Tag: Dazzling display crossword clue

Bill’s time: 16m 31s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Dazzling display: ECLAT

“Éclat” can describe a brilliant show of success, as well as the applause or accolade that one receives for that success. The word “éclat” derives from the French “éclater” meaning “to splinter, burst out”.

6 Tech giant based in Cupertino, Calif.: APPLE

Apple Park, Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California, comprises an iconic ring-shaped main building, often referred to as :the spaceship”. It houses thousands of employees and features a vast, landscaped inner courtyard.

14 Formation of rugby players: SCRUM

If you’ve ever seen a rugby match, you’ll recognize the scrum, in which the players designated as forwards bind together and push against the forwards on the opposing team. It’s a way of restarting the game after various types of stoppages. “Scrum” is short for “scrummage”, which in itself is a variation of “scrimmage”. And “scrimmage” has its roots in the word “skirmish”. If you get the chance, take a look at the Matt Damon-Morgan Freeman movie called “Invictus”, directed by Clint Eastwood. It’s all about rugby in South Africa after Nelson Mandela came to power. A powerful film …

19 Queendom in the Bible: SHEBA

Sheba is referenced in the Bible several times. The Queen of Sheba is mentioned as someone who traveled to Jerusalem to behold the fame of King Solomon. No one knows for sure where the kingdom of Sheba was located, although there is evidence that it was actually the ancient Semitic civilization of Saba. The Sabeans lived in what today is Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula.

25 Viennese “please”: BITTE

Vienna is the capital of Austria. The city has a long musical tradition and was home to Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss (I and II), Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. As such, Vienna is sometimes called the “City of Music”. It is also called the “City of Dreams” as it was home to the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

38 Unwanted event at a speakeasy: RAID

A speakeasy is an establishment that sells alcoholic drinks illegally. Speakeasies were very big in the US in the days of Prohibition. The obvious etymology, of a speakeasy owner asking his or her customers to “speak easy” so as not to draw attention to the authorities, is thought to have originated in 1888 in McKeesport just outside Pittsburgh.

40 Lyricist Gershwin: IRA

Ira Gershwin was the lyricist who worked with his brother George to create such American classics as the songs “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”, as well as the opera “Porgy and Bess”. After George Gershwin died, Ira continued to create great music, and worked with the likes of Jerome Kern and Kurt Weill.

49 Collectors of signatures?: CASTS

Plaster made using gypsum is commonly referred to as plaster of paris. The original plaster of paris came from a large deposit of gypsum mined at Montmartre in Paris, hence the name.

50 ___ of Cleves, wife of Henry VIII: ANNE

Anne of Cleves was the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. It seems that Anne’s arranged marriage to Henry was doomed from the day the two met soon after she arrived in England. Henry just wasn’t attracted to her, but the couple went ahead with the wedding. The marriage was annulled six months later on the grounds that it had not been consummated. Anne lived the rest of her life in England, and in fact outlived Henry’s five other wives.

65 When doubled, a dance: CAN

The Cole Porter musical “Can-Can” was first produced on Broadway, in 1953, where it ran for two years. There was a very successful film adaptation released in 1960, starring Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra and Maurice Chevalier. During filming, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the set as part of a tour of 20th Century Fox studios. He made a big splash in the media at the time describing what he saw as “depraved” and “pornographic”.

66 Home of the Sugarloaf Cable Car, informally: RIO

The Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was named for its shape, which resembled conical mold of sugar that was the traditional form from concentrated refined loaf sugar. The Portuguese name for the peak is “Pão de Açúcar”, which translates to “Loaf of Sugar”.

72 Radar gun inits.: MPH

Radar speed guns were first used to monitor traffic by Connecticut State Police in the town of Glastonbury, way back in 1947!

85 It comes with a hefty bill: TOUCAN

The toucan is a brightly-marked bird with a large, colorful bill. The name “toucan” comes into English via Portuguese from the Tupi name “tukana”. The Tupi were an indigenous people of Brazil.

87 Beehive State athlete: UTE

When Mormon pioneers were settling what is today the state of Utah, they referred to the area as Deseret, a word that means “beehive” according to the Book of Mormon. Today Utah is known as the Beehive State and there is a beehive symbol on the Utah state flag. In 1959, “Industry” was even chosen as the state motto, for the term’s association with the beehive.

97 Wild goats of the Alps: IBEXES

“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.

98 Delta hub: Abbr.: ATL

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the world’s busiest airport, as measured by passenger traffic. Atlanta has had that distinction since 1998, and was the world’s busiest in terms of take-offs and landings from 2005 until 2013. Over 50% of Atlanta’s traffic comes from Delta Air Lines.

99 Reality competition show with quickfire challenges: TOP CHEF

“Top Chef” is a reality television show on the Bravo channel. It’s basically a cooking competition.

103 Smidgen: OUNCE

Our word “smidgen” (sometimes shortened to “smidge”) is used to describe a small amount. The term might come from the Scots word “smitch” that means the same thing or “a small insignificant person”.

104 Gift-wrapping supplies: SCOTCH TAPE ROLLS (hiding “PATH”, reversed)

Scotch Tape is a brand of adhesive tape made by 3M. “Scotch Tape” is one of those brand names that has become a generic term for the product. The equivalent brand name of the product that we use over in Ireland is Sellotape. This British brand also has become a generic term, and so is our equivalent to “Scotch tape”.

109 Formal “you,” in Uruguay: USTED

The official name of Uruguay is the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, which reflects the nation’s location on the eastern coast of South America. It is a relatively small country, the second-smallest on the continent, after Suriname. In 2009, Uruguay became the first country in the world to provide a free laptop and Internet access to every child. Now there’s a thought …

110 Americans who live in their own time zone: HAWAIIANS

Hawaii–Aleutian Standard Time (HST)

111 Many a piece of writing by Joan Didion: ESSAY

Joan Didion is a journalist and author who was profiled in the Netflix documentary “The Center Will Not Hold”. She won a Pulitzer for her autobiographical work “The Year of Magical Thinking”, which book she used as the basis for a stage play of the same name. The book focuses on the year following the death of her husband, while the play also encompasses the subsequent death of her daughter.

114 Part of a wheel: SPOKE

“Radius” (plural “radii”) is a Latin word, as one might expect, a word meaning “spoke of a wheel”. Makes sense, huh?

Down

1 Lawyer’s title: Abbr.: ESQ

The title “esquire” is of British origin and is used differently today depending on whether one is in the US or the UK. Here in America the term is usually reserved for those practicing the law (both male and female). In the UK, “esquire” is a term of gentle respect reserved for a male who has no other title that one can use. So, a mere commoner like me might receive a letter from the bank, say, addressed to W. E. Butler Esq.

2 Fish bait: CHUM

The word “chum” meaning “fish bait”, is perhaps derived from the Scottish word “chum” meaning food.

3 Leader of filmdom’s Rebel Alliance: LEIA

Princess Leia is Luke Skywalker’s twin sister in the original “Star Wars” trilogy and was played by Carrie Fisher. Carrie Fisher has stated that she hated the famous “cinnamon bun hairstyle” that she had to wear in the films, as she felt it made her face look too round. She also had to sit for two hours every day just to get her hair styled. Two hours to get your hair done? It takes me just two seconds …

In the “Star Wars” universe, the Rebel Alliance is at war with the Galactic Empire.

9 Locale where clovers bloom: LEA

Clovers are species of flowering plants in the pea family. Clover leaves are trifoliate, have three leaflets. There are about 5,000 three-leaf clovers for every 1 four-leaf clover, leading to the association of a four-leaf clover with good luck.

13 Since Jan. 1: YTD

Year-to-date (YTD)

14 “C’est la vie”: SO BE IT

“C’est la vie” is French for “that’s life”.

15 Potato chip, to a Brit: CRISP

French fries are called “chips” back in Ireland where I grew up. And what we call “chips” in the US are known as “crisps” in Britain and Ireland. In France, French fries are known as “pommes frites” (fried potatoes).

16 Coiffure parts that are sometimes braided: RATTAILS

A rat’s tail (also “rattail”) is a hairstyle with a tail-like, thin tuft of hair growing down the back of the neck.

“Coiffure” is a French word that we’ve imported into English meaning “hairstyle”. The term comes from the Old French word “coife”, which was used for the inner part of a helmet.

18 Small mongooses: MEERKATS

The meerkat (also called “suricate”) is a mongoose-like mammal that is native to parts of Africa including the Kalahari and Namib Deserts

The mongoose has no relationship with the “goose” as such, as “mongoose” is derived from “mangus”, an Indian name for the beast. The mongoose does indeed eat snakes as part of its diet, along with other small creatures. However, it usually avoids the dangerous cobra, although humans have used the mongoose to fight cobras for sport and entertainment. The mongoose fares well against poisonous snakes because it is agile and wily, and has a thick skin, literally.

24 Scarlett Johansson, Rami Malek or Vin Diesel (did you know?): TWIN

Scarlett Johansson is a film actress from New York City. Johansson had an acclaimed lead performance in the 1996 movie “Manny & Lo”, when she was just 12 years old. The earliest films I remember her in, two favorites of mine, are “Girl in a Pearl Earring” and “Lost in Translation”, both from 2013. She has become quite the sex symbol, and is the only woman to have been named “Sexiest Woman Alive” twice by “Esquire” magazine. The media sometimes refer to her as “ScarJo”, a moniker that she apparently dislikes intensely.

Actor Rami Malek’s big break came with the leading role in the television series “Mr. Robot”. In 2018, Malik gave an Oscar-winning performance playing Freddie Mercury in the hit biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”. That marked the first time that an actor of Egyptian descent won an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Vin Diesel is the stage name of actor Mark Sinclair Vincent. He was born in New York City with his twin brother Paul. The twins never knew their father, and their mother is an astrologer. Vincent was given the nickname of “Diesel” by his friends early in his life, as he was said to have a bottomless supply of energy.

28 PalmPilots, e.g., for short: PDAS

Palm Inc. was a company that focused on the design and manufacture of personal digital assistants (PDAs). The company’s most successful models were the groundbreaking PalmPilot PDA, and the Treo 600, which was one of the world’s first smartphones.

32 Marriage equality activist Windsor, familiarly: EDIE

Edith Windsor was the lead plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court case “US v. Windsor”. The court ruled that a section of the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional and that the federal government could not deny federal benefits and protections to married lesbian and gay couples.

34 Disease that was the subject of the second Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1902): MALARIA

Malaria is a disease passed onto humans by mosquitoes. As a result of the disease, a parasite invades human red blood cells and multiplies causing fever and possibly coma or death. Over 750,000 people died from malaria in 2009, out of 225 million cases reported.

35 Yom Kippur observers, e.g.: ATONERS

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. It is also known as the Day of Atonement.

37 Flood preventers: DIKES

A dike is an embankment that is used to prevent floods. It is usually made of earth and rock.

45 Catherine ___, wife of Henry VIII: PARR

Henry VIII was the English King with the most wives. Well, something rubbed off on his last wife Catherine Parr. She was to become the English Queen with the most husbands! By the time she married Henry, she had been widowed twice. After Henry died, Parr married once again, racking up four husbands in all.

48 Protein powder ingredient: WHEY

When milk curdles it separates into two parts, the solid curds and the liquid whey.

49 Aetna alternative: CIGNA

The health care management company known as Cigna was formed in 1982 by a merger of two insurance companies. One was Connecticut General (CG) and the other was the Insurance Company of North America (INA).

59 Most common coffee bean variety: ARABICA

The species Coffea arabica is thought to be the first plant cultivated for coffee. Today, 75-80% of the world’s coffee comes from Coffea arabica.

60 Love interest in a Hallmark movie, maybe: NICE GUY

The Hallmark Channel was a cable channel owned by Hallmark Cards. The channel had Christian roots, and was launched as the Faith and Values Channel in 1992. It was renamed to the Hallmark Channel in 2001, and then to Hallmark Movies and Mysteries in 2014. Crossword fans might want to check it out as the channel features a “Crossword Mysteries” series of films.

64 “Monster ___” (1962 #1 song): MASH

“Monster Mash” is a fun novelty song released by Bobby Pickett in 1962. Pickett sings “Monster Mash” in a voice imitating that of Boris Karloff.

69 Fraidy-cat: WIMP

Our term “wimp”, describing a “timid person”, is probably an alteration of “whimper”, the sound that such an individual might make.

70 Soupçons: IOTAS

“Soupçon” translates from French into English as “suspicion”, and can be used in the sense that a “suspicion” of something is just a hint, a crumb.

74 School before l’université: LYCEE

The “lycée” is the last stage of secondary education in France.

77 Singer whose 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” became a top 10 hit in 2022 after being featured on “Stranger Things”: KATE BUSH

Kate Bush has a unique and experimental singing style, with her most famous recording being “Wuthering Heights” from 1978. I also love the subsequent releases “Babooshka” and “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”.

“Running Up That Hill” is a 1985 song released by English singer/songwriter Kate Bush. While the song did well on initial release, it did better in 2022. “Running Up That Hill” was featured prominently in the fourth season of the sci-fi horror series “Stranger Things”. That exposure resulted in the song topping the charts in several countries around the world.

79 Barbuda or Barbados: ISLE

Antigua is an island in the West Indies, and is the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. These twin islands take their names from the Spanish for “ancient” and “bearded”.

Now that Barbados is an independent country, by all measures it is a very developed country. Using the Human Development Index (HDI), Barbados is the third most developed country in the western hemisphere, coming up right behind the US and Canada.

81 Most dad jokes: PUNS

Here are a few dad jokes that I use to annoy my kids:

• When does a joke become a “dad joke”? When it becomes apparent.
• I had a happy childhood. My dad used to put me in tires and roll me down hills. Those were Goodyears.
• It’s a shame that the Beatles didn’t make the submarine in that song green. That would’ve been sublime.
• I told your mom she needs to start embracing her mistakes. So she hugged me
• When your mom is depressed, I let her color in my tattoos. She just needs a shoulder to crayon.

82 Nickname for Milwaukee’s baseball team: BREW CREW

The Milwaukee Brewers Major League Baseball (MLB) team was founded in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots. The Pilots only played one season in Seattle before going bankrupt, relocating to Milwaukee and adopting the “Brewers” name. At that time, the Brewers were playing in the American League, and joined the National League in 1998. Only two MLB teams have switched leagues, the other being the Houston Astros.

84 Ocean in “Ocean’s Eleven”: TESS

“Ocean’s 11” is a great film from 1960, starring Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean. The original storyline is updated for the excellent 2001 remake, with George Clooney playing the lead. In the 1960 movie, the love interest is a character called Beatrice Ocean, played by Angie Dickinson. In the 2001 version, the love interest gets a new name, Tess Ocean, and is played by Julia Roberts. The 2001 remake (titled “Ocean’s Eleven”, note the spelling) spawned two sequels: “Ocean’s Twelve” in 2004 and “Ocean’s Thirteen” in 2007.

88 Like King Midas, notably: GREEDY

King Midas of Greek mythology might be termed an alchemist as he had the power to turn everything he touched into gold i.e. the Midas touch. That power became a curse, as everything he touched turned to gold, including his food and drink, and even his children.

92 Google Sheets alternative: EXCEL

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program included in the Microsoft Office suite of applications. Microsoft’s first spreadsheet program was introduced back in 1982 and called Multiplan. Multiplan’s popularity waned due to the success of the competing product Lotus 1-2-3. Microsoft then introduced Excel, initially just for the Macintosh. When Excel was extended to Windows, Lotus was slow to respond and Microsoft took over the market.

93 Supply at the Hershey Company: CACAO

Chocolate is made from the seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree. The seeds are very bitter and the traditional drink made with the seed was called “xocolatl” by the Aztecs, meaning “bitter water”. Our word “chocolate” comes from “xocolatl”.

Milton Hershey used profits from the sale of his successful Lancaster Caramel Company to construct a chocolate plant in his hometown of Derry Church, Pennsylvania. Hershey started building the factory in 1903, and by 1906 his chocolate was so successful that Derry Church changed its name to Hershey, Pennsylvania.

94 City near Disney World, informally: O-TOWN

Orlando in Central Florida is the largest inland city in the state. It was the most visited city in the US in 2009. That’s mainly because it is home to many theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Florida and SeaWorld. Orlando has a few nicknames, including “O-Town” and “Theme Park Capital of the World”.

95 ___ Beauty: ULTA

Ulta Beauty is an American chain of beauty stores that was founded in 1990 and headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. I am not part of the company’s target demographic …

96 Small wood: COPSE

A copse is a small stand of trees. The term “copse” originally applied to a small thicket that was specifically grown for cutting.

99 Fail ignominiously, as at the box office: TANK

Apparently, the first use of the verb “to tank” to mean “to lose or fail” can be pinpointed quite precisely. Tennis great Billie Jean King used the verb in that sense in an interview with “Life” magazine in 1967, with reference to male players. A more specific use of “tanking” in recent years is “deliberately losing” a contest.

101 “Lohengrin” soprano: ELSA

“Lohengrin” is a very popular opera by Richard Wagner that was first performed in 1850. Many arias from “Lohengrin” are staples in “Opera’s Greatest Hits” collections. We’ve often heard the “Bridal Chorus” from “Lohengrin”. It’s the tune to “Here comes the bride …”, which is played regularly at the start of wedding ceremonies as the bride walks down the aisle. In the opera, the “Bridal Chorus” is sung not at the start of the ceremony but afterwards, by the women of the wedding party as they accompany newlywed Elsa to the bridal chamber.

102 Custardy treat: FLAN

Flan (also “crème caramel”) is a delicious dessert comprising a molded custard topped with a clear caramel sauce. The related crème brûlée is a dessert made from molded custard with a hard, burnt caramel layer on top.

105 Gender identity prefix: CIS-

The term “cisgender” is used as the opposite of “transgender”. Cisgender people have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

107 Confucian concept: TAO

The sayings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (anglicized from “K’ung Fu-Tse”) are collected in a work called “The Analects” or “Linyu”. It wasn’t Confucius who wrote down his thoughts though, but rather his pupils, some 40 or so years after his death in 479 BC.

108 Part of iOS: Abbr.: SYS

I think of an operating system (OS) as that piece of software that sits between the hardware on my computer and the programs that I choose to run. Developers of application programs don’t really have to worry about being able to “talk to” the countless different types of hardware found in the wide variety of computers that are manufactured, they just need to talk to the handful of operating systems that are out there, like Windows, Android, MAC and Unix. The operating system takes care of the rest.