Tag: Root words? crossword clue

Bill’s time: 10m 52s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Well-insulated homes : IGLOOS

The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”. The walls of igloos are tremendous insulators, due to the air pockets in the blocks of snow.

21 Surrealist with a museum in Barcelona : MIRO

Joan Miró was a Spanish artist. He immersed himself in Surrealism, so much so that Andre Breton, the founder of the movement, said that Miró was “the most Surrealist of us all”. There are two museums dedicated to Miró’s work. The Fundació Joan Miró is in his native Barcelona, and the Fundació Miró Mallorca is in Palma de Mallorca, where the artist spent much of his life.

23 Grp. that cares about care : AMA

American Medical Association (AMA)

30 Org. whose website has a “Register Your Drone” page : FAA

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

31 Vets-to-be : GIS

The initialism “GI” stands for “Government Issue”, and not “General Infantry” as is widely believed. “GI” was first used in the military to denote equipment made from Galvanized Iron and during WWI, incoming German shells were nicknamed “GI cans”. Soon after, the term GI came to be associated with “Government Issue” and eventually became an adjective to describe anything associated with the Army.

37 Chipotle competitor : QDOBA

Qdoba is a chain of casual restaurants specializing in Mexican cuisine. The chain started out in 1995 with the name Zuma Fresh Mexican Grill, then Z-Teca Mexican Grill in 1997. Both “Zuma” and “Z-Teca” were challenged by establishments that already had similar names, and so the company settled on Qdoba Mexican Grill in 1999, a completely invented moniker.

52 2013 film in which Scarlett Johansson is heard but never seen : HER

2003’s “Her” is a rather unusual film. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who develops a relationship with a computer operating system called “Samantha”, which is voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

Scarlett Johansson is a film actress from New York City. Johansson had an acclaimed lead performance in the 1996 movie “Manny & Lo”, when she was just 12 years old. The earliest films I remember her in, two favorites of mine, are “Girl in a Pearl Earring” and “Lost in Translation”, both from 2013. She has become quite the sex symbol, and is the only woman to have been named “Sexiest Woman Alive” twice by “Esquire” magazine. The media sometimes refer to her as “ScarJo”, a moniker that she apparently dislikes intensely.

53 SoCal sluggers, on scoreboards : LAA

The Anaheim Angels baseball team is today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (LAA). The “Angels” name dates back to 1961 when the team was founded in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels are also known as “the Halos”.

54 One of 27,520 for Disney World : ACRE

Walt Disney World, located near Orlando in Florida, is the most visited vacation resort in the world. The resort comprises four different theme parks as well as two water parks:

• Magic Kingdom
• Epcot
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon
• Disney’s Blizzard Beach

55 Snow globes, e.g. : ORBS

It is believed that the first snow globes were introduced in France in the early 1800s. They were a development of glass paperweights that were already common, and were initially used to do the same job. Do you know who owns the biggest collection of snow globes in the world, over 8,000 of them? That would be the actor Corbin Bernsen of “LA Law” and “Psych” fame.

59 Composer for whom Poland’s largest airport is named : CHOPIN

Frédéric Chopin was a Polish composer who spent most of his life in France. He was most famous for his piano works in the Romantic style. Chopin was a sickly man and died quite young, at 39. For many of his final years he had a celebrated and tempestuous relationship with the French author George Sand (the nom de plume of the Baroness Dudevant). Those years with Sand may have been turbulent, but they were very productive in terms of musical composition.

63 Greek moon goddess : SELENE

Selene was the Greek goddess of the moon, and the equivalent of the Roman deity Luna. Selene gave her name to the word “selenology”, the study of the geology of the moon, and also gave her name to the chemical element “selenium”. According to mythology, Selene fell in love with the handsome hunter/shepherd Endymion, a mere mortal.

65 Side in a game of Battleship : FLEET

Battleship is a surprisingly fun guessing game that I used to play as a child. Back then, we would play it just using pencil and paper. These days kids are more likely to play an electronic version of the game.

Down

2 Feared fifth-century leader : ATTILA

In his day, Attila the Hun was the most feared enemy of the Roman Empire, until he died in 453 AD. Attila was the leader of the Hunnic Empire of central Europe and was famous for invading much of the continent. However, he never directly attacked Rome.

3 Middle’s middle : DEES

The middle of the word “middle” are two letters D (dees).

4 Rice variety : BASMATI

Basmati is a long grain rice that is commonly used in Indian and Pakistani cuisine. The name “basmati” comes from the Sanskrit word “vasmati” meaning “fragrant”. I am a big fan …

5 One administering compressions, for short : EMT

An emergency medical technician (EMT) might administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

13 Zeal : GUSTO

“Gusto” is an Italian word meaning “taste”. We use it in English in the phrase “with gusto” meaning “with great enjoyment”.

24 Debugging soft wear? : MOSQUITO NET

Mosquitoes have a relatively short life cycle. Males live a matter of days, and females just a few weeks. In order to reproduce, male mosquitoes form large swarms, usually late in the day. Female mosquitoes fly into the swarm when ready to mate.

33 Port caller : GULL

Gulls are a family of seabirds that is most closely related to terns. Some species of gull can be quite clever. For example, they can reportedly use pieces of bread as bait to catch goldfish in ponds. Others can be quite fearless, and have been known to land on the backs of whales and peck out pieces of flesh.

35 Title for Bobby Flay on reality TV : IRON CHEF

“Iron Chef” is a Japanese cooking show that has been broadcast since 1993. The original Japanese show was dubbed for airing in English-speaking countries and became a surprising hit around the world. There are now spin-off shows around the world including “Iron Chef America” and “Iron Chef UK”.

Bobby Flay is a celebrity chef who has hosted several shows on the Food Network. Flay is also an Iron Chef on the show “Iron Chef America”, which also airs on the Food Network.

51 Prairie home : TEPEE

A tepee (also written as “tipi” and “teepee”) is a cone-shaped tent traditionally made from animal hides that is used by the Great Plains Native Americans. A wigwam is a completely different structure and is often a misnomer for a tepee. A wigwam is a domed structure built by Native Americans in the West and Southwest, intended to be a more permanent dwelling. The wigwam can also be covered with hides but more often was covered with grass, reeds, brush or cloth.

56 Keeps informed, in a way : BCC’S

A blind carbon copy (bcc) is a copy of a document or message that is sent to someone without other recipients of the message knowing about that extra copy.

62 ___ protein, substitute used in Beyond Meat products : PEA

Beyond Meat is a producer of meat substitutes that are plant-based. The company was founded in 2009, and is based in El Segundo, California. Beyond Meat’s beef substitutes incorporate red beet juice to mimic the appearance of blood.