Tag: Bold way to go when bluffing crossword clue

Bill’s time: 7m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Blade brand : ATRA

Fortunately for crossword constructors, the Atra was introduced by Gillette in 1977, as the first razor with a pivoting head. The Atra was sold as the Contour in some markets and its derivative products are still around today.

14A One of approximately three million in Finland (for a population of less than six million) : SAUNA

As my Finnish-American wife will tell you, “sauna” is a Finnish word. It is pronounced more correctly as “sow-nah” (“sow”, as in the female pig).

19A Valhalla V.I.P. : ODIN

In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. He is usually depicted as having one eye, reflecting the story of how he gave one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom.

In Norse mythology, Valhalla (“hall of the slain”) is a gigantic hall in the world of Asgard. Asgard and Valhalla are ruled by the god Odin, the chief Norse god.

20A Ben Jonson wrote one to himself : ODE

Ben Jonson was a contemporary of William Shakespeare, and just like Shakespeare, he was a dramatist, poet and actor. Jonson’s work was very well received from 1605 to 1620, but his reputation began to wane in the 1620s. He wrote a play called “The New Inn” which was received so badly, the actors were hissed off the stage. Immediately afterwards, Jonson wrote about the failure in his poem “Ode to Himself”.

21A Name repeated in a hit 1963 rock song : LOUIE

“Louie Louie” is an R&B song that was most famously a hit for the Kingsmen in 1963. The Kingsmen were accused of deliberately slurring words in the song that were describing the sexual act. There was even a 31-month investigation by the FBI, after which it was concluded that the accusation was unfounded.

22A Emulate Cicero : ORATE

Cicero was a very influential senator in ancient Rome, in part due to his renowned ability to deliver a persuasive speech. His full name was Marcus Tullius Cicero.

25A Apple variety named for the state it was developed in : EMPIRE

The Empire apple cultivar was developed at Cornell University in Geneva, New York and introduced to the public in 1966. The name “empire” was chosen in recognition of the cultivar’s birthplace: the Empire State.

28A Daffy Duck characteristic : LISP

Daffy Duck first appeared on the screen in “Porky’s Duck Hunt” in 1937. In the original cartoon, Daffy was just meant to have a small role, but he was a big hit as he had so much sass. Even back then, Daffy was voiced by the ubiquitous Mel Blanc.

36A Rapper born Tracy Lauren Marrow : ICE-T

Rapper Ice-T must be tired of having his name come up as an answer in crossword puzzles (I know I am!). Born Tracy Marrow, Ice-T has been interested in acting for decades and made his film debut in the 1984 movie about breakdancing called “Breakin’”. He has also played Detective Fin Tutuola in the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” starting the year 2000.

37A Good source of vitamin C : FRUIT

The essential nutrient referred to as vitamin C is also known as L-ascorbic acid or ascorbate. A lack of vitamin C causes the disease scurvy.

39A Ballpark fig. : EST

A ballpark figure is an estimated quantity. The original “ballpark figure” was an estimate of the number of people attending a baseball game, the size of the crowd in the “ballpark”.

40A Liam Neeson action trilogy : TAKEN

“Taken” is a fabulous thriller movie released in 2008. It stars Liam Neeson as kind of an older James Bond-ish character, and he is great in the role. “Taken 2” followed in 2012 and it wasn’t a bad sequel, I must say. 2014’s “Taken 3” was just “okay” …

Irish actor Liam Neeson’s big break came with the role of Oskar Schindler in the Spielberg epic, “Schindler’s List”. Neeson was in the news some years later when he lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, in a tragic skiing accident in 2009. Earlier in his life, in the 1980s, Neeson lived for several years with Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren.

41A Many a rosé wine : BLEND

Rosé wines get their color from the skins of the grapes, although the intensity of the color is not sufficient to make them red wines. Of the varying type of rosé wines available, we are most familiar with sweet white zinfandels. Personally, I am fond of the dry Provençal rosé wines …

44A Word with college or message : … BOARDS

College Board is a company that develops and administers standardized tests used to determine college readiness in students and to provide a service within the college admissions process. The company was founded in 1899 at Columbia University by a dozen or so schools to provide guidance to secondary schools as they prepared students for third-level education.

45A Something it’s good to pass with : FLYING COLORS

The idiom “with flying colors” has a nautical origin. In the Age of Exploration, ships returning to port would signal their success or defeat by the position of their flags, or “colors”. If a ship was victorious, it would sail into port with its flags flying high from the mastheads. A defeated ship, on the other hand, would “strike her colors”, meaning to lower its flags, indicating surrender. So, to pass “with flying colors” literally meant a ship had succeeded, and the phrase later evolved to describe any triumph.

50A Places for hot dates? : OASES

Date palms can be either male or female. Only the female tree bears fruit (called “dates”).

52A “Hazy” drink : IPA

Hazy IPAs tend to be unfiltered, and so retain some yeast sediment. These days, I am almost forced to drink IPAs (what else is available?!), and usually opt for a hazy IPA. Please, please, brewers, bring back hefeweizens …

55A One flying in to the coast, maybe : GULL

Gulls (also “seagulls”) are a family of seabirds that is most closely related to terns. Some species of gull can be quite clever. For example, they can reportedly use pieces of bread as bait to catch goldfish in ponds. Others can be quite fearless, and have been known to land on the backs of whales and peck out pieces of flesh.

56A Competitor suggested by 17-, 23- and 45-Across … or by the name of the inventor jumbled in the circled letters : SPEEDCUBER

What was originally called the “Magic Cube” became better known as “Rubik’s Cube”, and was named for its inventor Ernő Rubik. Rubik’s Cube is the world’s biggest selling puzzle game, with over 350 million sold in just over 30 years.

58A Mortarboard wearer : GRAD

Tasseled mortarboards, or square academic caps, are associated with school graduations all over the world, although traditions do differ. For example, in Ireland (where I come from) mortarboards are only worn by female graduates.

59A Steve with nine N.B.A. titles as a player and coach : KERR

Steve Kerr is a retired NBA basketball player who moved into team management. Kerr was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of an American academic who specialized in Middle East studies. Kerr’s father was assassinated in Beirut when Steve was 19 years old.

60A Island country that’s an anagram of TAHITI minus T : HAITI

The Republic of Haiti occupies the smaller, western portion of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The rest of the island is taken up by the Dominican Republic. Haiti is one of only two nations in the Americas to have French as an official language, the other being Canada.

Tahiti is the most populous island in French Polynesia, which is located in the central Southern Pacific. Although Captain Cook landed in Tahiti in 1769, he wasn’t the first European to do so. However, Cook’s visit was the most significant in that it heralded a whole spate of European visitors, who brought with them prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol. Included among the subsequent visitors was the famous HMS Bounty under the charge of Captain Bligh.

61A Major export of Ghana : YAMS

The country name “Ghana” translates as “warrior king” in the local language. The British established a colony they named the Gold Coast in 1874, later to become Ghana, as part of the scramble by Europeans to settle as much of Africa as they could. One of Ghana’s most famous sons was Kofi Annan, the diplomat who served as General Secretary of the UN for ten years until the beginning of 2007.

63A Thompson who plays Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe : TESSA

Tessa Thompson is an actress from Los Angeles who is known for playing the supporting role of Jackie Cook on the TV show “Veronica Mars”, and for playing student leader Diane Nash in the 2014 film “Selma”. She also portrays superheroine Valkyrie in movies based on Marvel Comics characters.

Down

4D Days or Knights follower : INN

The Days Inn hotel chain was founded in 1970 by a real estate developer called Cecil B. Day. One of the features of a Days Inn hotel in those early days was an on-site gas pump, which dispensed gasoline at discount prices.

6D Many-eyed giant of Greek myth : ARGUS

Argus Panoptes was a monster of Greek mythology. “Panoptes” means “all-seeing”, so over time Argus has been described as having many, many eyes. Argus was noted for being alert, always keeping some eyes open when sleeping. This characteristic led to Argus being used for a vigilant person, and has been adopted as the name for many newspapers. After the monster died, the goddess Hera transferred Argus’s eyes to the tail of the peacock.

10D Cute to the max : ADORBS

“Adorbs!” is a colloquial term meaning “So cute, so adorable!”

12D Upper echelon : ELITE

We use the word “echelon” (ech.) to describe a rank or level, particularly in the military. The term comes from French, in which language it has the same meaning, although the original meaning in Old French is “rung of a ladder”.

25D The “E” in HOMES : ERIE

A well-known mnemonic for remembering the names of the Great Lakes is HOMES, an acronym standing for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Another mnemonic serving the same purpose is “super heroes must eat oats”.

26D Some comfy kicks : MOCS

“Moc” is short for “moccasin”, a type of shoe. The moccasin is a traditional form of footwear worn by members of many Native American tribes.

27D Spoken-word event : POETRY SLAM

A poetry slam is a competition in which poets read their own work (usually), with winners being chosen by members of the audience. Apparently the first poetry slam took place in Chicago in 1986. Now there is a National Poetry Slam that takes place each year, with representatives from the US, Canada and France.

30D Mork’s planet on an old sitcom : ORK

The sitcom “Mork & Mindy” was broadcast from 1978 to 1982. We were first introduced to Mork (played by Robin Williams) in a special episode of “Happy Days”. The particular episode in question has a bizarre storyline culminating in Fonzie and Mork having a thumb-to-finger duel. Eventually Richie wakes up in bed, and alien Mork was just part of a dream! Oh, and “Nanu Nanu” means both “hello” and “goodbye” back on the planet Ork. “I am Mork from Ork, Nanu Nanu”. Great stuff …

31D Narrator on “Euphoria” : RUE

“Euphoria” is an HBO teen drama show that is loosely based on a miniseries of the same name from Israel. The lead actress in the show is Zendaya, who plays a recovering teenage drug addict.

34D Peddle : VEND

In its purest sense, a peddler is someone who sells their wares on the street or from door to door. The term probably comes from the Latin “pedarius” meaning “one who goes on foot”.

37D Vampire double feature? : FANG

Legends about vampires were particularly common in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans in particular. The superstition was that vampires could be killed using a wooden stake, with the preferred type of wood varying from place to place. Superstition also defines where the body should be pierced. Most often, the stake was driven through the heart, but Russians and northern Germans went for the mouth, and northeastern Serbs for the stomach.

41D Sour soup : BORSCHT

Borscht is a beetroot soup that originated in Ukraine. It can be served both hot and cold.

44D Whom Austin Powers parodies : BOND

The Austin Powers character was created by the actor who plays him, namely Mike Myers. Apparently Myers came up with the idea for Powers while listening to the Burt Bacharach song “The Look of Love”.

45D Like San Francisco, frequently : FOGGY

Acceptable nicknames for the California city of San Francisco are “the City by the Bay” and “Fog City”. Locals usually just refer to it as “the City” and never, ever “Frisco”.

46D Early 2000s first lady : LAURA

Laura Bush, wife of President George W. Bush, had her memoir “Spoken from the Heart” published in 2010. Born Laura Lane Welch, the former First Lady has a Master’s degree in Library Science (as does my wife, my own First Lady!). Given that background, it’s not surprising that two causes that Laura Bush focused on while in the White House were education and literacy. She established the annual National Book Festival, first held in Washington, D.C. in 2001, after having co-founded the Texas Book Festival in her home state.

48D Work with a libretto : OPERA

A libretto can be the book that contains the text of a dramatic musical work, with the text itself also being called the libretto.

52D Sacred bird of ancient Egypt : IBIS

The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!

57D Burj Khalifa’s home, in brief : UAE

Burj Khalifa is a spectacular skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the tallest man-made structure in the world, and has been so since the completion of its exterior in 2009. The space in the building came onto the market at a really bad time, during the global financial crisis. The building was part of a US$20 billion development of downtown Dubai that was backed by the city government which had to go looking for a bailout from the neighboring city of Abu Dhabi. The tower was given the name Burj Khalifa at the last minute, apparently as a nod to UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan who helped to broker the bailout.