Tag: One away from one’s duties crossword clue

Bill’s time: 12m 36s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16A Chichi : SWANKY

Someone or something described as chichi is showily trendy and pretentious. “Chichi” is a French noun meaning “airs, fuss”.

19A Hollywood is on it: Abbr. : PST

Pacific Standard Time (PST)

The iconic HOLLYWOOD sign located in the hills overlooking the Los Angeles district of Hollywood was erected in 1923. The sign originally read “HOLLYWOODLAND” and was placed as an advertisement for a new housing development with that name. The plan was for the sign to stay in place for 18 months, but as it became associated with the growing film industry, it was left in place. The sign was refurbished in 1949 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, with the stipulation that the “LAND” be dropped. A new version of the sign using more permanent materials was unveiled in 1978.

31A One of two in Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna” : CHERUB

A cherub (plural “cherubim”) is an angel. The term “cherub” ultimately comes from the Hebrew “kerubh” (plural “kerubhim”) meaning “winged angel”. In the Jewish tradition, cherubim play a key role in protecting the Garden of Eden, and in particular the Tree of Life.

The “Sistine Madonna” is a painting created by the Italian artist Raphael in 1513-1514. The work was commissioned by the Benedictine monks of the Monastery of San Sisto in northern Italy, hence the painting’s name.

Mary, mother of Jesus, is referred to by several names, including “Madonna”. “Madonna” is a medieval Italian term meaning “Our Lady”.

33A Cartoonist who popularized the Democratic donkey : NAST

Thomas Nast was an American caricaturist and cartoonist. He was the creator of the Republican Party elephant, Uncle Sam and the image of the plump and jocular Santa Claus that we use today.

36A Address no longer than 18 minutes : TED TALK

The acronym “TED” stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design”. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the TED Foundation (formerly the “Sapling Foundation”). The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The TED Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as “TED Talks”. There are also TEDx events, which are locally-run talks presented under license from TED.

41A Second City district, with “the” : LOOP

The historic commercial center of Chicago is known as the Loop. One theory is that the “Loop” got its name from the cable loops in the city’s old cable car system. An alternative theory is that the term only arose with the construction of the elevated railway “loop” that forms the hub of the city’s “L” system.

Chicago was the second-most populous city in the US for decades, until Los Angeles took up the spot behind New York in 1984. This second place gave rise to Chicago’s nickname “Second City”.

47A Date unlikely to be on a calendar : TRYST

In the most general sense, a tryst is a meeting at an agreed time and place. More usually we consider a tryst to be a pre-arranged meeting between lovers. The term “tryst” comes from the Old French “tristre”, a waiting place designated when hunting. Further, a tryst taking place at lunchtime is sometimes referred to as a nooner.

48A Mammoth’s home, for short : NHL

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.

51A Peabody-winning journalist Steve : KROFT

Journalist Steve Kroft was a correspondent on the excellent CBS newsmagazine show “60 Minutes” from 1989 to 2019.

The Peabody Awards have been presented annually since 1941 to individuals and organizations for excellence in broadcasting. They are named for businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, who provided the funds to establish the awards program.

54A Formula 1 fig. : KPH

Kilometers per hour (kph)

In motor racing, the designation “formula” is a set of rules that all participants and cars must abide by. The definition of “Formula One” was agreed back in 1946, with the “one” designating that it is the most advanced of the “formulae”, and the most competitive.

Down

1D It’s usually followed by an “s” : HTTP

“http” are the first letters in many Internet links. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. More secure and “safer” websites (like this one!) use links starting with “https”, which stands for “http secure”.

3D Ding thing? : TEXT

A ding from a smartphone might indicate the arrival of a text.

6D It might bring you to tears : ONION

When an onion is sliced, cells are broken. Enzymatic reactions take place that result in the generation of a volatile gas, syn-propanethial-S-oxide. The gas irritates the eyes and tears are produced in order to clear them.

9D All slam dunks : TWOS

In basketball, a player makes a slam dunk by jumping up and powering the ball downward into the basket with his or her hands over the rim. The term “slam dunk” was coined by Chick Hearn, an announcer for the L.A. Lakers. The NBA even holds an annual Slam Dunk Contest.

10D Accessory turned down on a cap : EARLAP

Earlaps (or ear flaps) might be attached to a cap.

21D It’s a wrap! : SARAN

What’s known as plastic wrap in America, we call cling-film in Ireland. The brand name “Saran” is often used generically in the US, while “Glad” wrap is common down under. Plastic wrap was one of those unintended inventions, a byproduct of a development program to create a hard plastic cover for cars.

26D Whence the line “Beware the ides of March” in “Julius Caesar” : ACT I

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.

27D Comment from one who’s going along : WHEN IN ROME

The proverb “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” probably dates back to the days of St. Augustine. St. Augustine wrote a letter around 390 AD in which he states:

When I go to Rome, I fast on Saturday, but here [Milan] I do not. Do you also follow the custom of whatever church you attend, if you do not want to give or receive scandal?

32D Rorschach patterns : BLOTS

The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which a subject is asked to interpret a series of inkblots. The test was created by Swiss Freudian psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s.

39D ___ Theatre, Atlanta art house named for a fictional estate : TARA

In Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”, Scarlett O’Hara’s home is the Tara plantation. Tara was founded not far from the Georgia city of Jonesboro by Scarlett’s father, Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara. Gerald won the square mile of land on which Tara was built in an all-night poker game. He named his new abode after the Hill of Tara back in his home country, the ancient seat of the High King of Ireland. Rhett’s rival for the affections of Scarlet is Ashley Wilkes who lives at the nearby Twelve Oaks plantation.

46D Tuber that’s the source of tapioca : MANIOC

The cassava plant is a woody shrub native to South America grown largely for its carbohydrate-rich tubers. In fact, cassava is the third largest food source of carbohydrates (for humans) in the world. Ordinarily, that carbohydrate is extracted from the plant and dried as flour, and is known as tapioca.

50D ___ Rousey, first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo : RONDA

Ronda Rousey is a mixed martial artist, and the first US woman to win an Olympic medal in judo. Rousey is a popular person online, with hers being the third-most searched name on Google in 2015 (after Lamar Odom and Caitlyn Jenner).

51D National capital that’s home to Mykhailivska Square : KYIV

Kyiv is located on the Dnieper River, and is the capital of Ukraine. We still seem to use the spelling “Kiev” sometimes, but the Ukrainian government decided in 1995 to refer to the city as “Kyiv” when using Roman/Latin script.

52D Schlep : TOTE

Our word “schlep” (sometimes “schlepp”) means “carry, drag”. “Schlep” comes from Yiddish, with “shlepen” having the same meaning.

54D ___ Annan, former U.N. secretary general : KOFI

Kofi Annan was a diplomat from Ghana who served as secretary-general of the UN for ten years until the beginning of 2007. Annan was born into an aristocratic family, and had a twin sister named Efua Atta. Efua and Kofi shared the middle name “Atta”, which means “twin” in the Akan language of Ghana. Annan attended the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1971-72, and graduated with a Master of Science degree. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, winning jointly with the United Nations organization itself.

58D Work that traces the evolution of lang. over 1,000 years : OED

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

60D “And ___ long gone when ___ next to me” (Taylor Swift lyric) : HE’S

“I Knew You Were Trouble” is a 2012 song co-written and recorded by Taylor Swift. In the lyrics, Swift is blaming herself for a bad relationship that just ended.