Tag: Line of passengers crossword clue

Bill’s time: 20m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A It has its limits, in brief : CALC

Algebra and geometry are used to study a static world, to measure fixed shapes and steady speeds. Calculus is used to study continuous motion, to track things that are constantly changing. The key concept in calculus is the limit. Instead of just finding an average speed over a whole mile, for example, limits allow the calculation of exact values at specific, infinitely small instants.

18A Actress who plays Trudy on “Mad Men” and Annie on “Community” : ALISON BRIE

Alison Brie is an actress best known for playing Trudy Campbell, the wife of Pete Campbell on the TV drama “Mad Men”.

19A Mothers in cotes : EWES

The Old English word “cote” was used to describe a small house. Our modern word “cottage” comes from “cote”. We now use “cote” to describe a small shelter on a farm for sheep or birds. In an urban context, a cote is more likely to house racing pigeons.

21A Silicon Valley V.I.P. : TECH CEO

The Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, is better known as “Silicon Valley”. The term “Silicon Valley” dates back to 1971 when it was apparently first used in a weekly trade newspaper called “Electronic News” in articles written by journalist Don Hoefler.

23A Oslo Accords grp. : PLO

The Oslo Accords grew out of secret negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in a residence in Oslo in the early nineties. The delegates shared the same house while they conducted 14 meetings. While eating all their meals together at the same table, the negotiators came to respect one another and apparently, friendships developed.

30A Fissile rock : SHALE

Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock formed from the compaction of clay-rich minerals. It has a layered structure and is easily split into thin sheets. Shale often contains fossils, making it valuable to paleontologists.

38A Suitable for a game of 20 Questions, in a way : YES-NO

The parlor game called Twenty Questions originated in the US and really took off in the late forties as it became a weekly quiz show on the radio. Am I the only one who thinks that there aren’t enough quiz shows on the radio these days? Apart from a couple of great shows on NPR, I have to resort to listening to the BBC game shows over the Internet …

50A ___ bowl : ACAI

Açaí na tigela is a dish made from the frozen, mashed fruit of the açaí palm and served as a smoothie. Often topped with granola, banana, other berries and syrup, the dish is a specialty in much of Brazil. There’s even a savory version of açaí na tigela (“açaí in the bowl”) that includes shrimp or dried fish and tapioca. Açaí bowls are becoming very popular in North America, especially as a health food.

52A Discover alternative : VISA

VISA doesn’t actually issue any credit or debit cards. The company just sells the electronic systems and infrastructure to banks which then put the VISA logo on their own cards. Seeing the logo, both customer and merchant know to use the VISA system when making a transaction.

Sears introduced the Discover Card in 1985. It brought with it some innovative features for the period, such as no annual fee and a higher-than-normal credit limit. As other credit card companies adopted those ideas, Discover Card later introduced cash-back bonuses on purchases.

54A ___ mess (British dessert) : ETON

The dessert Eton mess is a mixture of strawberries or other berries, meringue, and whipped cream. It is believed to originate from Eton College in England, hence the name.

55A Traditional Passover dish : SEDER PLATE

The Passover Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

56A Scot’s word meaning “past” : SYNE

The song “Auld Lang Syne” is a staple at New Year’s Eve (well, actually in the opening minutes of New Year’s Day). The words were written by Scottish poet Robbie Burns. The literal translation of “Auld Lang Syne” is “old long since”, but is better translated as “old times”. The sentiment of the song is “for old time’s sake”.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For days of auld lang syne

Down

5D Birds whose wings might be folded? : CRANES

Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She was exposed to the radiation and developed leukemia ten years later. While she was in the hospital, she began folding origami cranes. A Japanese folktale says that if a person folds 1,000 cranes (“senbazuru”), they will be granted a wish. Sadako hoped that by folding the cranes, she would be cured of her leukemia. She folded over 1,000 cranes before she died in 1955 at the age of 12.

6D Prefix with -trope : HELIO-

Heliotrope is a pink-purple color that takes its name from the flowers of heliotrope plants. Many heliotrope plants turn their flowers and leaves to the sun, hence the name. “Heliotrope” comes from the Greek “helios” meaning “sun” and “tropos” meaning “turn, change”.

7D Modern pen, of a sort : E-CIG

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 …

10D Part of the hamstring : TENDON

Tendons are bands of collagen that connect muscles to bones. They are similar to ligaments and fasciae, which are also connective tissue made out of collagen, but ligaments join bone to bone, and fasciae connect muscle to muscle.

The hamstrings are four tendons connected to three posterior thigh muscles, although the term “hamstring” is sometimes used for the thigh muscles themselves.

13D Lane in Superman movies : LOIS

Lois Lane has been the love interest of Superman/Clark Kent since the comic series was first published in 1938. Lois and Clark both work for the big newspaper in the city of Metropolis called “The Daily Planet”. The couple finally got hitched in the comics (and on television’s “Lois and Clark”) in 1996. One has to wonder how challenging the crossword is in “The Daily Planet” …

25D Things that ships, computers and wine retailers all have : PORTS

The left side of a ship used to be called the “larboard” side, but this was dropped in favor of “port” as the pronunciation of “larboard” was easily confused with “starboard”, the right side of the vessel. The term “port” was chosen as it was customary to dock a ship, for loading in port, with the left side of the vessel against the dock.

We tend to see two main styles of port (although there are several available): ruby and tawny. Ruby port is stored in concrete or stainless steel tanks that prevent oxidative aging, leaving the wine a bright red color. Tawny port is aged in wooden barrels, which allow gradual oxidation, leaving the wine a golden-brown color.

27D Urban locale that looks out on Ellis Island : JERSEY CITY

Ellis Island is an exclave of New York City that is geographically located within the bounds of Jersey City, New Jersey. The name comes from Samuel Ellis, who owned the island around the time of the American Revolution. Ellis Island was the nation’s main immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954.

29D Tie with string : BOLO

I’ve never worn a bolo tie, and was surprised to discover that it is a relatively recent invention. The first bolo tie was apparently produced in Wickenburg, Arizona in the late 1940s by a silversmith. The bolo takes its name from the boleadora, an Argentine lariat.

31D Poison classification : HAIR METAL

“Hair metal” is also known as “glam metal” and is a sub-genre of hard rock. Glam metal is a bit much for me, but I was a fan of glam rock in the seventies.

Poison is a glam rock band that formed in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania in 1983. Poison’s biggest hit is 1988’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”.

35D Relative of turquoise : CYAN

“Cyan” is short for “cyan blue”. The term comes from the Greek word “kyanos” meaning “dark blue, the color of lapis lazuli”.

“Turquoise” is the Old French word for “Turkish”. The name was given to the blue mineral because much of it was brought into Europe from Turkey, although most of the turquoise mines were located in the Khorasan Province of Iran.

37D Competitor of Venmo : CASH APP

Venmo is a smartphone payment app that is now owned by PayPal. The first version of the product was introduced in 2009 by two entrepreneurs who had met as freshman students at the University of Pennsylvania. They sold the company three years later for over $26 million.

40D Like the herbs on a 55-Across : BITTER
[55A Traditional Passover dish : SEDER PLATE}

Maror is a bitter herb served during the Passover Seder, fulfilling the biblical commandment found in the Book of Exodus: “with bitter herbs they shall eat it”.

41D Wimpy friend? : POPEYE

In the comic strip “Popeye”, there’s a lovable character called J. Wellington Wimpy, usually shortened to “Wimpy”. Wimpy appeared an awful lot in the comic strip that ran in the newspapers, but he was relegated to the minors when “Popeye” was adapted for television.

43D “The Duck Variations” playwright : MAMET

David Mamet is best known as a playwright, and indeed won a Pulitzer for his 1984 play “Glengarry Glen Ross”. Mamet is also a successful screenwriter and received Oscar nominations for the films “The Verdict” (1982) and “Wag the Dog” (1997).

44D Lane in Superman movies : DIANE

Diane Lane is an American film actress, who was born and raised in New York City. Not so long ago, I saw Lane with Richard Gere in “Nights in Rodanthe” (a movie that I recommend). My absolute favorite movie of hers is “Under the Tuscan Sun”, which is based on the memoir of the same name by Frances Mayes (a writer from San Francisco). It’s a lovely romantic story, not without humor, and set in the gorgeous Tuscan landscape.

49D ___ monster : GILA

A Gila monster is a venomous lizard found in the southwestern US and northern Mexico, and is the only venomous lizard native to the US. Gila monsters move along at a snail’s pace so aren’t normally a danger to humans. The name “Gila” is a reference to the Gila River Basin in the American Southwest, where the Gila monster was prevalent.