Tag: Blissfully serene crossword clue

Bill’s time: 5m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Grp. from which many people are drafted : NCAA

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910. The NCAA has been headquartered in Indianapolis since 1999.

5. Twosome on TMZ : ITEM

An unmarried couple known to be involved with each other might appear in the gossip columns. This appearance as “an item” in the papers, led to the use of “item” to refer to such a couple, but only since the very early seventies.

TMZ.com is a celebrity gossip website launched in 2005. “TMZ” stands for “thirty-mile zone”, a reference to the “studio zone” in Los Angeles. The studio zone is circular in shape with a 30-mile radius centered on the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard.

9. Longtime members of the bar? : SOTS

Our word “sot” comes from the Old English “sott”, meaning “fool”. The word “sot” started to be associated with alcohol and not just foolery in the late 1500s.

14. ___ Scotia : NOVA

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia (NS) lies on the east coast of the country and is a peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The area was settled by Scots starting in 1621, and Nova Scotia is Latin for “New Scotland”.

15. Old print tint : SEPIA

Sepia is that rich, brown-grey color so common in old photographs. “Sepia” is the Latinized version of the Greek word for cuttlefish, as sepia pigment is derived from the ink sac of the cuttlefish. Sepia ink was commonly used for writing and drawing as far back as Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. The “sepia tone” of old photographs is not the result of deterioration over time. Rather, it is the result of a deliberate preservation process which converts the metallic silver in the photographic image to a more stable silver sulfide. Prints that have been sepia-toned can last in excess of 150 years.

18. Rome’s ___ Fountain : TREVI

The Trevi Fountain (“Fontana di Trevi”) is a huge fountain in Rome, one that is the largest constructed in the Baroque style. The tradition is that if one throws a coin in the fountain then one is guaranteed a return visit to the city. Tourists throw in an amazing 3,000 euros (over $4,000) every day. The money is collected and is used to stock a supermarket for the needy of the city.

20. “Aquí se habla ___” : ESPANOL

“Habla español?” is Spanish for “Do you speak Spanish?” “Aquí se habla español” translates as “Spanish is spoken here”.

25. “Dragnet” force, briefly : LAPD

The TV detective show “Dragnet” opened up each episode with lines spoken by the character Sergeant Joe Friday:

This is the city, Los Angeles, California, I work here. I’m a cop.

In later series, the phrase “I’m a cop” was replaced with “I carry a badge”.

32. Actress Kemper of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” : ELLIE

The actress Ellie Kemper’s big break came with the role of Erin Hannon, a receptionist on the sitcom “The Office”. More recently, Kemper has been playing the title role on the Netflix comedy series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”.

33. Alpine goat : IBEX

“Ibex” is a common name for various species of mountain goat. “Ibex” is a Latin name that was used for wild goats found in the Alps and Apennines in Europe.

34. “Guernica” artist : PICASSO

“Guernica” is a painting by Pablo Picasso that he completed in 1937. Picasso painted it soon after the aerial bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The attack was carried out by German warplanes sent by Adolf Hitler at the request of the Spanish Nationalist government. The town was regarded as a bastion of Republican resistance, although it had no military significance. As the town was largely left without men who were fighting for the Republican cause, the vast majority of casualties were women and children.

36. It goes from 0 to 14, in chemistry : PH SCALE

As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

39. Lab assistant in many a horror film : IGOR

The lab assistant named Igor has turned up in many movies in recent decades, and usually appears as the aide to Dr. Frankenstein. Paradoxically, in Mary Shelley’s original novel, Frankenstein had no assistant at all. Further, the lab assistant introduced in 1931 in the first of the “Frankenstein” series of movies was named Fritz. Bela Lugosi played a character named Ygor in “Frankenstein” sequels in 1939 and 1946, but he was a blacksmith and didn’t work in the lab.

40. Birth-related : NATAL

Our word “natal” comes from the Latin “natalis” meaning “pertaining to birth”.

47. Actors McShane and McKellen : IANS

Ian McShane is an English actor, who is famous in his homeland (and to PBS viewers in the US) for playing the title role in “Lovejoy”. In this country he is perhaps better known for playing the conniving saloon owner on the HBO western drama “Deadwood”.

Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, someone who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an “X-Men” movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in “The Lord of Rings”. In the UK, Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.

56. Concert pianist Rubinstein : ARTUR

The great Arthur (sometimes “Artur”) Rubinstein was a classical pianist from Poland who became a naturalized American citizen in 1946. Rubenstein was particularly respected as a performer of Chopin’s repertoire.

57. Hit 1980s-’90s sitcom … or what the circled letters in 16-, 26- and 43-Across represent? : FULL HOUSE

“Full House” is a sitcom that originally aired from the late eighties through the mid-nineties. It’s all about two men helping a third man raise his three young daughters after his wife is killed by a drunk driver. Bob Saget plays the widowed father, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen play the youngest daughter. A sequel titled “Fuller House” started airing on Netflix in 2016.

60. Military action that includes a blockade : SIEGE

Our word “siege” comes from a 13th century word for a “seat”. The military usage derives from the concept of a besieging force “sitting down” outside a fortress until it falls.

“Embargo” and “blockade” are two similar yet different terms. An embargo is a legal prohibition of trade with a particular country, whilst a blockade is an act of war, a militarily enforced prevention of the movement of goods and services. The term “embargo” came into English from Spanish, in the late 16th century.

61. Arizona’s Agua ___ National Monument : FRIA

The Agua Fria River runs from a spot near the city of Prescott, Arizona south through the Agua Fria National Monument and into Lake Pleasant located near Peoria, Arizona. “Agua Fria” translates from Spanish as “Cold Water”.

Down

1. Some holiday concoctions : NOGS

It’s not really clear where the term “nog” (as in “eggnog”) comes from although it might derive from the word “noggin”, which was originally a small wooden cup that was long associated with alcoholic drinks.

6. “Piggy” : TOE

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home.

9. Blissfully serene : SERAPHIC

A seraph is a celestial being found in Hebrew and Christian writings. The word “seraph” (plural “seraphim”) literally translates as “burning one”. Seraphs are the highest-ranking angels in the Christian tradition, and the fifth-ranking of ten in the Jewish tradition.

11. Big name in DVRs : TIVO

TiVo was introduced in 1999 and was the world’s first commercially successful Digital Video Recorder (DVR).

15. March honoree, for short : ST PAT

There is a fair amount known about Saint Patrick, some of which comes from two letters written in his own hand. St. Patrick lived in the fifth century, but was not born in Ireland. He was first brought to Ireland at about 16 years of age from his native Britain, by Irish raiders who made him a slave for six years. Patrick managed to escape and returned to his homeland where he studied and entered the Church. He went back to Ireland as a bishop and a missionary and there lived out the rest of his life. There seems to be good evidence that he died on March 17th (now celebrated annually as Saint Patrick’s Day), although the year is less clear. The stories about shamrock and snakes, I am afraid they are the stuff of legend.

23. Tea choice : OOLONG

The name for the Chinese tea called “oolong” translates into English as “black dragon”.

24. “Voulez-vous coucher avec ___?” : MOI

I’ve always thought that the phrase “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?” was grammatically “odd”. The expression is sexually suggestive, meaning “Would you like to sleep with me tonight?” The problem is that the use of the formal (or plural!) “vous” instead of the familiar “tu” indicates a lack of intimacy that should be present in such a forward invitation. Apparently, the phrasing is perhaps correct if the speaker was a high-class escort using formal grammar with a client.

27. Censured : EXCORIATED

“To excoriate” is to abrade or chafe. It also means to strongly denounce something or someone.

37. Nonkosher deli offering : HAM SALAD

According to Jewish dietary law, kosher food is fit to eat, and food that is not fit to eat is referred to as treif (or “tref”). The usage of “kosher” has extended to include anything considered legitimate.

38. Nancy Drew, for one : SLEUTH

The word “sleuth” came into English from Old Norse as far back as 1200 when it meant the “track or trail of a person”. In the mid-1800s, a sleuthhound described a keen investigator, a hound close on the trail of the suspect. Sleuthhound was shortened to “sleuth” and was used for a detective in general.

I loved the “Nancy Drew” mysteries as a kid (I know, as a boy I “shouldn’t” have been reading girls’ books!). The “Nancy Drew stories” were written by a number of ghost writers, although the character was introduced by Edward Stratemeyer in 1930. Nancy Drew’s boyfriend was Ned Nickerson, a college student from Emerson.

41. What a tree’s rings signify : AGE

Growth rings can be seen in a horizontal cross section of a tree trunk. These rings are caused by a change in the rate of a growth of a tree that comes with the seasons, so the rings are more easily discerned in trees that grow in regions with marked seasonal changes.

44. ___ nous : ENTRE

In French, something might perhaps be discussed “entre deux” (between two) or “entre nous” (between us).

45. Night school subj. : ESL

English as a Second Language (ESL) is sometimes referred to as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

50. Huey, Dewey and Louie, e.g. : TRIO

Donald Duck’s nephews are identical triplets called Huey, Dewey and Louie, and they first appeared on the screen in 1938. Once in awhile due to errors in production, a fourth duck can be seen in the background. This little “mistake” is affectionately called “Phooey Duck” by folks in the industry.

51. Lots of fluff? : EFFS

There are lots of letters F in the word “fluff”.

55. Eliot of the Untouchables : NESS

Eliot Ness was the Treasury agent charged with the task of bringing down the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. When Ness took on the job in 1930, Chicago law-enforcement agents were renowned for being corrupt, for being on the take. Ness handpicked 50 prohibition agents who he thought he could rely on, later reducing the group to a cadre of 15 and ultimately just 11 trusted men. That group of 11 earned the nickname “The Untouchables”, the agents who couldn’t be bought.

58. “www” address : URL

Internet addresses (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) are more correctly called Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).