for a state of unconsciousness or a dreamworld.