Tag: Like some ironed shirts and fall air crossword clue

Bill’s time: 10m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Kurt who fronted Nirvana : COBAIN

Kurt Cobain was famous as the lead singer of the band Nirvana. Cobain was constantly in the spotlight for the last few years of his short life. The media was fascinated with his marriage to fellow rock star Courtney Love, and continually reported on Cobain’s heroin addiction. He finally succumbed to the pressure and committed suicide by inflicting a gunshot wound to his head in 1994, at only 27 years of age.

20A Aristophanes comedy, with “The” : … FROGS

Aristophanes was a comic playwright of Ancient Athens. He is known to have written at least forty plays, eleven of which have survived almost intact. He was famous for writing plays that satirized life in the city, and was apparently much feared by public figures. Some say that the ridicule Aristophanes brought down on Socrates in his play “The Clouds” helped bring about his (Socrates’) trial and execution.

21A Sailors’ patron : ST ELMO

Saint Elmo is the patron saint of sailors. More formally referred to as Erasmus of Formia, St. Elmo is perhaps venerated by sailors as tradition tells us that he continued preaching despite the ground beside him being struck by a thunderbolt. Sailors started to pray to him when in danger of storms and lightning. He lends his name to the electrostatic weather phenomenon (often seen at sea) known as St. Elmo’s fire. The “fire” is actually a plasma discharge caused by air ionizing at the end of a pointed object (like the mast of a ship), something often observed during electrical storms.

24A King George ___, “Hamilton” character : III

“Hamilton” is a 2015 musical based on the life of US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as described in the 2004 biography by Ron Chernow. The show opened off-Broadway in February 2015, and transferred to Broadway in August of the same year. Advance ticket sales for the Broadway production were unprecedented, and reportedly amounted to $30 million. The representations of the main characters are decidedly ground-breaking. The show is rooted in hip-hop and the main roles such as Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are all played by African American and Hispanic actors.

George III was King of Great Britain and Ireland until 1801, at which time he became the first king of the new state known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. George III was on the throne during turbulent times. He saw Britain defeat France in the Seven Years’ War, Britain lose in the American War of Independence, and the defeat of Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo. Famously, George became quite mad towards the end of his life. During that period, his eldest son George ruled as Prince Regent.

25A Some H.S. teams : JVS

Junior varsity (JV)

“Varsity” is an adjective used to describe a university or school team or competition. “Varsity” is a variant of the earlier term “versity” used in the late 17th century, which was a shortened form of “university”.

32A Condiment sometimes known as rooster sauce : SRIRACHA

Sriracha hot chili sauce is named for the coastal city of Si Racha in eastern Thailand, where the recipe likely originated. Here in North America, we are most familiar with the Sriracha sold in a red bottle with a green top that is made by Huy Fong Foods in the city of Irwindale, California. The manufacturer was founded by Vietnamese refugee David Tran, who escaped from Vietnam in 1978 on a Taiwanese freighter called the Huey Fong, after which he named his new company.

39A Brand whose customers made its Super Bowl ad in 2025 : DORITOS

The product that was to become Doritos was a creation at the Casa de Fritos in Disneyland in the early sixties. A marketing executive from Frito-Lay noticed how well the snack was selling in the park, and made a deal to produce the chips under the name “Doritos”, starting in 1964. “Doritos” translates from Spanish as “little bits of gold”.

42A Sporty convertible : ROADSTER

A roadster is a two-seater car with an open body and a sporty appearance. The term “roadster” is American in origin, and was first used back in the 19th century to describe a horse that was used when traveling by road. Roadsters are sometimes referred to as spiders (also “spyders”).

46A “The Spanish Tragedy” playwright Thomas : KYD

Thomas Kyd’s most famous work is “The Spanish Tragedy”, a play written in the mid to late 1580s. Even though Kyd was a recognized dramatist within his own lifetime, he fell foul of the standards of the Privy Council of the day and was imprisoned and tortured for allegedly being an atheist. He died soon after, impoverished.

55A Beer brand discontinued in 2010 : BUD ICE

The American beer Budweiser (often shortened to “Bud”) is named for the Czech town of Budweis (“České Budějovice” in Czech). The name is the subject of a dispute as here is an original Czech beer with a similar name, Budweiser Budvar. American Budweiser is sold in most European countries as “Bud”.

58A Wading bird : HERON

Herons are birds with long legs that inhabit freshwater and coastal locales. Some herons are routinely referred to as egrets, and others as bitterns. Herons look a lot like storks and cranes, but differ in their appearance in flight. Herons fly with their necks retracted in an S-shape, whereas storks and cranes have their necks extended.

63A Steve of “Battle of the Sexes” : CARELL

Actor Steve Carell has achieved great success on both television and in movies. On the small screen, Carell came to prominence on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and then as the lead in the US version of “The Office”. On the big screen, he starred in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Evan Almighty”. My personal favorite Carell movie is 2007’s ”Dan in Real Life”, in which he stars opposite the wonderful Juliette Binoche.

The 2017 film “Battle of the Sexes” is a fictional account of the famous 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. In the movie, King is portrayed by Emma Stone, and Riggs by Steve Carell. Stone and Carell had body doubles for the tennis scenes. Stone’s double was Kaitlyn Christian, and Carell’s double was Vince Spadea.

64A “Tubular!” : RAD!

“Tubular” is a slang from the 1980s meaning “awesome, excellent”. Apparently, the term has its roots in surfers using “tube” as slang for a hollow and curling wave considered best for surfing.

67A U.K. home : EUR

The terms “United Kingdom”, “Great Britain” and “England” can sometimes be confused. The official use of “United Kingdom” originated in 1707 with the Acts of Union that declared the countries of England and Scotland as “United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain”. The name changed again with the Acts of Union 1800 that created the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” (much to the chagrin of most of the Irish population). This was partially reversed in 1927 when the current name was introduced, the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”, in recognition of an independent Irish Free State in the south of the island of Ireland.

68A Eliot of the Untouchables : NESS

Eliot Ness was the Treasury agent charged with the task of bringing down the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. When Ness took on the job in 1930, Chicago law-enforcement agents were renowned for being corrupt, for being on the take. Ness handpicked 50 prohibition agents who he thought he could rely on, later reducing the group to a cadre of 15 and ultimately just 11 trusted men. That group of 11 earned the nickname “The Untouchables”, the agents who couldn’t be bought.

Down

2D Clamdigger pants style : CAPRI

Capri pants first became popular on the island of Capri, apparently. They were invented in Europe in 1948, but only became stylish in the US in the sixties. Mary Tyler Moore often wore Capri pants on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and to some extent she sparked a fashion trend. After a lull in the seventies and eighties there was a resurgence in sales after Uma Thurman wore them (and danced in them) in “Pulp Fiction”.

3D First American multimillionaire : ASTOR

John Jacob Astor was the patriarch of the famous American Astor dynasty. He was the country’s first multi-millionaire, making his fortune in the trade of fur, real estate and opium. In today’s terms, it has been calculated that by the time of his death he has accumulated a fortune big enough to make him the fourth wealthiest man in American history (in the company of the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Bill Gates, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller).

7D Like the words “knackered” and “chuffed” : BRITISH

“Chuffed” is British slang meaning “quite pleased”. It is a derivative of the 16th-century word “chuff” meaning “swollen with fat”. Go figure …

8D Bowed instruments : CELLI

The word “cello” (plural “celli” or “cellos”) is an abbreviation for “violoncello”, an Italian word for “little violone”, referring to a group of stringed instruments that were popular up to the end of the 17th century. The name violoncello persisted for the instrument that we know today, although the abbreviation “‘cello” was often used. Nowadays, we just drop the apostrophe.

9D Haploid cell : OVUM

A cell is haploid if it contains a single set of chromosomes. Sex cells, like the ovum (egg) and sperm, are haploid. A cell is diploid if it contains two complete sets of chromosomes, typically one set inherited from each parent.

10D Kiss, in Córdoba : BESO

Córdoba is a city in Andalusia in southern Spain that is sometimes referred to as “Cordova” in English. Córdoba might be the right destination for anyone seeking out a warm vacation spot in Spain. The city has the highest average summer temperatures in the whole of Europe.

12D Prefix with -metric : ISO-

The word “isometric” comes from Greek, and means “having equal measurement”. Isometric exercise is a resistance exercise in which the muscle does not change in length (and the joint angle stays the same). The alternative would be dynamic exercises, ones using the joint’s full range of motion.

18D Fort Collins sch. : CSU

Colorado State University (CSU) was founded in Fort Collins in 1870 as the Colorado Agricultural College. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Colorado State Rams, although back in the days of the Colorado Agricultural College, the teams were referred to as the Aggies.

The origins of the Colorado city of Fort Collins go back to Camp Collins, which was erected in the mid-1860s to protect the overland mail route passing through the area. The US Army then founded Fort Collins as a military outpost in 1864. The Collins name comes from army officer Lieutenant William O. Collins, who was in charge of Fort Laramie located 150 miles to the north. It was Collins who authorized the establishment of both Camp Collins and Fort Collins.

23D Late-night host Jack : PAAR

Jack Paar was most famous as the host of “The Tonight Show”, from 1957 to 1962. When he died in 2004, “Time” magazine wrote that Paar was “the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: “Before Paar and Below Paar”. Very complimentary …

25D Website with a “Conservadox” option : JDATE

Spark Networks is a company that owns several special-interest dating sites online. The most famous is probably ChristianMingle.com, but there is also BlackSingles.com, LDSSingles.com, JDate.com and CatholicMingle.com.

27D Co. that merged with Neiman’s in 2024 : SAKS

Saks Fifth Avenue is a high-end specialty store that competes with the likes of Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. The original Saks & Company business was founded by Andrew Saks in 1867. The first Saks Fifth Avenue store was opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1924. There are now Saks Fifth Avenue stores in many major cities in the US, as well in several locations worldwide.

Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband A. L. Neiman, were partners with a tidy profit of $25,000 from a business they had founded. This was 1907 Atlanta, and they were offered the chance to invest in a new company that was just starting to make “sugary soda drinks”, a company called Coca-Cola. The partners declined, instead returning to their home of Dallas and founding a department store they called “Neiman-Marcus”.

30D Late-night host Seth : MEYERS

Seth Meyers is an actor and comedian who is perhaps best-known today for hosting his own late night talk show on NBC. Meyers might be described as a poker shark. He won the third season of Celebrity Poker Showdown in 2004.

34D Bad time for Caesar : IDES

In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, a soothsayer warns the doomed leader to “beware the ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophecy and is subsequently killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that fateful day.

40D Many Pablo Neruda works : ODES

“Pablo Neruda” was the pen name, and eventually the legal name, used by Chilean writer Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Basoalto chose the name as an homage to Czech poet Jan Neruda.

50D Fish in a poke bowl : AHI

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

51D Soccer great Rapinoe : MEGAN

Megan Rapinoe is a professional soccer player and a star on the US national team. One of Rapinoe’s many claims to fame is that she is the only player, male or female, to score a goal directly from a corner kick in an Olympic Games.

52D Wrinkly fruit : PRUNE

A prune is a dried plum. The name “prune” comes from the Latin “prunum”, the word for “plum”.

53D Pixelated, informally : LO-RES

A pixel is a dot, and the base element that goes to make up a digital image.

55D Nickname of the “Love Yourself” singer, with “the” : … BIEB

Justin Bieber is a pop singer from London, Ontario. Bieber was actually discovered on YouTube by talent manager Scooter Brown. Fans of Bieber call themselves “Beliebers”.

56D Wrinkly fruit : UGLI

The ugli fruit is a hybrid of an orange and a tangerine that was first discovered growing wild in Jamaica where most ugli fruit comes from today. “UGLI” is a trademark name that is a variant of “ugly”, a nod to the fruit’s unsightly wrinkled rind.

57D Isaac’s favorite son : ESAU

According to the Bible’s Book of Genesis, Esau was the elder twin brother of Jacob, and son of Isaac and Rebekah. Esau sold his birthright, which entitled him to a double portion of his father’s inheritance, for a bowl of lentil stew because he was hungry and didn’t want to wait for his brother to cook food.

60D Billy bawl? : MAA

Male goats are bucks or billies, although castrated males are known as wethers. Female goats are does or nannies, and young goats are referred to as kids.

61D “Just a sec,” in a text : BRB

Be right back (brb)

62D Four-term prez : FDR

The US president serves for four-year terms. George Washington, the nation’s first president, set a precedent by agreeing to serve only two terms. Subsequent presidents adhered to this custom, serving only two terms, until 1940 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to run for a third term. Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term during WWII, after which the Congress adopted the Twenty-Second Amendment to the constitution, which bars anyone from being elected president more than twice.