Tag: omg rly crossword clue

Bill’s time: 16m 43s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Bank of China Tower architect : I M PEI

The Bank of China Tower (often “BOC Tower”) is a spectacular structure in Hong Kong that was designed by I. M. Pei. Opened in 1990, it was the tallest building in Hong Kong at that time, and was also the first building constructed outside of North America to reach a height of over 1,000 feet.

17A Race to the top : PRESIDENTIAL RUN

Since the days of President George Washington, there was an informal tradition that a US President could hold office for two terms, but would not run for a third. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only president to break with this tradition. Roosevelt was elected US president four times, and died a few months after starting his fourth term. It was President Roosevelt’s decision to ignore the term limit tradition that led to the adoption of the Twenty-Second Amendment of the Constitution, which provides that “no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice”.

19A N.H.L.’s Mammoth, on sports tickers : UTA

When the NHL welcomed a relocating team based in Salt Lake City for the 2024-2025 season, the franchise had no name, and used “Utah” as a placeholder. They played the first season as the “Utah Hockey Club”, and players wore “Utah” on their uniforms. A year later, the team became the Utah Mammoth.

20A Bag that may contain swag : TOTE

Swag is loot, stolen property, and a term that started out as criminal slang in England in the 1830s. “Swag” is also the name given to the promotional freebies available at some events. That said, there’s an urban myth that the promotional version of “swag” is an acronym standing for “stuff we all get”.

22A Bring on board : LADE

The verb “to lade” meaning “to load” comes from an Old English word “hladan”. “Lade” also used to mean “draw water” and indeed gave us our word “ladle”. So “lade” and “ladle” are close cousins.

24A N.A.A.C.P. member?: Abbr. : ASSN

The full name of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is remarkable in that it still uses the offensive term “colored people”. The NAACP was founded in 1909, by a group that included suffragette and journalist Mary White Ovington, wealthy socialist William English Walling, and civil rights activist Henry Moskowitz. Another member of the founding group was W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African-American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University. The date chosen for the founding of the NAACP was February 12th, 1909, the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln, the man most visibly associated with the emancipation of African-American slaves.

27A “omg rly?!” : SRSLY?!

“Srsly?” is text-speak for “seriously?”

34A Makes a return that hits the net? : E-FILES

The IRS e-file system began as a very limited pilot program for the 1986 tax season, available only to professional tax preparers in Cincinnati and Phoenix. It became available nationwide in 1990, and nowadays fewer than 10% of all returns are filed on paper.

39A Saints’ setting, with “the” : … BIG EASY

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana has the nickname “The Big Easy”. This name might come from the early 1900s when musicians found it relatively “easy” to find work there. The city is also known by the acronym NOLA, standing for New Orleans (NO), Louisiana (LA).

The New Orleans Saints football team takes its name from the jazz song “When the Saints Go Marching In”, a tune that is very much associated with the city. The team was founded in 1967, on November 1st, which is All Saints’ Day in the Roman Catholic tradition.

41A Congestion easer : NETI POT

A neti pot is a spouted vessel that is used for nasal irrigation. “Neti” is a Sanskrit word meaning “nasal cleansing”.

44A Huff : SNIT

The exact etymology of “snit”, meaning “fit of temper”, isn’t really known. The term was first used in print in the play “Kiss the Boys Goodbye” by Clare Boothe Luce, which dates back to the 1930s and is set in the American South.

46A Fake news : CANARD

“Canard” is the French word for “duck”. We use the term to describe a hoax or a misleading rumor. This usage comes from a phrase used in French that translates as “to half-sell a duck”, meaning “to cheat”.

47A Best Actress Oscar winner between Chastain and Stone : YEOH

Michelle Yeoh is an actress from Malaysia who appeared in several Hong Kong action films in which she did her own stunts and martial arts scenes. Her most famous action performance was in the 2000 movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, although I best know her for playing opposite Pierce Brosnan in the Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies”.

51A Pang : THROE

Our contemporary word “throe”, meaning a spasm of pain, has been around since the early 1600s. It is a different spelling of the word “throwe” that had been around since around 1200 AD and which meant pain, particularly a pang of childbirth or the agony of death. Pain, from cradle to grave …

52A Part of a volcano : RIM

Our word “volcano” comes from “Vulcano”, the name of a volcanic island off the coast of Italy. The island’s name comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. The Romans believed that the island of Vulcano was the chimney of the forge belonging to the god Vulcan. The Romans also believed that the eruptions on Mount Etna in Sicily were caused by Vulcan getting angry and working his forge so hard that sparks and smoke flew out of the top of the volcano.

54A Environmental portmanteau : SMOG

“Smog” is a portmanteau formed by melding “smoke” and “fog”. The term was first used to describe the air around London in the early 1900s. Several cities around the world have a reputation of being particularly smoggy. For example, the most smog-plagued city in Latin America is Mexico City, which is located in a highland “bowl” that traps industrial and vehicle pollution.

56A Greets, in a way : DAPS

The dap is a form of handshake, and often a complicated and showy routine of fist bumps, slaps and shakes. Some say that “dap” is an acronym standing for “Dignity And Pride”.

57A Prominent feature of Jafar and the Genie in “Aladdin” : GOATEE

A goatee is a beard formed by hair on a man’s chin. The name probably comes from the tuft of hair seen on an adult goat.

60A Villanelle, e.g. : POEM

A “villanelle” or “villainesque” is a 19-line poem structured in five sets of three lines followed by a quatrain.

67A Senator Jacky of Nevada : ROSEN

Jacky Rosen took her seat as the junior US senator from Nevada in 2019. She had previously served in the US House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019. Rosen was the only Democratic candidate to beat a Republican incumbent senator in the 2018 election, defeating Senator Dean Heller.

68A Root crop product : BEET SUGAR

The biggest producer of sugar beets in the world is Russia, with France and the US in second and third place.

69A Classic pitchers : EWERS

A pitcher is a container for liquid that has a handle, mouth and spout. The term “jug” is used for the same container in other English-speaking countries. “Ewer” is an older term describing a pitcher/jug. Today, a ewer is a highly decorative pitcher, often with a base and flared spout.

Down

6D Creature that transmits sleeping sickness : TSETSE

The tsetse fly is responsible for the transmission of sleeping sickness, a disease that is more correctly called African trypanosomiasis. The disease is only observed in humans who have been bitten by a tsetse fly that is infected with the trypanosome parasitic protozoan.

7D Get-out-of-jail-free card, so to speak : AMNESTY

A pardon is in effect a demonstration of pity and forgiveness for the crime. Amnesty is absolution while formally forgetting (“amnesty” is related to the term “amnesia”) that the crime took place. Further, a pardon can only be awarded to someone who has been convicted, whereas amnesty can be awarded to individuals who have not yet faced trial.

9D Essayist who wrote “Not many sounds in life, and I include all urban and all rural sounds, exceed in interest a knock at the door” : ELIA

The “Essays of Elia” began appearing in “London Magazine” in 1820, and were immediate hits with the public. The author was Charles Lamb, and “Elia” was actually a clerk with whom Lamb worked. The most famous of the essays in the collection are probably “Dream-Children” and “Old China”.

10D Not looking reputable : SEAMY

We’ve used “seamy” to mean “the least pleasant, the worst” since the 1600s. The idea comes from the seamed side of a sewn garment being the less attractive.

18D Like a nonstarter, for short : DOA

Dead on arrival (DOA)

23D Woods seen on Broadway : ELLE

“LEGALLY blonde” is a 2001 comedy film starring Reese Witherspoon as a girlish sorority president who heads to Harvard to earn a law degree. “LEGALLY blonde” was successful enough to warrant two sequels as well as a spin-off musical that played most successfully in London’s West End (for 974 performances).

25D Curry accompaniment : NAAN

Curry powder is a mixture of spices used in South Asian dishes. The actual composition of curry powder varies depending on the cuisine. The term “curry” is an anglicization of the Tamil “kari” meaning “sauce”.

30D What some articles are written on : SPEC

Something that is created on spec is done so without having a specific buyer or consumer in mind. Many crosswords are constructed on spec, and then submitted to the likes of “The New York Times” or the “Los Angeles Times” in the hope of publication.

37D Mode, for one : STAT

In a set of numbers, the mean is the average value of those numbers. The median is the numeric value at which half the numbers have a lower value, and half the numbers a higher value. The mode is the value that appears most often in the whole set of numbers.

40D Choking cause, with “the” : … YIPS

The informal term “yips” applies to the nervous twitching that can sometimes spoil a sportsman’s performance, especially a golfer’s putting stroke.

45D Oil alternative : TEMPERA

Tempera is a painting medium made from a colored pigment mixed with a binder such as egg yolk. Tempera painting dates back at least to Ancient Egypt, and is a medium that is very long-lasting. Tempera was the primary medium for painted works of art for centuries, until the widespread adoption of oil paints in the 1400s.

50D Bass player : WOOFER

In a sound system, a speaker that is designed to produce high frequencies is known as a “tweeter”. A speaker made for low frequencies is called a “woofer”. The aforementioned terms come from the fact that birds make high-pitched “tweets”, and dogs make low-pitched “woofs”.

57D Brothers ___ (pop stars of the 1960s-80s) : GIBB

The Brothers Gibb (hence, the name “Bee Gees”) were born in England but grew up and started their musical careers in Australia. They moved back to Manchester in the north of England as youths, and there hit the big time.

58D Many a classic Steinbeck character : OKIE

“Okies” is a derogatory term used during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s for farming families who migrated from Oklahoma (hence the name), Arkansas, Kansas and Texas in search of agricultural jobs in California. The road used by many of these migrant families was Route 66, which is also called “Mother Road”.

John Steinbeck was born not far from here, in Salinas, California in 1902. His most famous novels are probably “The Grapes of Wrath” from 1939, “East of Eden” from 1952 and the novella “Of Mice and Men” from 1937. For his work, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.