Tag: Long shot practice crossword clue

Bill’s time: 17m 39s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Breakfast bar item : WAFFLE MAKER

Waffle irons have been around since the 1300s, in the Low Countries. The original version comprised two iron plates connected by a hinge, and two wooden handles. The plates were often cast with a pattern that left an image on the waffle. The waffles were baked in the iron over a fire in a hearth.

14A Homo sapiens, e.g. : GENUS AND SPECIES

The literal translation of “Homo sapiens” from Latin is “wise or knowing man”. The Homo genus includes the species Homo sapiens (modern humans), and we’re the only species left in that genus. The last known species related to humans was Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal Man) that died off about 24,000 years ago. However, another species was discovered in Indonesia in 2003 that has been dubbed Homo floresiensis (Flores Man … sometimes called “hobbit”), and it may possibly have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago.

17A Singer with the 2016 Grammy-winning soul ballad “Cranes in the Sky” : SOLANGE

Solange Knowles is a singer/songwriter, and the younger sister of the incredibly successful singer Beyoncé. Solange was in the news a while back when security camera footage was released showing her punching and kicking Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z in an elevator.

22A Not, colloquially : NARY

The adjective “nary” means “not one”, as in “nary a soul” or even “nary a one”.

24A Airbnb inclusion, usually : LINEN

Airbnb is a website-based service that matches people wanting to rent out short-term living quarters to people seeking accommodation. The company was founded in 2008 as AirBed & Breakfast. The original concept was renting out an “air bed” and providing “breakfast” to someone looking for cheap, temporary accommodation. That’s right; the “Air” in “Airbnb” has nothing to do with “air” travel …

29A Over/under and point spread : SPORTS BETS

An over-under bet is a wager that a number will be over or under a particular value. A common over-under bet is made on the combined points scored by two teams in a game.

The point spread is the number of points offered to equalize the chances in a wager on a sports event. The team that is perceived as more likely to lose is given “free” points before the game starts, and the person backing the winning team wins only when his/her team scores more than the losing team, including the point spread.

34A Dome-shaped Buddhist shrine : STUPA

A Buddhist stupa is a round structure or building that houses relics, often the remains of monks or nuns.

35A Fancy-schmancy : POSH

No one really knows the etymology of the word “posh”. The popular myth that “posh” is actually an acronym standing for “port out, starboard home” is completely untrue, and is a story that can actually be traced back to the 1968 movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. The myth is that wealthy British passengers traveling to and from India would book cabins on the port side for the outward journey and the starboard side for the home journey. This trick was supposedly designed to keep their cabins out of the direct sunlight.

37A Instrument depicted in paintings by Hals and Caravaggio : LUTE

Frans Hals was a painter in the Dutch Golden Age who was born in Antwerp but who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals is best known for his portraits, the most famous of which is probably “The Laughing Cavalier”.

Caravaggio was a painter from Milan who was active in Italy in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Caravaggio achieved fame in his own lifetime, but his works were largely forgotten until they found a new appreciation in the 20th century.

39A Use for a yew : HEDGE

The family of trees and shrubs known as yews propagate by producing a seed surrounded by soft, sweet and brightly colored aril. Birds eat the fruit and then disperse the seed in their droppings. The birds leave the seed undamaged, and so are unharmed by the potent poisons taxane and taxol that are found within the seed. The seeds are highly toxic to humans.

42A Isle of Sappho : LESBOS

Lesbos is a Greek island in the northeast of the Aegean Sea. The Greek poet Sappho came from Lesbos, and she was a woman noted for her powerful emotional poems directed towards other females. It is because of the writings of Sappho from Lesbos that we have our word “lesbian”.

Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet born on the Greek island of Lesbos. Sappho was much admired for her work, although very little of it survives today. She was renowned for writing erotic and romantic verse that dealt with the love of women as well as men. It was because of this poetry that the word “lesbian” (someone from Lesbos) is used to describe a gay woman.

Down

2D Sharpshooter’s asset : ACUITY

Acuity is an acuteness of perception, a mental sharpness. The term comes into English via French from the Latin “acuere” meaning “to sharpen”.

5D First name in Universal horror : LON

Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

Universal Studios was founded in 1912 in New York as the Universal Film Manufacturing Company by a group of investors led by Carl Laemmle. Just three years later, Laemmle opened Universal City Studios not far from Hollywood, on a 230-acre converted farm. Universal Studios made three films that were destined to become the highest-grossing films of their time: “Jaws” (1975), “”E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and “Jurassic Park” (1993).

9D Pauline ___, former New Yorker film critic : KAEL

Pauline Kael was a film critic who wrote for “The New Yorker” magazine from 1968 to 1991.

10D Classic Chevy model : EL CAMINO

Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was a Swiss race car driver who co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911. To this day, the company logo is a stylized Swiss cross, in honor of Chevrolet’s Swiss roots.

26D Michael who plays Allan in “Barbie” : CERA

Michael Cera is a Canadian actor who played great characters on the TV show “Arrested Development”, and in the 2007 comedy-drama “Juno”. Cera is also quite the musician. He released an indie folk album titled “True That” in 2014.

27D “Divergent” author Veronica : ROTH

The “Divergent” series of movies is based on the “Divergent” novels written by Veronica Roth. The movies and novels are set in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago called the Divergent Universe. The story is about a citizenry that is divided into five different factions based on personality traits. The critics weren’t crazy about the first movie in the series, but I really enjoyed it …

31D Physiques that have gone a little soft : DAD BODS

A “dad bod” is a man’s body that is softly rounded. Well, that’s the description I like to use for mine …

32D Former veep with a Nobel Prize : AL GORE

Former Vice President Al Gore was a joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 in recognition for his work in climate change activism. He also won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for his book on climate change called “An Inconvenient Truth”. The documentary of the same name that was spawned by the book won an Academy Award. In addition, Gore won an Emmy as co-owner of Current TV, an independent news network.

36D Private reply : YES, SIR

The lowest military rank of soldier is often private (pvt.). The term “private” comes from the Middle Ages when “private soldiers” were hired or conscripted by noblemen to form a “private army”. The more generic usage of “private” started in the 1700s.

38D One of Oberon’s subjects : FAIRY

Oberon and Titania are the King and Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

39D Author of “Steppenwolf” : HESSE

Hermann Hesse was not only a novelist, but also a poet and a painter. His best known work is probably his 1927 novel “Steppenwolf”. Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.

Hermann Hesse’s 1927 novel “Steppenwolf” is a deeply psychological and philosophical novel. It centers on Harry Haller, a reclusive intellectual who feels he has two warring selves: the refined “Man” and the antisocial “Steppenwolf.” The book is very autobiographical, with the main character sharing the initials of the author, who wrote it during a profound mid-life crisis.

41D Street ending at Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle : MAIN

The first thing most people see when visiting Disneyland is Main Street, U.S.A. Main Street is designed to resemble a Midwest town in America’s Victorian period, and was inspired by Marceline, Missouri where Walt Disney spent his boyhood.

The castle at the center of the original Disneyland is Sleeping Beauty Castle. A modified and larger version of Sleeping Beauty Castle is also central to Disneyland Paris. If you visit the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland, you can tour Cinderella Castle.

44D Many a professional office: Abbr. : STE

Suite (ste.)

45D The Hornets, on scoreboards : CHA

The Charlotte Hornets NBA team takes its name from a Revolutionary War insult delivered by British General Lord Cornwallis. After encountering fierce resistance from local militias in 1780, Cornwallis famously described the city of Charlotte as a “veritable hornet’s nest” of rebellion.