Tag: Exceptionally good in Gen Z slang crossword clue

Bill’s time: 5m 44s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Daytona 500 org. : NASCAR

The acronym “NASCAR” stands for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. The association is actually a privately held company that was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. NASCAR is very, very popular and commands the second-largest television audience of any professional sport in America, second only to football.

16A Toy company behind Frisbees and Hula Hoops : WHAM-O

Wham-O was founded in 1948, with the company’s first product being the Wham-O slingshot. Since then, Wham-O has marketed a string of hit toys including the Hula Hoop, Frisbee, Slip ‘N Slide, Silly String, Hacky Sack and Boogie Board.

The Frisbee concept started back in 1938 with a couple who had an upturned cake pan that they were tossing between each other on Santa Monica Beach in California. They were offered 25 cents for the pan on the spot, and as pans could be bought for 5 cents, the pair figured there was a living to be earned.

Hula hoops were a big craze in the 1950s, but they have been around in various forms at least since the year 500 BCE.

17A “Sex and the City” network : HBO

Is it just me or would “Sex and the City” be so much better off without the two romantic leads, Carrie and Mr. Big? Carrie Bradshaw is played by Sarah Jessica Parker, and Mr. Big (aka John James Preston) is played by Chris Noth. We never found out Mr Big’s first name (John) until the series finale, and his full name wasn’t revealed until the first movie came out.

18A Narrow, focused perspective : TUNNEL VISION (“ELVIS” inside)

Elvis Aron Presley (aka “the King”) was the younger of two identical twins. His brother was stillborn, and delivered 35 minutes before Elvis. The brother was named Jesse Garon Presley. So, although born a twin, Elvis was raised as an only child.

20A “___ for one and one for ___!” : ALL

“All for one, and one for all” is a motto associated with the title characters in the Alexandre Dumas novel “Three Musketeers”. Actually, it is the motto of the Three Musketeers along with their comrade d’Artagnan …

22A Villain in Shakespeare’s “Othello” and Disney’s “Aladdin” : IAGO

In William Shakespeare’s “Othello”, Iago is the villain of the piece. At one point he readily admits this, saying “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse”. Here he is claiming to make money out of making fools of others. In this case, he takes money from Roderigo, who believes that Iago will help him bed Othello’s wife Desdemona.

In the 1992 Disney feature “Aladdin”, there is a parrot called Iago. Iago is voiced by the comic Gilbert Gottfried.

27A Blackjack player’s request : HIT ME

“Stand” and “hit me” are instructions to the dealer in the card game Blackjack. The instruction “stand” means “I don’t want any more cards, I’ll use these”. The instruction “hit me” means “please deal me another card”.

28A Magazine for the small screen since 1953 : TV GUIDE

The first national “TV Guide” was issued in 1953. The cover of that first issue featured a photo of newborn Desi Arnaz, Jr., son of Lucille Ball.

33A Ballet dancer’s handrail : BARRE

A barre is a handrail used by ballet dancers for warm-up exercises and to provide support when practicing certain moves.

38A Sign near a freshly applied coat : WET PAINT (“T-PAIN” inside)

“T-Pain” is the stage name of rap artist Faheem Rasheed Najm from Tallahassee, Florida. He is known for his contributions to the popular use of Auto-Tune in his recordings, which gives his voice a robotic sound. He collaborated with an iPhone app developer to produce the app “I Am T-Pain” that allows users to mimic his particular style of Auto-Tune in karaoke.

45A ___ of the Horse (2026 in the Chinese zodiac) : YEAR

The 12-year cycle in the Chinese calendar uses the following animals in order:

• Rat
• Ox
• Tiger
• Rabbit
• Dragon
• Snake
• Horse
• Goat
• Monkey
• Rooster
• Dog
• Pig

46A “You win! I give up!” : UNCLE!

To say uncle is to submit or yield. This peculiarly American use of “uncle” dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”

54A Maker of skintight swimwear : SPEEDO

Speedo brand swimwear was first produced in Australia, in 1928 by a hosiery company that wanted to diversify. The brand name was chosen after a slogan competition among employees was won by “Speed on in your Speedos”. It was a long time ago, I guess …

61A Dallas N.B.A. player, for short : MAV

The Mavericks (also “Mavs”) are an NBA franchise in Dallas, Texas. The team was founded in 1980, and the Mavericks name was chosen by fan votes. The choice of “Mavericks” was prompted by the fact that the actor James Garner was a part-owner of the team, and Garner of course played the title role in the “Maverick” television series.

66A “Say cheese!” : SMILE!

Photographers often instruct us to say “cheese” to elicit a smile-like expression. Even Japanese photographers use the word “cheese” to achieve the same effect. Bulgarians use the word “zele” meaning “cabbage”. The Chinese say “eggplant”, the Danish “orange”, the Iranians “apple” and many Latin Americans say “whiskey”.

69A Evil spells : HEXES

“Hexen” is a German word meaning “to practice witchcraft”. The use of the word “hex” in English started with the Pennsylvania Dutch in the early 1800s.

Down

3D Pair orbited by the fictional planet Tatooine : SUNS

Tatooine is the desert planet that features in almost every “Star Wars” movie. It is the home planet of Anakin and Luke Skywalker, and is also where Obi-Wan Kenobi first met Han Solo.

9D Word before chi or after mai : TAI

More correctly called “t‘ai chi ch‘uan”, which translates to “supreme ultimate fist”, tai chi is a martial art that is mostly practiced to improve overall health and increase longevity.

The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.

11D Beethoven’s “Moonlight ___” : SONATA

Beethoven subtitled his “Piano Sonata No. 14, Op. 27, No. 2” as “Quasi una fantasia”, or “sonata in the manner of a fantasy” in English. Five years after Beethoven died, a music critic wrote that the first movement of the piece had an effect like that of moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne. Since then, the work has been known as the “Moonlight Sonata”.

12D Burger chain with custard-based drinks : SHAKE SHACK (“KESHA” inside)

Shake Shack is a chain of restaurants that started out as a simple hot dog cart doing business in Madison Square Park in New York City in 2001. By 2020, the chain operated in over 250 locations worldwide.

“Kesha” (formerly “Ke$ha”) is the stage name used by singer Kesha Rose Sebert.

14D Spilled the beans : TOLD

To spill the beans is to divulge a secret. The expression first appeared in American English, in the early 1900s. The phrase arose as an alternative to “spoil the beans” or “upset the applecart”. The similarly meaning phrase “spill the tea” is more prevalent on the other side of the Atlantic.

24D Salacious material : SMUT

“Smut” means “dirt, smudge” and more recently “pornographic material”. The term comes from the Yiddish “schmutz”, which is a slang word used in English for dirt, as in “dirt on one’s face”.

27D Prefix with pad or port : HELI-

Our term “helicopter” was absorbed from the French word “hélicoptère” that was coined by Gustave Ponton d’Amécourt in 1861. d’Amécourt envisioned aircraft that could fly vertically using rotating wings that “screwed” into the air. He combined the Greek terms “helix” meaning “spiral, whirl” and “pteron” meaning “wing” to give us “helicopter”.

29D Uses an e-cigarette : VAPES

An electronic cigarette (also called an “e-cigarette”) is a battery-powered device that resembles a real cigarette. The e-cigarette vaporizes a solution that contains nicotine, forming a vapor that resembles smoke. The vapor is inhaled in a process called “vaping”, delivering nicotine into the body. The assumption is that an e-cigarette is healthier than a regular cigarette as the inhaled vapor is less harmful than inhaled smoke. But, that may not be so …

30D Stage of education : GRADE LEVEL (“ADELE” inside)

“Adele” is the stage name of English singer Adele Adkins. Adele’s debut album is “19”, named after the age she was during the album’s production. Her second album was even more successful than the first. Called “21”, the second album was released three years after the first, when Adele was three years older. Her third studio album “25”, released in 2015, broke the first-week sales records in both the UK and the US. “30” followed in 2021.

31D Tusked swine : BOAR

The wild boar might be described as a matriarchal beast. Fully-grown males live a solitary life, except during mating season. Fully-grown females live together in groups called sounders, along with their offspring.

32D Bird on Mexico’s flag : EAGLE

The Mexican flag consists of three vertical stripes of green, white and red. The national coat of arms is displayed in the center of the white stripe. That coat of arms features a golden eagle holding a rattlesnake in its talons, while sitting atop a prickly pear cactus.

34D Fix, at the vet’s : SPAY

Our verb “to spay”, meaning “to surgically remove the ovaries of” (an animal), comes from an old Anglo-French word “espeier” meaning “to cut with a sword”.

40D The “T” in STEM, informally : TECH

The acronym “STEM” stands for the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. An alternative acronym with a similar meaning is MINT, standing for mathematics, information sciences, natural sciences and technology. The acronym STEAM adds (liberal) arts to the STEM curriculum.

49D Red bit in a salad : RADISH

Radishes are edible root vegetables that are commonly grown for use in salads. Gardeners also use radishes as companion plants as the odor given off can deter pests such as aphids, ants and cucumber beetles. I do enjoy eating a spicy radish …

60D The “A” in T.A.: Abbr. : ASST

Teaching Assistants (TAs)

63D Highest roll of a standard die : SIX

The numbers on dice are arranged so that the opposite faces add up to seven. Given this arrangement, the numbers 1, 2 and 3 all meet at a common vertex. There are two ways of arranging the 1, 2 and 3 around the common vertex, a so-called right-handed die (clockwise 1-2-3) or a left-handed die (counterclockwise 1-2-3). Traditionally, dice used in Western cultures are right-handed, whereas Chinese dice are left-handed. Quite interesting …