Tag: Reduced price crossword clue

Bill’s time: 16m 52s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Made chitchat : SCHMOOZED

To schmooze is to chat intimately. “Schmooze” is a word that comes from the Yiddish “schmusen” meaning “to chat” .

10A Underground rock : MAGMA

Magma is the molten material below the Earth’s surface. When magma cools, it forms igneous rock. “Magma” is a Greek term that describes a thick ointment.

19A Actor Nick of “The Prince of Tides” : NOLTE

Actor Nick Nolte got his big break in movies playing opposite Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Shaw in “The Deep”, a film released in 1977. Around the same time, he landed a leading role in the hit TV miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man”. Off the screen, Nolte has always had a “bad-boy” reputation. He is indeed a convicted felon, for selling counterfeit draft cards in the early 1960s. He had to pay a $75,000 fine, and was given a suspended prison sentence.

The 1991 movie “The Prince of Tides” was adapted from a 1986 novel of the same name written by Pat Conroy. Stars of the film are Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte. The title “The Prince of Tides” refers to a book of poetry written by the character Savannah Wingo, which is dedicated to her older brother Luke. Luke is often seen as the “prince” figure within the Wingo family, who live near “tidal” marshlands on the South Carolina coast.

29A European landmark whose name begins with an “A” in classical literature : ETNA

Mount Etna, located on the island of Sicily, is one of the world’s most active stratovolcanoes and one of the most frequently erupting volcanoes on Earth. It has been active for at least 500,000 years, with historical eruptions documented for over 3,500 years.

31A Reduced price? : AMT

Amount (amt.)

36A Word in a Tibetan leader’s title : DALAI

The Dalai Lama is a religious leader in the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th to hold the office. He has indicated that the next Dalai Lama might be found outside of Tibet for the first time, and may even be female.

38A “Infection” common among schoolkids : COOTIES

“Cooties” is WWI British slang for “body lice”. Ugh …

40A California city bisected by Interstate 5 : ANAHEIM

The California city of Anaheim is famous as home to the Disneyland resort. Prior to Disneyland opening in 1955, Anaheim was largely an agricultural community. It had been founded in 1857 by a group of German-Americans who were looking for an area suitable for growing grapes. The name “Anaheim” comes from “Ana”, referring to the nearby Santa Ana River, and from “Heim”, a German word meaning “home”.

I-5 is the main interstate out here on the West Coast, running from Canada to Mexico, inland and parallel to the Pacific coastline. I-5 is the only Interstate that runs uninterrupted from the Canadian to the Mexican border.

43A Stunner : LULU

We call a remarkable thing or a person a lulu. The term “lulu” was coined in honor of Lulu Hurst, the Georgia Wonder, who was a stage magician active in the 1880s.

46A Toy popularized by Queen Victoria, familiarly : POM

The Pomeranian is a small breed of dog named for the Pomerania region of Europe (part of eastern Germany and northern Poland). The breed was much loved by the royalty of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria owned a particularly small Pomeranian. Due to the notoriety of the monarch’s pet, the Pomeranian was bred for small size, so that during the Queen’s admittedly long reign, the size of the average “pom” was reduced by 50% …

47A ___ dance (Lunar New Year tradition) : LION

The lion dance is a traditional dance in Chinese cultures in which performers move around in an elaborate lion costume. Apparently, we Westerners often mistake the lion for a dragon. The Chinese dragon dance does exist, and is similar, but the dancers perform outside of the costume and hold up the dragon on poles.

49A Shiny material : LAME

Lamé is a fabric that has metallic yarns included in the weave. It is a popular fabric for stylish evening wear, and also in the sport of fencing. The metallic threads are conductive and so help register a touch by a foil or sabre.

51A Annular reefs : ATOLLS

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring that encloses a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically, an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside inside the circling coral reef.

53A Stock market option : CALL

In the world of stock trading, a call option (also “call”) is a type of financial contract. The buyer of a call option purchases the right, without obligation, to buy a particular commodity from the seller before a specified date (the expiration date) at a specified price (the strike price). The related put option (also “put”) gives the owner of a commodity the right to sell that commodity at the strike price.

55A TV drama whose past guest stars have included Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber : CSI

I quite enjoy the “CSI” franchise of television shows, all except “CSI: Miami”. I find the character played by David Caruso to be extremely annoying. “CSI: Miami” was canceled in 2012. No loss …

66A Carnival line? : CONGA

The conga line is a dance that originated as a Cuban carnival march. It became popular in the US starting in the thirties. The dance is apparently named after the Congo region of Africa, and it was originated by slaves who were brought from there to Cuba.

The celebration of Carnival comes right before the Lenten period in some Christian traditions. It is thought that Carnival perhaps arose from the need to “eat and drink up” any excess food and drink before the beginning of Lent.

Down

5D “Our best thought came from ___”: Ralph Waldo Emerson : OTHERS

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an essayist and poet who was active in the mid-1800s. Most of the essays that Emerson wrote were composed originally as lectures and then revised for print. He is often referred to as “The Sage of Concord”, as Emerson spent much of his life in Concord, Massachusetts.

7D Cracker alternative to Ritz : ZESTA

Zesta is a line of saltine crackers made by Keebler.

12D Primary follower : GENERAL ELECTION

The US is one of just a few countries that uses primary elections, selections of party candidates by popular vote. In the runup to most national elections outside of the US, political parties select their own candidates.

26D Bubkes : NADA

“Bupkis” (also “bubkes”) is a word that means “absolutely nothing, nothing of value”, and is of Yiddish origin.

30D Green-winged water bird : TEAL

Several species of small, fast-flying dabbling ducks go by the name “teal”. As dabbling ducks, they feed in shallow water by tipping their heads down and tails up, rather than diving fully underwater. The familiar blue-green color “teal” is named after the iridescent patch on the wing of the Eurasian teal.

32D Stunning attraction at a winter festival, maybe : ICE PALACE

An ice palace is a temporary structure, one made from blocks of ice. The first such structure was built on the order of the Empress Anna in Saint Petersburg, Russia in the winter of 1739. That particular ice palace was an elaborate affair, erected during the celebrations following Russia’s victory over the Ottoman Empire. The palace survived for several months, eventually melting at the start of the following summer.

35D Seat of one European monarchy : OSLO

Oslo is the capital of Norway. The city burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash too.

41D Like the 18th Amendment, nowadays : NULL

The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution was a great victory for the temperance movement (the “dry” movement), and in 1919 ushered in the Prohibition era. Highly unpopular (with the “wet” movement), Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.

50D Form of a gene : ALLELE

A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

52D The sound that concludes “The Sound and the Fury” : LONG E

The word “Fury” ends with a long E sound.

54D Befuddled : AT SEA

To be befuddled is to be confused. Originally, back in the late 1800s, that confusion was specifically caused by liquor or opium.

65D Lahore is here: Abbr. : PAK

Lahore is a large city in Pakistan that is second in size only to Karachi. It is known as the Garden of the Mughals (or in English, Moguls) because of its association with the Mughal Empire. The Mughals ruled much of India from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.