Tag: Betraying surprise in a way crossword clue

Bill’s time: 5m 43s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Tribe of Arizona : HOPI

The Hopi people are a Native American tribe primarily residing on three mesas in northeastern Arizona. They are renowned for their cultural traditions, which predate European contact by centuries, including intricate kachina dolls, ceremonial dances, and a history of peaceful agriculture in an arid environment.

15A Actor McGregor of “Trainspotting” : EWAN

Ewan McGregor is a very talented Scottish actor, one who got his break in the 1996 film “Trainspotting”. McGregor’s first big Hollywood role was playing the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the “Star Wars” prequels. Less known is his televised marathon motorcycle journey from London to New York via central Europe, Ukraine, Siberia, Mongolia and Canada. The 2004 trip was shown as “Long Way Round” on TV. McGregor did a similar trip in 2007 called “Long Way Down”, which took him and the same traveling companion from the north of Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa.

“Trainspotting” is a pretty dark comedy-drama film released in 1996 that is based on a novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. Directed by Danny Boyle, it’s all about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh, Scotland. “Trainspotting” really launched the careers of lead actors Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald and Ewen Bremner. A sequel titled “T2 Trainspotting” was released in 2017.

24A Pumice or basalt : VOLCANIC ROCK

Pumice is volcanic rock that is formed by lava cooling. There are bubbles in pumice due to water and carbon dioxide frothing out of the lava as it cools. Because of the frothy structure, pumice is relatively light and is a great thermal insulator. As such, it is used in construction to make insulating breeze blocks.

Basalt is a volcanic rock that is created when lava cools rapidly at the earth’s surface. The vast majority of volcanic rock on the planet is basalt.

32A Film director Coen : ETHAN

I think it’s great to see two brothers working together and being so successful. Joel and Ethan Coen are two movie producers and directors who both live in New York City. The Coen brothers do love the movie-making business and they even married industry “insiders”. Ethan’s wife is film editor Tricia Cooke, and Joel is married to one of my favorite actresses, the talented Frances McDormand.

33A “Our Lips ___ Sealed” (hit by the Go-Go’s) : ARE

“Our Lips Are Sealed” was released by the Go-Go’s in 1981. The song was co-written by the Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin and Terry Hall of the Specials, and was about a secret affair the two had. Hall then recorded a different version of the song in 1983, after leaving the Specials, with his own band Fun Boy Three.

34A Youngest woman ever elected to Congress, familiarly : AOC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a politician who is often referred to by her initials “AOC”. A Democrat, she was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, representing part of the Bronx and Queens in New York City. When she took office in 2019 at the age of 29, AOC became the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress.

39A Spinoff of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” : VANDERPUMP RULES

Lisa Vanderpump is a TV personality from England who really hit the big times in the US when she was cast on the show “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”. She then led the cast of a spinoff show “Vanderpump Rules”, followed by “Overserved with Lisa Vanderpump” and “Vanderpump Dogs”.

44A Big name in microprocessors : INTEL

Intel used to be the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips, but has faced challenges in recent years, apparently “missing” the AI boom. The company was founded in 1968, and the name “Intel” is derived from the term “int(egrated) el(ectronics)”. Recognition of the Intel brand has been greatly helped by the success of the “Intel Inside” campaign that started back in 1991.

58A Florida’s ___-Dade County : MIAMI

The residents of Florida’s Dade County voted to change its name to Miami-Dade County in 1997. The change was made in recognition of its most populous and famous city.

62A Jousting weapon : LANCE

“Jousting” and “tilting” are synonyms describing the medieval competition in which two horsemen yielding blunted lances attempt to unseat each other. Such an event has been referred to as “jousting” since the 1300s. At some point, the path of the two charging horsemen was separated by a cloth barrier known as a tilt (“tilt” meant “cloth covering”). The term “tilting” was applied to the sport in the 1500s, although by then the cloth barrier had been upgraded to a wooden fence.

65A Device worn by a video gamer … or a hint to 17-, 24-, 39- and 53-Across : VR HEADSET

Virtual reality (VR)

71A Sends frisky messages : SEXTS

Sexting (a portmanteau of “sex” and “texting”) is the sending of explicit dialog and images between cell phones. The term “sexting” was coined by the UK’s “Sunday Telegraph Magazine” in a 2005 article.

72A Strong soapmaking solutions : LYES

Soap is basically made by adding a strong alkali (like lye) to a fat (like olive oil or palm oil). The fats break down in the basic solution in a process called saponification. The crude soap is extracted from the mixture, washed, purified and finished in molds.

73A Like bourbon : OAKY

Bourbon is a whiskey made here in North America, with the primary ingredient being corn. Production of the whiskey has for centuries been associated with Bourbon County in Kentucky, which gave its name to the drink.

Down

1D Four-wheelers, in brief : ATVS

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

2D Word before beer or after square : ROOT

Root beer is a beverage that is very North American, and is rarely found elsewhere in the world. It originated in the 1700s and was made from the root of the sassafras plant. The traditional root beer was a beverage with a very low alcohol content, and today there are many versions that contain no alcohol at all. The sassafras root was used as the primary flavor ingredient right up until 1960, when the FDA banned its use as tests determined that it was a carcinogen.

3D Pixar film with the Oscar-winning song “Remember Me” : COCO

“Remember Me” is a song from the animated film “Coco” that appears throughout the movie, in various contexts and sung by various characters.

4D “Feed a cold, ___ a fever” (dubious medical advice) : STARVE

The adage “feed a cold, starve a fever” dates back to ancient times. Back then, it was thought that fever was the disease, rather than a symptom. So, starving the patient would starve the disease.

7D Many an Olive Garden entree : PASTA

Olive Garden is a chain of Italian-American restaurants that has over 800 locations worldwide. The chain was originally established as part of General Mills.

9D 18-wheeler : RIG

An 18-wheeler semi-trailer truck has eight wheels under the trailer, i.e. four on each of the two rear axles. There are 10 wheels under the tractor unit. Two of the ten wheels are on the front axle, and eight are on the rear two axles that sit under the front of the trailer.

11D Snack with celery, peanut butter and raisins : ANTS ON A LOG

Ants on a log is a snack food prepared by spreading something like peanut butter or cream cheese on celery and placing raisins on top. If you leave out the raisins, the snack becomes “ants on vacation”.

12D “Peanuts” or “Pickles” : COMIC

Charles M. Schulz was a cartoonist best known for his comic strip “Peanuts” that featured the much-loved characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy. “Peanuts” was so successful, running daily in over 70 countries and 21 languages, that it earned Schulz an estimated 30-40 million dollars annually.

“Pickles” is a comic strip by Brian Crane that made its debut in 1990. It’s all about retired couple Earl and Opal Pickles who are trying to enjoy their golden years, but are facing a few challenges.

13D Do some booty-shaking : TWERK

Twerking is a dancing move in which someone (usually a woman) shakes their hips up and down causing a lot of “wobbling”. It’s possible that “twerk” is a portmanteau of “twist” and “jerk”. The term may have been coined back in the early 2000s with the song “Whistle While You Twurk” released by the Ying Yang Twins. Twerking became a real phenomenon in 2013 when Miley Cyrus posted a video of herself twerking in a unicorn suit to the 2011 song “Wop” by J. Dash. That video went viral on YouTube, amassing over 4 million views in no time at all.

18D Spinks who defeated Muhammad Ali : LEON

Leon Spinks was a professional boxer and former heavyweight champion. Spinks won the title in 1978 in an upset, defeating Muhammad Ali in a split decision. That championship win was only his eighth professional fight.

22D One-eighth of a byte : BIT

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

25D Titular Shakespearean king : LEAR

Shakespeare was inspired to write his famous drama “King Lear” by the legend of “Leir of Britain”, the story of a mythological Celtic king.

28D Prego alternative : RAGU

The Ragú brand of pasta sauce was introduced in 1937. The name ”Ragù” is the Italian word for a sauce used to dress pasta, however the spelling is a little off in the name of the sauce. In Italian, the word is “Ragù” with a grave accent over the “u”, but if you look at a jar of the sauce on the supermarket shelf it is spelled “Ragú” on the label, with an acute accent. Sometimes I think we just don’t try …

The Prego brand of pasta sauce is owned by the Campbell Soup Company. It is actually based on the family recipe of one of the company’s chefs. “Prego” literally means “I pray” in Italian, but it translates best in English as “you’re welcome” when it is used after a “thank you” (“grazie”, in Italian).

29D Sitar virtuoso Shankar : RAVI

Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Shankar was the father of the pop singer Norah Jones.

30D Tehran’s land : IRAN

Tehran is the capital of Iran and is the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of about 8.5 million. Iran has been around a really long time and Tehran is actually the country’s 31st national capital.

31D Grammy-winning a cappella group famous for their Christmas albums : PENTATONIX

Pentatonix (sometimes “PTX”) is an a cappella group that was founded by school chums in Arlington, Texas. The group’s break came with a win in 2011 on the NBC reality show “The Sing-Off”.

35D Chicago slugger : CUB

The Chicago Cubs baseball team was supposedly subject to the “Curse of the Billy Goat” from 1945 until 2016. Billy Sianis, the owner of a Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, took his pet goat with him to a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field. Fans sitting nearby didn’t like the smell of the goat, and so the owner was asked to leave. As he left, Sianis yelled out, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” And that is how a curse is born …

37D “Late Night” host Meyers : SETH

Seth Meyers is an actor and comedian who is perhaps best-known today for hosting his own late night talk show on NBC. Meyers might be described as a poker shark. He won the third season of Celebrity Poker Showdown in 2004.

40D Place to purchase pastrami : DELI

In the US, pastrami was originally called “pastrama”, and was a dish brought to America by Jewish immigrants from Romania in the second half of the nineteenth century. The original name may have evolved from the Turkish word “pastirma” meaning “pressed”. “Pastrama” likely morphed into “pastrami” influenced by the name of the Italian sausage called salami.

41D North Carolina university : ELON

Elon is a town 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.

42D Catchall category: Abbr. : MISC

Our terms “miscellany” and “miscellaneous” ultimately come from the Latin verb “miscere” meaning “to mix”.

43D Sport on a horse : POLO

The sport of polo originated in Iran, possibly before the 5th century BC. Polo was used back then primarily as a training exercise for cavalry units.

48D Sheepskin boot brand : UGG

Uggs are sheepskin boots that were first produced in Australia and New Zealand. The original Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. “Ugg” is a generic term Down Under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.

49D Role for Mike Myers in the Austin Powers movies : DR EVIL

Dr. Evil is a character played by Mike Myers in the “Austin Powers” series of movies. The character lampoons various James Bond villains, just as Austin Powers lampoons James Bond himself.

51D Columnist Bombeck : ERMA

Erma Bombeck wrote for newspapers for about 35 years. She produced more than 4,000 witty and humorous columns under the title “At Wit’s End”, with all describing her home life in suburbia.

53D Battery measure : VOLTS

The volt is a unit of electric potential, or voltage. I always think of electrical voltage as something like water pressure. The higher the pressure of water (voltage), the faster the water flows (the higher the electric current that flows).

54D Chicago airport : O’HARE

Lieutenant Commander Edward “Butch” O’Hare was the US Navy’s first flying ace and a Medal of Honor recipient in WWII. He received that medal for intercepting single-handedly nine heavy bombers that were approaching his aircraft carrier. He had limited ammunition at the time, but used what was left to shoot down five bombers and damage a sixth. The following year, in 1943, his aircraft was shot down while he led the first ever nighttime fighter attack from a carrier. His body was never found. The USS O’Hare destroyer was named in his honor, as was Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

55D “The Jetsons” boy : ELROY

“The Jetsons” is an animated show from Hanna-Barbera that had its first run in 1962-1963, and then was recreated in 1985-1987. When it debuted in 1962 on ABC, “The Jetsons” was the network’s first ever color broadcast. “The Jetsons” is like a space-age version of “The Flintstones”. The four Jetson family members are George and Jane, the parents, and children Judy and Elroy. Residing with the family in Orbit City are their household robot Rosie and pet dog Astro.

63D Garfield in the funny pages, e.g. : CAT

“Garfield” is a comic strip drawn by Jim Davis from 1978. The title character is an orange tabby cat. Davis named his cartoon hero Garfield after his own grandfather.

64D Magazine bigwigs, in brief : EDS

A bigwig is someone important. The use of the term “bigwig” harks back to the days when men of authority and rank wore … big wigs.