Tag: Beauty pageant founded in 1959 as a mail-in photo contest crossword clue

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 The “Toreador Song,” for one : ARIA

“Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre” is more commonly called “The Toreador Song”, and is one of the most famous arias in Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen”. “Toreador” is an old Spanish word for a bullfighter, but it’s a term not used any more in Spain nor in Latin America. In English we use the term “toreador”, but in Spanish a bullfighter is a “torero”.

17 Software prototype : BETA

In the world of software development, the first tested issue of a new program is usually called the alpha version. Expected to have a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, the alpha release is usually distributed to a small number of testers. After reported bugs have been eliminated, the refined version is called a beta and is released to a wider audience, but with the program clearly labeled as “beta”. The users generally check functionality and report further bugs that are encountered. The beta version feeds into a release candidate, the version that is tested just prior to the software being sold into the market, hopefully bug-free.

18 Vessels with large containers : CARGO SHIPS

Cargo is freight carried by some vehicle. The term “cargo” comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.

20 Does pranks with rolls, informally : TPS

TP’ing (toilet papering) is a prank involving the covering of some object or location with rolls and rolls of toilet paper. If you live in Texas or Minnesota, that little “prank” is legal, but if you live here in California it is classed as mischief or vandalism.

22 Connecticut Ivy Leaguer : YALIE

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded in 1701, making it the third-oldest university in the US. Originally called the Collegiate School, it was renamed to Yale University in honor of retired merchant Elihu Yale, who made generous contributions to the institution. Yale University’s nickname is “Old Eli”, in a nod to the benefactor.

23 Nail polish brand : OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film.

28 Actor/comedian Lil ___ Howery : REL

Lil Rel Howery is a comedian and actor from Chicago. He made his first appearance on the TV in 2007 when he competed in the reality competition “Last Comic Standing”. Howery later played Bobby Carmichael, the brother of the title character, in “The Carmichael Show” sitcom from 2015 to 2017. In 2018, Howery starred in his own sitcom “Rel”, which only lasted for one season.

29 Talking item in Dora the Explorer’s backpack : MAP

“Dora the Explorer” is a cartoon series shown on Nickelodeon. Part of Dora’s remit is to introduce the show’s young viewers to some Spanish words and phrases. Dora’s constant companion is an anthropomorphic monkey named “Boots”, because he always wears red boots. She also hangs out with Isa, an iguana.

32 Oceanfront district of Los Angeles : SAN PEDRO

San Pedro is part of Los Angeles, and once was a city in its own right. Pronounced “San Pee-dro” by locals, San Pedro is home to a major portion of the Port of Los Angeles.

35 Manhattan neighborhood next to SoHo : NOLITA

NoLIta is a neighborhood in Manhattan in New York City. The name “NoLIta” is derived from “North of Little Italy”. One of NoLIta’s most famous sons is the director Martin Scorsese.

40 Skateboarding jump : OLLIE

An ollie is a skateboarding trick invented in 1976 by Alan “Ollie” Gelfand. Apparently it’s a way of lifting the board off the ground, while standing on it, without touching the board with one’s hands. Yeah, I could do that …

41 Neckwear that smells nice : LEI

“Lei” is a Hawaiian word meaning “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a lei is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

42 Photographer Adams : ANSEL

As an avid amateur photographer, I have been a big fan of the work of Ansel Adams for many years and must have read all of his books. Adams was famous for clarity and depth in his black and white images. Central to his technique was the use of the zone system, his own invention. The zone system is a way of controlling exposure in an image, particularly when there is a high contrast in the subject. Although the technique was developed primarily for black & white film, it can even apply to digital color images. In the digital world, the main technique is to expose an image for the highlights, and one or more images for the shadows. These images can then be combined digitally giving a final photograph with a full and satisfying range of exposures.

46 Props for presentations : EASELS

The word “easel” comes from an old Dutch word meaning “donkey”, would you believe? The idea is that an easel carries its load (an oil painting, say) just as a donkey would be made to carry a load.

49 Most reptilian, in a way : SCALIEST

Reptiles are tetrapod (four-legged) vertebrates. That said, snakes are reptiles, and they have no legs at all. But, snakes are still categorized as reptiles because they descended from tetrapod ancestors.

50 “Spring forward” or “fall back” letters : DST

On the other side of the Atlantic, daylight saving time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring (“spring forward”), and backwards in the fall (“fall back”) so that afternoons have more daylight. Here in the US, DST starts on the second Sunday of March, and ends on the first Sunday of November.

51 Electrical unit with a Greek letter symbol : OHM

The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

53 London ___ (landmark observation wheel) : EYE

The London Eye is a very large Ferris wheel that sits right beside the River Thames in London. It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and was the tallest in the world when it was constructed in 1999. The London Eye is the most-visited paid tourist attraction in the whole country.

54 Beings not (yet) proven to exist : ETS

Extraterrestrial (ET)

57 Trinity member : SON

In the Christian tradition, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost are three persons in one divine being, the Holy Trinity.

64 “Only Murders in the Building” airer : HULU

“Only Murders in the Building” is a comedy-mystery TV show starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez as a trio of true-crime podcasters who band together to solve a murder in their apartment building. Steve Martin co-created the series. I’ve got to see it one day …

67 Nobel laureate Wiesel : ELIE

Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor who is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was also the first recipient of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, which was later renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in his honor.

68 Longtime Jay Silverheels role : TONTO

Tonto was played by the actor Jay Silverheels In the television version of “The Lone Ranger”. In the terrible 1981 movie “The Legend of the Lone Ranger”, Tonto was portrayed by Michael Horse. Tonto was then played by Johnny Depp In the 2013 movie “The Lone Ranger”. Famously, the Lone Ranger’s horse was called Silver and Tonto’s mount was named Scout. But, in the early TV shows, Tonto rode a horse called White Feller.

69 Ankh-carrying goddess : ISIS

Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children. She was the personification of the pharaoh’s power. The name “Isis” translates as “throne”, and she is usually depicted with a headdress shaped like a throne.

The ankh was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character for “eternal life”. The ankh wasn’t just used in inscriptions but was often fashioned into amulets and as surrounds for mirrors (perhaps symbolizing a view into another world). The ankh is also known as “the key of the Nile” and “crux ansata” (Latin for “cross with a handle”).

Down

5 ___ fly (baseball occurrence, informally) : SAC

sac(rifice

6 Org. promoting canine care : ADA

American Dental Association (ADA)

7 Spleen : FURY

“To vent one’s spleen” means to vent one’s anger, perhaps by shouting and screaming. This expression is rooted in the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that a person’s temperament was dictated by the balance of the body’s four “humors”. The spleen produced the humor known as yellow bile, which was associated with an aggressive and energetic personality.

8 “Enigma Variations” composer : ELGAR

Edward Elgar’s famous “Enigma Variations” are more correctly titled “Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra (“Enigma”)”. There are fourteen variations in the piece, with each named for one of Elgar’s close friends, a family member, and there is even one named for Elgar himself. Each variation is an affectionate portrayal of the person for which it is named. The “enigma” in the piece is quite a mystery. It is not even clear that the variations are based on a musical theme. Elgar’s notes tell us that the theme is “not played”, but he would never explain during his lifetime just what “the enigma” is.

11 Pépin le Bref, par exemple : ROI

Pepin the Short (“Pépin le Bref”, in French) was a Frankish king who ruled from 751 until his death in 768. Pepin ruled Francia (aka “the Kingdom of the Franks”) jointly with his brother Carloman. Pepin’s rule was overshadowed by that of his son Charlemagne, who was destined to become the first Holy Roman Emperor.

19 Skyline feature in farm country : SILO

“Silo” is a Spanish word that we absorbed into English. The term ultimately derives from the Greek “siros”, which described a pit in which one kept corn.

21 Greta Garbo, by birth : SWEDE

Famously, Greta Garbo lived a life of seclusion in New York City after she retired from the entertainment business. Commentators often associated her need for privacy with a line she uttered in the great 1932 movie “Grand Hotel”. Her character Grusinskaya the Russian ballerina said, “I want to be alone (…) I just want to be alone”.

23 Absorbed gradually : OSMOSED

Osmosis is the movement of a solvent (often water) across a semipermeable membrane. In the process of osmosis, the solvent tends to flow from an area of less concentration to an area of higher concentration. This sense of absorbing water effortlessly gives rise to the expression “learning by osmosis”.

24 Saffron-flavored dishes : PAELLAS

Paella is sometimes referred to as the Spanish national dish, but not by Spaniards. In Spain, paella is regarded as a typical regional dish from Valencia. The name “paella” means “frying pan” in Valencian, and is a reference to the shallow vessel traditionally used to cook the dish over an open fire.

26 Horatian creation : ODE

A Horatian ode is an ode with a specific structure, one designed to resemble the odes of the Roman poet Horace.

27 Big name in brushes : ORAL-B

The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

29 Beauty pageant founded in 1959 as a mail-in photo contest : MISS TEEN USA

Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant for girls between the ages of 14 and 19. The competition was first held in 1983 and is run by the Miss Universe Organization, which was owned by future president Donald Trump for nearly two decades up until 2015.

30 One who doesn’t have a prayer? : ATHEIST

The term “atheism”, meaning “disbelief in the existence of a god or gods”, comes from the Greek “atheos” meaning “without god”.

33 Negro leagues great Satchel : PAIGE

Satchel Paige pitched baseball in the Negro League and then the majors, before retiring in 1966. When he moved to the Major League, Paige was 42 as he pitched his first game, making him the oldest ever “rookie” to play Major League Baseball. And when he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, Paige was the first person to be so honored from the Negro League.

34 Some spreads for toast, informally : OLEOS

Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

36 Hawaiian island shaped like an apostrophe : LANAI

Lanai is the sixth largest of the Hawaiian Islands. Lanai was first spotted by Europeans just a few days after Captain Cook was killed on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1779. In 1922, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company bought the whole island of Lanai and turned most of it into the world’s largest pineapple plantation. Since then, Lanai has been known as “The Pineapple Island”. Today, 98% of the island is owned by Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, and 2% is owned by the State of Hawaii.

42 French setting for many van Gogh works : ARLES

Quite a few years ago now, I had the privilege of living just a short car-ride from the beautiful city of Arles in the South of France. Although Arles has a long and colorful history, the Romans had a prevailing influence over the city’s design. Arles has a spectacular Roman amphitheater, arch, circus as well as old walls that surround the center of the city. In more modern times, it was a place Vincent van Gogh often visited, and was where he painted many of his most famous works, including “Cafe Terrace at Night” and “Bedroom in Arles”.

48 Up-start? : SHORT U

The starting letter of the word “up” is a short letter U.

58 Home of Denison University : OHIO

Denison University is a private school in Granville, which is just east of Columbus, Ohio. It was founded in 1831 as a Baptist college called the Granville Literary and Theological Institution. The name was changed in recognition of a $10,000 donation by a wealthy farmer named William S. Denison.

59 Tierra ___ Fuego : DEL

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southern tip of South America and is the location of the famed Cape Horn. Tierra del Fuego was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. He saw native fires on land as he passed by and originally called the location “Land of Smoke” This was later changed to “Land of Fire”, or “Tierra del Fuego” in Spanish.

60 Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year in 1974 (10 years after he first became world champion) : ALI

Boxer Muhammad Ali is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the greatest sports figures of the 1900s. In 1999, Ali was named “Sportsman of the Century” by “Sports Illustrated” and “Sports Personality of the Century” by the BBC.

62 Bell Atlantic merger partner of 2000 : GTE

The telecommunications company that we know today as Verizon was founded in 1983 as Bell Atlantic, and was one of the “Baby Bells” that were formed after the breakup of AT&T. Bell Atlantic merged with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX in 1997, and then merged with GTE in 2000 to form Verizon. The new company name is a portmanteau of “veritas” (“truth” in Latin) and “horizon”.

63 Repeated word in the U.S. postal creed : NOR

There is no official creed or motto for the US Postal Service (USPS). However, there is the oft-quoted inscription that is posted (pun!) over the entrance to the James Farley Post Office in New York City:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.