Tag: Experience deep affirmation in modern lingo crossword clue

Bill’s time: 7m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Big name in skin care : AVEENO

Aveeno is a manufacturer of skincare and haircare products that was founded in 1945. The name Aveeno comes from the Latin name for the common oat, i.e. Avena sativa.

15A Leader whose face is shown on renminbi notes : MAO

Even though we generally refer to the currency of China as the “yuan”, the yuan is actually the basic unit of the “renminbi”. This is analogous to “sterling” being the official currency of the UK, with the “pound” being the basic unit of sterling.

17A Spot for a catnap? : WINDOWSILL

“Sill plate”, or simply “sill”, is an architectural term describing a bottom horizontal member to which vertical members are attached. Window sills and door sills are specific sill plates found at the bottoms of windows and door openings.

19A Innings : baseball :: ___ : curling : ENDS

I think curling is such a cool (pun!) game. It’s somewhat like bowls, but played on a sheet of ice. The sport was supposedly invented in medieval Scotland, and is called curling because of the action of the granite stone as it moves across the ice. A player can make the stone take a curved path (“curl”) by causing it to slowly rotate as it slides.

20A Lead-in to Geo : NAT

The National Geographic Channel (Nat Geo) was launched in 2001. Nat Geo has a sister channel known as National Geographic Wild (Nat Geo Wild) that focuses on programming about wildlife.

22A They’re noisy little buggers : CICADAS

Cicadas are insects that are found all over the world. Although they resemble locusts, cicadas are an unrelated family. The name “cicada” is imitative of the clicking sound the insect makes using parts of its exoskeleton known as “tymbals”.

24A Kinkajou cousin : COATI

The coati is a member of the raccoon family and is also known as the Brazilian aardvark. It is native to Central and South America, but can also be found in the southwest of the United States.

A kinkajou is a mammal found in tropical rainforests in Central and South America. Related to the raccoon, the kinkajou is also known as the honey bear, night ape and night walker.

35A Opus ___ : DEI

Opus Dei is a Roman Catholic institution that was founded in Spain in 1928, and officially approved by the church in 1950. In 2010, Opus Dei had over 90,000 members, mostly lay people. The institution’s mission is to promote certain aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine. Opus Dei was portrayed as a sinister organization by Dan Brown in his novel “The Da Vinci Code”.

37A Spaghetti-strapped tops, informally : CAMIS

A camisole (also “cami”) is a sleeveless undershirt worn by women that extends down to the waist. “Camisole” is a French word that we imported into English that ultimately derives from the Latin “camisia” meaning “shirt, nightgown”.

41A Queen’s collaborator on the 1981 hit “Under Pressure” : BOWIE

“David Bowie” was the stage name of English singer David Jones. He adopted the alter ego Ziggy Stardust during his glam rock phase in the 1970s. Sadly, Bowie passed away from liver cancer in early 2016.

44A Alternative to bow ties : PENNE

Farfalle is commonly referred to as bow-tie pasta because of its shape. The name comes from the Italian “farfalla” meaning “butterfly”.

52A G.I. entertainers : USO

The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

56A When many rainbows appear : PRIDE MONTH

The police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn on June 28th, 1969. That raid triggered a spate of violent demonstrations led by the LGBT community. Now known as the Stonewall riots, those demonstrations are viewed by many as a significant event leading to the modern-day fight for LGBT rights in the US. Since then, June has been chosen as LGBT Pride Month in recognition of the Stonewall riots.

The best-known rainbow flag is the one representing gay pride. Such usage of the rainbow flag was popularized in 1978 by artist Gilbert Baker. The varying colors of the flag represent the diversity of the gay community.

62A Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu, in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” : KENS

Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor who is one of a string of entertainers to graduate from the Mickey Mouse Club on the Disney Channel. His career really took off when he played the male lead in the 2004 movie “The Notebook” (the best ever “weepie”, according to my wife). Gosling is quite the musician, and is one half of a rock duo called Dead Man’s Bones.

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”. He also played one of the Ken dolls in 2023’s “Barbie”.

Greta Gerwig is an actress, screenwriter and director from Sacramento whose best-known acting role is probably opposite Russell Brand in the remake of the film “Arthur”. Gerwig has turned to directing, and was at the helm for the 2019 movie “Little Women”. And then, she co-wrote and directed the hit 2023 film “Barbie”.

63A Science guy Bill : NYE

That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. In addition to his career as a science educator, Nye is also a comedian. He performed stand-up comedy during his early years as an engineer.

Down

1D Babe in the woods : FAWN

A fawn is a young deer, usually one less than a year old.

2D Adidas competitor : AVIA

The Avia brand name for athletic shoes was chosen as “avis” is the Latin word for “bird”, and suggests the concept of aviation. Avia was founded in Oregon in 1979.

3D *Material for a sidewalk : CEMENT (-ME = CENT)

The terms “cement”, “mortar” and ”concrete” are related, and tend to get confused at times. Cement is a binder that hardens over time and binds other materials together. Cement mixed with a fine aggregate forms mortar, a workable paste used to bind building blocks together. Cement mixed with sand and gravel forms concrete, a pourable slurry that hardens into an extremely robust building material.

8D It might come after trig : CALC

The Latin word “calculus” was originally used for a reckoning or an account, and originally applied to a pebble that was used to maintain a count. The Latin word came from the Greek for a pebble, “khalix”.

9D *Lack of pulchritude : HOMELINESS (-ME = HOLINESS)

Pulchritude is great physical beauty, from the Latin “pulcher” meaning beautiful.

12D Alan of “M*A*S*H” : ALDA

Alan Alda was the first person to win acting, directing, and writing Emmys for the same comedy program. He won five Emmys for his work on “M*A*S*H”, three for acting, one for writing and one for directing.

24D Bungee jumping necessity : CORD

The first bungee jump using the modern latex cord was from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. It was an illegal jump, with all five jumpers getting arrested soon after “hitting” the ground.

27D Withdrawn : ALOOF

I suppose one might guess from the feel of the word “aloof” that it has nautical roots. Originally “aloof” meant “to windward” and was the opposite of “alee”. A helmsman might be instructed to stay aloof, to steer the boat into the weather to keep a distance from a lee-shore. It is from this sense of maintaining a distance that aloof came to mean “distant” in terms of personality. Interesting, huh …?

28D *Choice cut : BEEF LOIN (+ME = BEEF LO MEIN)

“Chow mein” has two slightly different meanings on the East and West Coasts of the US. On the East Coast, basic chow mein is a crispy dish, whereas on the West Coast it is a steamed dish that is relatively soft. On the East Coast the steamed dish is available, but under the name “lo mein”. On the West Coast, the crispy dish is also on the menu, as “Hong Kong-style chow mein”.

32D Company that famously used the Beatles’ “Revolution” in a 1987 TV commercial : NIKE

The recording and release of the Beatles song “Revolution” was very much driven by John Lennon. Lennon was then in a committed relationship with Yoko Ono, and well into the “revolutionary” phase of his life.

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world

44D *Sport that uses mallets : POLO (+ME = POMELO)

The sport of polo originated in Iran, possibly before the 5th century BC. Polo was used back then primarily as a training exercise for cavalry units.

Our largest citrus fruit is the pomelo, also known as the shaddock. While the word “pomelo” has an uncertain etymology, the use of “shaddock” is more traceable. The term was reportedly adopted after a Captain Shaddock of the East India Company introduced the fruit to Barbados in the late 1600s. The name then spread to Jamaica, and beyond.

52D Foot or stone : UNIT

We used pounds and stones in Ireland as units of mass/weight, for all my life there. However, such measures no longer have any “official” status in the country, as the Irish made the conversion to the metric system. Having said that, many folks still tend to measure body weight in stones and pounds. One stone is equal to fourteen pounds.

53D Goulash, e.g. : STEW

Goulash is a soup or stew that is seasoned with spices, especially paprika. It is a national dish of Hungary, and the term “goulash” comes from the Hungarian word “gulyás”, which actually translates as “herdsman”. The original goulash was a meat dish prepared by herdsmen.

58D Weird Al’s “___ to a Superhero” : ODE

“Weird Al” Yankovic is a singer-songwriter who is noted for writing and performing parodies of popular songs. Of the 150 or so such songs, the best known are probably “Eat It” (parodying “Beat It” by Michael Jackson) and “Like a Surgeon” (parodying “Like a Virgin” by Madonna).