Tag: Pronoun that’s falling into disuse crossword clue

Bill’s time: 8m 48s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Japanese noodle : SOBA

Soba is a thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. In Japan, the word “soba” tends to describe any thin noodle, in contrast with the thicker noodle called “udon”.

10 Pronoun that’s falling into disuse : WHOM

The pronoun “who” is used when referring to either male or female humans. The objective form of “who” is “whom”, and the possessive is “whose”.

14 Japanese noodle soup : RAMEN

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

15 Chicago paper, familiarly, with “the” : … TRIB

“The Chicago Tribune” was first published in 1847. The most famous edition of “The Trib” was probably in 1948 when the headline was “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN”, on the occasion of that year’s presidential election. When it turned out that Truman had actually won, the victor picked up the paper with the erroneous headline and posed for photographs with it … a famous, famous photo, that must have stuck in the craw of the editor at the time.

16 Virtue signal? : HALO

The Greek word “halos” is the name given to the ring of light around the sun or moon, which gives us our word “halo” that is used for a radiant light depicted above the head of a saintly person.

44 Actress Skye of “Say Anything …” : IONE

Ione Skye is an American actress born in London, England. She is best known for portraying the character Diane Court in the 1989 high school romance movie “Say Anything…”, starring opposite John Cusack. Skye is the daughter of the Scottish folk singer Donovan.

52 Michelle Obama, to Craig Robinson, for short : SIS

Michelle Obama née Robinson grew up on the South Side of Chicago. Her brother is Craig Robinson, former coach of men’s basketball at Oregon State University. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Michelle Robinson worked as an associate at the Chicago office of the Sidley Austin law firm. Barack Obama joined the firm as a summer associate and Michelle Robinson was assigned to mentor him, and as they say, one thing led to another …

53 Common volleyball combo … or 20-, 34- and 41-Across together : BUMP, SET, SPIKE

In volleyball, each team can only touch the ball a maximum of three times before it returns to the other side of the net. The three contacts are often a “bump” (a preliminary pass) and a “set” (setting up the attacking shot) followed by a “spike” (a shot into the opposing court).

Indoor volleyball was invented in 1895 and was originally called “mintonette”, a reference to the related game of “badminton”. The variant called beach volleyball originated in 1915 on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, but was popularized on the beaches of Santa Monica starting in 1920.

58 Most tacky : CHEESIEST

Something tacky is in bad taste. The term “tacky” derives from the noun “tackey” that was used in the early 1800s to describe a neglected horse.

61 Wrinkle remover : BOTOX

Botulinum toxin is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The toxin is a protein that can cause botulism, an extremely dangerous illness in humans and animals. Botulinum toxin is sold under the trade name “Botox”. Botox is used therapeutically and in cosmetic applications to weaken muscles, perhaps muscles that are in an uncontrollable spasm. The cosmetic application involves the paralyzing of facial muscles in order to eliminate or reduce wrinkles, at least for a few months.

62 Dad humor, perhaps : CORN

I tell dad jokes all the time, just to annoy the kids …

• I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down!
• If you see a robbery at an Apple Store, does that make you an iWitness?
• A termite walks into a bar and asks, “Is the bar tender here?”
• Two guys walk into a bar, the third one ducks.
• What’s the best part about living in Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.

63 Bread in a tandoor : NAAN

A tandoor is a cylindrical clay or metal oven used in cuisines from several Asian locales, including India.

64 Papal vestment : ORALE

A fanon is a vestment worn exclusively by the Pope, when he says Mass. At one time the fanon was known as an orale.

66 Younger Stark daughter on “Game of Thrones” : ARYA

Maisie Williams is the English actress who plays the tomboyish young girl Arya Stark on the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones”.

67 Book often shelved on its side : ATLAS

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas” that is used for a book of maps.

Down

2 Shankar who performed at Woodstock : RAVI

Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Shankar was the father of the pop singer Norah Jones.

3 Black cat, maybe : OMEN

In most Western traditions, a black cat is considered an unlucky omen. However, in the Celtic traditions (such as Irish culture), a black cat is a sign of good luck.

4 “Fiddler on the Roof” star : ZERO MOSTEL

Zero Mostel was a stage and screen actor best known perhaps for playing Tevye on stage in “Fiddler on the Roof” and Max Bialystock in the original screen version of “The Producers”. Mostel was one of those many actors whose career languished during the 1950s as he found himself blacklisted by Senator McCarthy and co. But he rebounded, and achieved his greatest success in the sixties.

The enduring musical “Fiddler on the Roof” is based on a collection of stories by Sholem Aleichem about Tevye, a milkman living in Tsarist Russia. The musical version of the tales first opened on Broadway in 1964. “Fiddler on the Roof” had such a long run that it became the first musical to reach 3,000 performances.

8 Shire resident : BILBO

Bilbo Baggins is the main character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel “The Hobbit”, and a supporting character in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

The Shire is a region in Middle-earth appearing in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” series of novels.

9 Héloise’s lover : ABELARD

Peter Abélard was a French philosopher who did most of his teaching in the 12th century. He is renowned not only for his theological writings, but for his legendary affair with Héloïse d’Argenteuil. Héloïse became pregnant by Abélard and was sent away from her home, on the grounds of Notre-Dame in Paris, to Brittany where she gave birth to a son. The loving couple married in secret, but when they were discovered, Héloïse’s uncle separated the two. He sent his niece off to a convent in Argenteuil, where years later she became the prioress. The uncle’s vengeance on Abélard was more brutal, as he had him castrated. Soon after, Abélard himself went into the church, becoming a monk. Yowza …

11 Ancient Chinese dynasty : HAN

The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China and lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD. It came after the Qin dynasty, and before the Three Kingdoms.

19 Element named after the Greek word for “sun” : HELIUM

Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and the element symbol “He”. It is a gas, lighter than air, and is the second-most abundant element in the universe (after hydrogen). Helium was first detected in 1868 as an unknown yellow spectral line during a solar eclipse. As such, the gas was named for “Helios”, the Greek god of the Sun.

25 Mysterious knowledge : ARCANA

Arcana are deep secrets or mysteries. “Arcana” is from the Latin adjective “arcanum” meaning “secret, hidden”.

26 Rick of Rickrolling fame : ASTLEY

Rick Astley is an English singer best known for his 1987 worldwide hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”. He retired in 1993 but became a huge hit on the Internet in 2007 when a YouTube video of “Never Gonna Give You Up” was chosen by tricksters as a link (labeled as something else) that was sent around the world so that the clip was seen by millions online. The phenomenon was given the name “Rickrolling”. With all the new exposure that the song received Astley made a whopping $12 in royalties from YouTube. Yep, 12 whole dollars.

27 Earl of food storage fame : TUPPER

Back in the 1930s, Earl Tupper was working at the DuPont Chemical Company, and from DuPont obtained inflexible pieces of polyethylene slag. Tupper purified the slag and shaped it into unbreakable containers. He added airtight lids with a “burping seal” that provided tight seals similar to that provided by the lids on paint cans. He called his new product Tupperware.

28 Southwestern gully : ARROYO

An arroyo is a small stream or, more often, a dry riverbed.

38 Personification of darkness, in Greek myth : EREBUS

Erebus was one of the Primordial deities of Greek mythology, meaning he was one of first beings to come into existence. “Erebus” is also used in ancient Greek literature as a region in the underworld where the dead pass to immediately after dying.

43 Big ___ (Seton Hall’s conference) : EAST

Seton Hall University is a private, Roman Catholic college in South Orange, New Jersey. The most famous of the school’s sports programs is men’s basketball, played by the Seton Hall Pirates.

47 Portugal’s capital, in Portugal : LISBOA

In Portuguese, “Lisboa” (Lisbon) and “Porto” (Oporto) are the two largest cities in Portugal.

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. It is the westernmost capital city in Europe, and indeed is the westernmost large city on the continent. Lisbon is also the oldest city in Western Europe, and was founded hundreds of years before London, Paris and Rome.

54 Mountain above Vulcan’s forge : ETNA

Vulcan was the ancient Roman god of fire. He gave his name to the volcanic island of Vulcano, located a few miles off the coast of Sicily, as the Romans believed that the island was Vulcan’s chimney. In turn, Vulcano gave its name to our contemporary word “volcano”.

55 Right-leaning type?: Abbr. : ITAL

Italic type leans to the right, and is often used to provide emphasis in text. The style is known as “italic” because the stylized calligraphic form of writing originated in Italy, probably in the Vatican.

56 Nut that’s a source of caffeine : KOLA

The nut of the kola tree has a bitter taste, and is loaded with caffeine. Despite the taste, the nut is habitually chewed in some cultures, especially in West Africa where the tree is commonly found in the rainforest. Here in the US we best know the kola nut as a flavoring used in cola drinks.

59 It’s not one of the five W’s : HOW

The Five Ws (or “Five Ws and one H”) is a journalistic concept used for gathering information. For a story to be complete, six questions need to be answered:

1. Who is it about?
2. What happened?
3. Where did it take place?
4. When did it take place?
5. Why did it happen?
6. How did it happen?

60 The “E” of B.C.E. : ERA

The designations Anno Domini (AD, “year of Our Lord”) and Before Christ (BC) are found in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The dividing point between AD and BC is the year of the conception of Jesus, with AD 1 following 1 BC without a year “0” in between. The AD/BC scheme dates back to AD 525, and gained wide acceptance soon after AD 800. Nowadays a modified version has become popular, with CE (Common/Christian Era) used to replace AD, and BCE (Before the Common/Christian Era) used to replace BC.