Tag: Combinations with numbers and sets crossword clue

Bill’s time: 25m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Calendar month between Sha’ban and Shawwal : RAMADAN

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The fast begins at dawn and ends at sunset each day. The end of Ramadan is marked by a three-day festival called Eid al-Fitr, which means “festival of breaking the fast.”

17A 46 years? : BIDEN PRESIDENCY

Future US president Joe Biden was born in Scranton in 1942. He lived in the Pennsylvania city for the first ten years of his life, before moving with his family to Claymont, Delaware and then to nearby Mayfield.

20A ___ Maroni, Gotham City mobster in the DC Comics universe : SAL

“Gotham” had been a nickname for New York City long before it was picked up by comic books as a setting for Batman tales. The term was coined by Washington Irving in a periodical that he published in 1807. Irving was lampooning New York politics and culture, and lifted the name from the village of Gotham in Nottinghamshire, England. The original Gotham was, according to folklore, inhabited by fools.

24A 1992 U2 hit inspired by German reunification : ONE

The band known today as U2 was originally called Feedback, and then The Hype. The band members searched for yet another name and chose U2 from a list of six names suggested by a friend. They picked U2 because it was the name they disliked least …

26A Printing mark whose name is from the Latin for “is lacking” : CARET

The character known as a caret (^) was originally a proofreading mark, one used to indicate where a punctuation mark was to be inserted. “Caret” is Latin for “it lacks”.

35A Shiva, for example : HINDU GOD

Shiva (also “Siva”) is one of the major deities of the Hindu tradition, and is known as the destroyer of evil and the transformer. Shiva is also part of the Hindu trinity known as the Trimurti, along with Brahma and Vishnu.

42A Climax of operational planning : D-DAY

The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat operation is to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that D just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

43A Brand for which General Foods distributed orange-handled coffeepots to restaurants : SANKA

The first successful process for removing caffeine from coffee involved steaming the beans in salt water, and then extracting the caffeine using benzene (a potent carcinogen) as a solvent. Coffee processed this way was sold as Sanka here in the US. There are other processes used these days, and let’s hope they are safer …

45A Ferrer who co-starred in “War and Peace,” 1956 : MEL

I have to confess that I have tried to read Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” twice in my life, and failed both times (it is l-o-n-g; 1,225 pages in the first published edition). Even though the 1956 movie adaptation runs for 3 1/2 hours, it’s still the easy way out! The film version stars Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova and Henry Fonda as Count Pierre Bezukhov.

46A Shot-putter? : NURSE

An injection using a hypodermic needle might be termed a “shot” in North America, and a “jab” in Britain and Ireland.

47A Baba ghanouj, e.g. : PUREE

A purée is a food that has been made smooth by straining or blending. “Purée” is a French term, which I believe is now used to mean “pea soup” (more completely written as “purée de pois”). The French verb “purer” means “to strain, clean”, from the Latin “purare” meaning “to purify, clean”.

Baba ganoush (also “baba ghanouj” and “baba ghanoush”) is an Arab dish with the main ingredient of mashed eggplant. It is sometimes served as a (delicious) dip.

Down

2D Staple in a poke bowl : AHI TUNA

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

3D Titular figure in a scandalous John Singer Sargent portrait : MADAME X

John Singer Sargent was an American artist, one best known for his portrait painting. Sargent trained as an artist mainly in Paris, although he found that he had to leave the city after one of his paintings was deemed “scandalous” by French society. The work was “Portrait of Madame X” (1884), a painting of a noted lady in society that was considered too risque and sensual. After the painting was exhibited, his commissions dried up and Sargent moved to London in order to continue his career. Today the “Portrait of Madame X” is considered by many to be Sargent’s best work.

6D Sports org. in the 2024 film “Challengers” : ATP

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is an organization that looks out for the interests of male tennis professionals. The equivalent organization for women is the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

7D Longship builders : NORSEMEN

The Vikings were a Germanic people from northern Europe who were noted as great seafarers. Key to the success of the Vikings was the design of their famous “longships”. Made from wood, the longship was long and narrow with a shallow hull, It was also light, so that the crew would actually carry it small distances over land and around obstacles. Longships were designed to be propelled by both sail and oars.

10D Treasure hunter’s find : LODE

A lode is a metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure. The mother lode is the principal deposit in a mine, usually of gold or silver. “Mother lode” is probably a translation of “veta madre”, an expression used in mining in Mexico.

14D Slender hospital tools : STYLETS

A stylet is a thin, surgical probe. The term is also used for a thin, pointed weapon like a stiletto.

23D Eastern lines : HAIKU

A haiku is a very elegant form of Japanese verse. When writing a haiku in English we tend to impose the rule that the verse must contain 17 syllables. This restriction comes from the rule in Japanese that the verse must contain 17 sound units called “moras”, but moras and syllables aren’t the same thing. Sadly, the difference is not so clear to me. Here’s an example of a Haiku:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator

25D Very iffy : DICEY

Something described as “dicey” is unpredictable or risky, as in rolling the “dice”. The term “dicey” originated in the 1940s as aviator jargon.

26D They might go faster with zinc : COLDS

Zinc gluconate is the zinc salt of gluconic acid. It is often used as the active ingredient in lozenges for treating the common cold. It is also with arginine to chemically castrate dogs. Yikes!

29D British slang for a police car : PANDA

In the UK, a panda car is a relatively small police patrol vehicle. The term “panda car” arose in the 1960s, when the cars were painted black and white, the coloring of the animal. Even though color schemes have changed over the decades, small police cars in Britain are still sometimes referred to as panda cars.

31D Improviser at a workbench : TINKERER

To tinker with something is to adjust or experiment with it. Back in the late 1500’s, “to tinker” was “to work as a tinker”. In those days, a tinker was someone who mended pots and pans.

32D Cursed vibe : BAD MOJO

The word “mojo”, meaning “magical charm, magnetism”, is probably of Creole origin.

34D Geometry term from the Greek for “uneven” : SCALENE

A scalene triangle is one in which all three sides are of unequal length.

37D Even, or nearly so, at Wimbledon : ON SERVE

The Wimbledon Championships of tennis are held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club located in Wimbledon, a district of London. The Wimbledon Championships started in 1877, and have been played on grass since day one.

43D Leader of the Afrofuturistic jazz collective Arkestra for almost four decades : SUN RA

“Sun Ra” was the stage name of jazz composer and performer Herman Blount. Sun Ra was a bit “out there”, and claimed that he wasn’t from Earth, but rather was of the Angel Race from the planet Saturn.

46D Greenhorn, informally : NOOB

A greenhorn is a young-horned animal. “Greenhorn” is also a term that is now applied to any inexperienced person.

47D Oldest four-letter papal name : PIUS

Pope Saint Pius I was one of the very early Bishops of Rome, governing the Roman Catholic church around 150 AD. One of his decrees was that Easter should only be celebrated on a Sunday.

49D Call in a card game : GIN

Gin rummy is a faster variant of standard rummy. It was introduced in 1909 by one Elwood Baker and his son.

50D Early major producer of vacuum tubes : RCA

A diode is a component in a circuit, the most notable characteristic of which is that it will conduct electric current in only one direction. Some of those vacuum tubes we used to see in old radios and television were diodes, but nowadays almost all diodes are semiconductor devices.