Day: March 28, 2025

Bill’s time: 11m 16s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Poke bowl condiment : WASABI MAYO

Sometimes called Japanese horseradish, wasabi is a root used as a condiment in Japanese cooking. The taste of wasabi is more like mustard than a hot pepper in that the vapors that create the “hotness” stimulate the nasal passages rather than the tongue. Personally, I love the stuff …

Poke is a Native-Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. “Poke” is a Hawaiian word meaning “to slice”.

11 Story of a lifetime? : OBIT

Our word “obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”. The Latin term was used for “record of the death of a person”, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

15 Sort whose business is going way down? : SCUBA DIVER

The self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) was co-invented by celebrated French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau.

16 Roaring Twenties look, informally : DECO

The 1920s are often called the Roaring Twenties, and were a period of dynamic change across all aspects of life. Things were finally returning to normal after WWI, jazz became popular, some women “broke the mold” by becoming “flappers”, and Art Deco flourished. The whole decade came to a tragic end with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, followed by the Great Depression.

18 Word with six or sea : DEEP-

To deep-six something is to toss it, possibly overboard, or to completely destroy it. The derivation of this slang term is from “six feet deep”, not the length of a fathom but rather the traditional depth of a grave.

22 Certain touchdown scorers, for short : RBS

Running back (RB)

28 Worker’s performance that informs the colony of a nearby nectar source : BEE DANCE

The waggle dance is a behavior exhibited by bees that informs other members of the hive about the direction and distance to a supply of nectar. Apparently the meaning of the dance “moves” are fairly well understood. The direction of the dance relative to the sun indicates the direction to the nectar source. The length of time spent “waggling” in one direction indicates how far away the source is.

33 Food specialty that might be topped with Creole mustard : PO’BOY

A po’ boy is a submarine sandwich from Louisiana. The name of the sandwich apparently dates back to 1929. It was a sandwich given away free to streetcar workers in New Orleans during a strike, i.e. to “poor boys” not earning a wage. A po’ boy differs from a regular submarine sandwich in that it uses Louisiana French bread, which is soft in the middle and crusty on the outside.

38 Skin-care product applied with a cotton pad : TONER

A skin toner is a cosmetic used to cleanse the skin and to shrink pores.

50 San Diego County beach town with a racetrack : DEL MAR

“Del Mar” translates into English as “of the sea” aptly enough. Also aptly enough, the upscale beach town of Del Mar in San Diego County, California started out as a purpose-built resort in 1885 developed for the rich and famous. Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball had a house there for many years, as did Burt Bacharach. Also, skateboarder Tony Hawk grew up in Del Mar.

Del Mar racetrack opened in Del Mar Fairgrounds in 1937. On opening day, cofounder of the Del Mar Turf Club Bing Crosby was at the gate to welcome the track’s first patrons. Del Mar has attracted many Hollywood names over the years. Races run at Del Mar include the Bing Crosby Stakes, the Bob Hope Stakes, the Cecil B. DeMille Stakes, the Pat O’Brien Handicap, the Jimmy Durante Stakes, the Betty Grable Stakes, the Cary Grant Stakes and the Desi Arnaz Stakes.

51 Country with 14,125 islands (and only 260 inhabited!) : JAPAN

The island nation of Japan comprises over 14,000 islands in total. The five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa.

61 Nolan Ryan had seven of them in his career : NO-HIT GAMES

Nolan Ryan is famous for having more career strikeouts than any other baseball pitcher. However, he also holds the record for the most career walks and wild pitches. Another record that Ryan holds is the most no-hitters, a total of seven over his career.

64 North Carolina college town : ELON

Elon is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina located close to the city of Burlington. Elon University is a private liberal arts school founded in 1889.

65 Spanish for “amateur” : AFICIONADO

An aficionado is an enthusiast. Imported from Spanish, “aficionado” was originally used in English to describe a devotee of bullfighting.

Down

1 Nashville-to-Memphis dir. : WSW

The Tennessee city of Nashville was founded in 1779 near a stockade in the Cumberland River valley called Fort Nashborough. Both the settlement and the fort were named for General Francis Nash, a war hero who died in combat during the American Revolution.

Memphis is the largest city on the Mississippi River, and the largest city in the state of Tennessee. Memphis is also relatively young, having been founded in 1819 as a planned city. The founders were John Overton, James Winchester and future US president Andrew Jackson. The American Memphis is named for the Egyptian Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt located on the River Nile.

2 Component of an exfoliator, often : ACID

In the world of botany, to exfoliate means to lose leaves. The term “exfoliate” comes from the Latin “ex” (off) and “folium” (leaf). In the world of cosmetology, to exfoliate is to remove dead cells from the surface of the skin.

8 Running shoe brand : AVIA

The Avia brand name for athletic shoes was chosen as “avia” is the Latin word for “to fly”, and suggests the concept of aviation. Avia was founded in Oregon in 1979.

11 Like the 314th digit of pi : ODD

The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is often referred to as Archimedes’ constant, which we denote with the Greek letter pi (π). The ratio pi can be used to calculate the area of a disk, by multiplying the constant by the square of the radius (πr²).

31 Hybrid team sport that uses kayaks : CANOE POLO

There is a type of boat used by Inuit people called a “kayak”. The term “kayak” means “man’s boat”, whereas “umiak” means “woman’s boat”.

34 Junk, say : BOAT

A junk is a sailing boat often seen in Chinese waters today, and as far back as 200 BC. The English word “junk” is just a phonetic spelling of a Chinese word for “ship”, although it would more correctly be pronounced “joong”.

37 Bundle in an office : REAM

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

39 Like Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” : ROMANTIC

“She Walks in Beauty” is one of the most famous poems written by Lord Byron, and one that is very descriptive of an elegant and beautiful woman. He wrote it the day after seeing his cousin, who was in mourning, walking by in a black dress set with spangles. The opening lines are:

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies

42 Short day soon after the winter solstice? : XMAS

The abbreviation “Xmas” that is used for “Christmas” comes from the Greek letter chi (X), which is the first letter of the Greek word for “Christ” (“Χριστός”).

Several factors contributed to the selection of December 25th as the day of the birth of Jesus. One factor is that it was the date of the winter solstice in the Roman calendar, and tradition had it that Jesus chose to be born on the shortest day of the year. It was also nine months after the vernal equinox (March 25th) in the same calendar, which was a date linked to the conception of Jesus.

49 Rental at a beach club : CABANA

Our word “cabana” comes from the Spanish “cabaña”, the word for a small hut or a cabin. We often use the term to describe a tent-like structure beside a pool or at a beach used for bathing.

52 Spanish uncle? : NO MAS

“No mas!” translates from Spanish as “no more!”.

To say uncle is to submit or yield. This peculiarly American use of “uncle” dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”

56 Zaydism and Isma’ilism are sects of this : SHIA

The Islamic sects of Sunni and Shia Muslims differ in the belief of who should have taken over leadership of the Muslim faithful after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Followers of the Sunni tradition agree with the decision that the Prophet Muhammad’s confidante Abu Bakr was the right choice to become the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. Followers of the Shia tradition believe that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet Muhammad’s own family, and favored the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali.

60 Carbon compound suffix : -ENE

An alkene is an organic compound made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms. It differs from an alkane in that it has at least one C=C double bond. The simplest alkene is the gas ethylene, a major raw material used in the manufacture of plastics (like polyethylene).

62 Cheer from a fútbol fan : GOL!

In Spanish, a “fútbol” (football, soccer) announcer might shout “gol!” (goal!).

63 ___ sauce : SOY

Soy sauce is made by fermenting soybeans with a mold in the presence of water and salt. Charming …