Tag: Racetrack leader crossword clue

Bill’s time: 8m 42s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Cocktail served in a copper mug, familiarly : MULE

A Moscow mule is a cocktail made from vodka, ginger beer and lime. I like the occasional Moscow mule, mainly because ginger beer was my soda of choice as a kid. Vodka … not so much …

9 Like a kite : AVIAN

Kites are birds of prey that feed mainly on carrion.

16 Tiny pest : MIDGE

“Midge” is a familiar term used for many different kinds of small flies.

17 *They’re found next to cabarets : EXPONENTS (They’re found next to carets)

The exponent of a number is the power to which it is raised, perhaps “2” for a square or “3” for a cube.

In typography, an exponent can be represented by a caret, e.g. πr² can be written as πr^2.

19 Airpods come in them : PAIRS

AirPods are Apple’s line of bluetooth earbuds. When AirPods were introduced in 2016, the market reacted with some skepticism. The left and right AirPods are not connected by any wire, so there was concern that individual earbuds could fall out of the ear, and possibly get lost. Another concern was Apple’s stated intent to abandon the wired headphone socket on new iPhone models.

20 Nearsighted sort : MYOPE

A myope is someone suffering from myopia, short-sightedness. Far-sightedness or long-sightedness is known as hypermetropia or hyperopia .

21 Neighbor of Ursa Major : LEO

The constellation named Leo can be said to resemble a lion. Others say that it resembles a bent coat hanger. “Leo” is the Latin for “lion”, but I’m not sure how to translate “coat hanger” into Latin …

23 Champagne name : MOET

Moët & Chandon is a French winery, and one of the world’s largest producers of champagne. The company was founded by wine trader Claude Moët in 1743. The name was changed to Moët & Chandon in the 1830s when Pierre-Gabriel Chandon, an in-law to the Moët family, was given co-ownership. Moët & Chandon owns the famous Dom Pérignon brand name, honoring the Benedictine monk who did so much to improve the quality of champagne.

24 *Viable investment plans : PONZI SCHEMES (Vile investment plans)

Charles Ponzi was born in Luigi, Italy in 1882 and arrived in the US in 1903, flat broke having gambled away all his money on the voyage to Boston. Ponzi devised a scheme to buy what were known as “international reply coupons” through friends in Italy, which he had sent to him in the US so that he could redeem them on this side of the Atlantic. As the value in the US was greater than that in Italy, he could make a handsome profit. This was in itself an “illegal” transaction, buying an asset in one market at a low price, then immediately selling it in another market at a higher price. But it’s what he did next that became known as a Ponzi Scheme. He couldn’t redeem his coupons quickly enough due to red tape so he approached other investors, initially friends, and had them give him cash so that he could buy more coupons in Italy. He promised the investors he would double their money, which they did initially. Many people wanted to get in on the scheme seeing that Ponzi was able to make the new investors a profit and double the money of the original investors. Eventually, somebody did the math and word started to get out that the investment was risky, so the number of new investors started to fall. Without sufficient new investors Ponzi couldn’t double the money of his latest investors, and the whole scheme unraveled.

28 Kind of protein for bodybuilders : WHEY

When milk curdles it separates into two parts, the solid curds and the liquid whey.

33 Like pomegranate seeds, but not apple seeds : EATEN

The name of the fruit called a “pomegranate” comes from the Latin “pomum” meaning “apple” and “granatum” meaning “seeded”.

42 Like corduroy fabric : RIDGY

There’s a myth that the name of the textile known as “corduroy” comes from the French “corde du roi” (the cord of the king). It’s more likely that “corduroy” comes from a melding of “cord” and “duroy” (a coarse fabric that used to be made in England).

46 Racetrack leader : POLE CAR

In motorsports, the car starting in pole position is the one starting in the most advantageous position on the track. In most cases, drivers earn the pole position by posting the best qualifying times. The term “pole position” originated in horse racing. The fastest qualifying horse was granted the inside part of the starting line, the one next to the pole marking that line.

48 Google ___ : MAPS

Google Maps was developed as a web mapping service for desktops. The (wonderful!) Google Maps mobile app was released in 2008, and is now the most popular smartphone app in the world.

53 Subjects of Project Blue Book : UFOS

In 1952, the USAF revived its studies of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in a program called Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 until it was shut down in 1969 with the conclusion that there was no threat to national security and that there were no sightings that could not be explained within the bounds of modern scientific knowledge.

54 Isaac Newton, from the age of 62 onward : SIR

Kneel, and a monarch might “dub thee a knight” if you’re lucky. “Dub” is a specific term derived from Old English that was used to mean “make a knight”. As the knight was also given a knightly name at the same time, “dub” came to mean “give someone a name”.

Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most influential people in history, and the man who laid the groundwork for all of classical mechanics. The story about an apple falling on his head, inspiring him to formulate his theories about gravity, well that’s not quite true. Newton often told the story about observing an apple falling in his mother’s garden and how this made him acutely aware of the Earth’s gravitational pull. However, he made no mention of the apple hitting him on the head.

55 Tedium : ENNUI

“Ennui” is the French word for “boredom”, and is a term that we now use in English. It’s one of the few French words we’ve imported and haven’t anglicized, and actually pronounce “correctly”.

59 Puts up on Zillow, perhaps : LISTS

Zillow is a company that is primarily known for providing a website and app the public can use to value properties.

64 [$@#%!] : [BLEEP!]

A string of typographical symbols such as “@#%!” that is used to replace a swear word is called a “grawlix”. The term “grawlix” was coined by Mort Walker, the creator of comic strip “Beetle Bailey”, in 1964.

65 Lead-in to skeleton or scope : ENDO-

An animal with an endoskeleton has a supporting skeleton inside its body. So, we humans have an endoskeleton. A turtle, on the other hand, has both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton, its outer shell.

An endoscope is an instrument used to make a visual examination of the inside of an organ or cavity of the body.

66 Where Columbus thought he had landed in 1498 : EDEN

Christopher Columbus set off on four voyages of exploration from Spain. The initial intent of the expeditions was to establish an ocean link with the Indian subcontinent, by sailing westward. Columbus reached the Americas instead of India, yet insisted on calling the natives “indios”, the Spanish word for “Indians”.

67 Junipero ___, known as the “Apostle of California” : SERRA

Junípero Serra was a Spanish missionary, a founder of several missions out here in California. Among those associated with Serra is the Mission in Carmel, where Serra’s remains are buried, and Mission San Juan Capistrano, the chapel of which is believed to be the oldest standing building in the state.

68 Trick-taking card game : SKAT

Skat is a trick-taking card game for three players that is traditionally played with a 32-card deck. The game is played in rounds, with each player bidding for the right to declare the trump suit. The declarer then tries to win at least 11 tricks, while the other players try to prevent them from doing so. I used to play Skat a lot when I was in my teens …

Down

3 Cosmetic procedure, for short : LIPO

Liposuction (lipo) dates back to the 1920s when it was developed by a surgeon in France. However, the procedure quickly lost favor when a French model developed gangrene after surgery. As a result, it wasn’t until the mid-seventies that modern liposuction took off, after being popularized by two Italian-American surgeons in Rome.

5 Fannie of the finance industry : MAE

The Federal National Mortgage Association is commonly called “Fannie Mae”, a play on the initialism “FNMA”. Fannie Mae was founded during the Great Depression as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal.

22 Condition associated with hyperawareness, for short : OCD

Apparently, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed mental disorder, making it about as prevalent as asthma.

25 Documents that ensure secrecy, for short : NDAS

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

26 Target of benzoyl peroxide : ZIT

Benzoyl peroxide is used as an acne treatment, as well as for dyeing hair, for whitening teeth and in the preparation of flour.

29 Many pages are written using this : HTML

The initialism “HTML” stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the language used to write most Internet web pages (including this one).

30 Isaac’s firstborn : ESAU

Esau is a son of Isaac, and someone whose story is told in the Bible’s Book of Genesis. Esau had three wives, Adah, Aholibamah and Bashemath.

33 Endpoint of a radius : ELBOW

The bones in the forearm are the radius and ulna. “Ulna” is the Latin word for “elbow”, and “radius” is Latin for “ray”. The humerus (plural “humeri”) is the long bone in the upper arm.

48 Stylized name for a caffeinated soft drink : MTN DEW

If you check the can, you’ll see that “Mountain Dew” is now marketed as “Mtn Dew”.

50 Meet a mid-April deadline, say : E-FILE

April 15th wasn’t always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.

56 Zilch : NADA

We use the term “zilch” to mean “nothing”. Our current usage evolved in the sixties, before which the term was used to describe “meaningless speech”. There was a comic character called Mr. Zilch in the 1930s in “Ballyhoo” magazine. Mr. Zilch’s name probably came from the American college slang “Joe Zilch” that was used in the early 1900s for “an insignificant person”.

62 Open show of intimacy, for short : PDA

Public display of affection (PDA)