Tag: Something to wear while watching the game crossword clue

Bill’s time: 29m 18s

Bill’s errors: 3

• TALLCHIEF (Tallchiel)
• ROISTER (moister!)
• SAFARI HAT (salami hat!!! …. Don’t ask …)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Goober : DORK

I consider “dork” and “adorkable” to be pretty offensive slang. “Dork” originated in the sixties among American students, and has its roots in another slang term, a term for male genitalia.

14 Headquarters of Talofa Airways : APIA, SAMOA

Apia is the capital city, and the only city, of the Pacific island-nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven naval vessels from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was to head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of others. Six of the ships were lost in the typhoon as a result and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely. Apia is also known as the home of writer Robert Louis Stevenson, for the last four years of his life.

17 Ballerina who popularized “The Nutcracker” : TALLCHIEF

Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” is one of the most popular ballets in the repertoire. It premiered in St. Petersburg in 1892, but its public appeal really only emerged in the late 1960s. It’s a “must-see ballet” during the Christmas holidays.

18 Sandbar : SHOAL

A shoal is an underwater ridge or bank that is covered with a material such as sand or silt.

19 Word on Saudi Arabia’s flag : ALLAH

The flag of Saudi Arabia has a green background on which there is a white sword, and above the sword an inscription in white lettering. The inscription is the Islamic declaration of faith, and translates as “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”. Manufacturing the flag is a little tricky as it has two different sides, so the writing must read correctly (from right-to-left) on both sides. Also, the sword which lies horizontally under the inscription, it has to point away from the flagpole on both sides. If you think about it, each side is therefore a different design.

24 Revel noisily : ROISTER

To roister is to revel noisily. The term “roister” derives from the Middle French word “ruistre” meaning “ruffian”.

28 Element between platino and mercurio : ORO

In Spanish, “oro” (gold) is an element between “platino” (platinum) and “mercurio” (mercury) on the Periodic Table.

33 Holy book, in one spelling : KORAN

The Koran is also known as the “Qur’an” and “Quran” in English. “Qur’an” a transliteration of the Arabic name for the holy text of the Muslim faith. The literal translation of “Koran” is “the recitation”.

35 Phrase on ID tags : FAMOUS POTATOES

Idaho has the nickname “Gem State”, mainly because almost every known type of gemstone has been found there. Idaho is also sometimes called the Potato State, as potatoes are such a popular crop in the state. I’d go for the potatoes over the gems, but that’s probably just me. Oh, and Idaho license plates have borne the slogan “Famous Potatoes” for decades …

38 Wordle score that elicits the message “Genius” : ONE

Wordle is a web-based word game that a Welsh software engineer developed to play with his partner during the COVID pandemic. The name “Wordle” is a play on the engineer’s own name: Josh Wardle. Wardle published the game on its own website in 2021, primarily for the use of Wardle’s family. One month later, the game had 90 players, and a month later 300,000 players. A week later, the number of daily players had grown to two million! The New York Times purchased Wordle in 2022 “for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”.

40 Veet rival : NAIR

Nair is a hair-removal product that has some pretty harsh ingredients. The most important active constituents are calcium hydroxide (“slaked lime”) and sodium hydroxide (“caustic soda”). Other Nair components seem to be there to soothe the skin after the harsher chemicals have done their job. The name “Nair” probably comes from combining “no” and “hair”.

The hair removal product “Neet” was launched in Canada in 1901, and was also sold as “Immac”. Today, it is sold under the name “Veet”.

41 Cold palate cleansers : SORBETS

“Sorbet” can mean different things around the world. Here in the US, sorbet is a non-fat frozen dessert that is made without any dairy content.

43 About 91,500 are produced by a gal. of propane : BTUS

In the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the power of a heating or cooling unit can be measured using the British Thermal Unit (BTU). This dated unit is the amount of energy required to heat a pound of water so that the water’s temperature increases by one degree Fahrenheit.

Propane is a gas with the formula C₃H₈. It is an abundant byproduct of the refining of petroleum and is used as a fuel. The gas liquefies readily under pressure, and is usually transported in pressurized containers. However, the containers of “propane” that we purchase in stores are actually a mixture of propane and butane, usually in the ratio of about 50:50.

46 “___ Dragon” (1977 Disney film) : PETE’S

“Pete’s Dragon” is a Walt Disney feature film released in 1977. It’s all about an orphan named Pete who has a dragon named Elliott as a friend.

51 Like some asteroids : NEAR-EARTH

Near-Earth asteroids are relatively near to the Earth’s orbit. As such, they are not part of the main asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. 433 Eros was the first of the near-Earth asteroids to be discovered. It was noticed on the same night in 1898 by two different stargazers, one in Berlin and one in Nice. Rather oddly, Eros was claimed as property by one Gregory Nemitz, who fought in court for the right to charge NASA 20 cents a year parking and storage fee for a spacecraft that they landed on the asteroid in 2001. The case was dismissed …

56 Piece with a point : OP-ED

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

Down

1 Crunched stuff : DATA

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

2 ___ Lee, activist who led the movement to make Juneteenth a federal holiday : OPAL

“Juneteenth” is a holiday celebrated on June 19th every year, a commemoration of the emancipation of slaves throughout the Confederate South. President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order known as the Emancipation Proclamation came into effect on January 1st, 1863 but it only applied to Confederate states that were not in Union hands. The order freeing the last slaves in the US was issued at the end of the Civil War, on June 19th 1865. That order applied specifically to the State of Texas. Over a decade later, in 1980, Texas became the first state to declare June 19th (“Juneteenth”) a state holiday.

3 Small stream : RILL

The word “rill”, meaning a small brook or rivulet, has German roots. It has the same roots as “Rhine”, the name of the major European river.

4 Home to “a real pipperoo” of song : KALAMAZOO

“(I’ve Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo” is a song made famous by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H
I got a gal in Kalamazoo
Don’t want to boast but I know she’s the toast of Kalamazoo
(Zoo, zoo, zoo, zoo, zoo)

5 Grinchy shout : BAH!

The Grinch is the title character in Dr. Seuss’s 1957 children’s book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” He is a grouchy creature who lives as a hermit in a cave outside the town of Whoville. The Grinch’s only companion is his dog Max. Based on Seuss’s hero, we now use the term “grinch” for someone who is opposed to Christmas festivities or who is coarse and greedy in general.

6 Like participants in the rite of rumspringa : AMISH

The Amish are members of a group of Christian churches, and a subgroup of the Mennonite churches. The Amish church originated in Switzerland and Alsace in 1693 when it was founded by Jakob Ammann. It was Ammann who gave the name to the Amish people. Many Amish people came to Pennsylvania in the 18th century.

7 Present time : NOEL

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

8 Something to wear while watching the game : SAFARI HAT

“Safari” is a Swahili word meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

9 College basketball powerhouse : HUSKIES

The UConn Huskies are the sports teams of the University of Connecticut. I wasn’t able to uncover the derivation of the “Huskies” moniker. Although it is true that “UConn” sounds like “Yukon”, that isn’t the derivation of the “Huskies” nickname. The school didn’t become the University of Connecticut (UConn) until 1939, and the Huskies name has been used since 1933.

13 Valentino competitor, for short : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

15 Woodstock artist : SCHULZ

Woodstock is Snoopy’s best friend in the Charles Schulz comic strip “Peanuts”. He is a little yellow bird, and takes his name from the Woodstock rock festival. The naming is a reference to the festival’s iconic publicity poster that features a dove of peace sitting on the neck of a guitar.

25 Host of “The Joy of Painting” : ROSS

Bob Ross was an artist and art instructor. Ross created and appeared in the long-running PBS show “The Joy of Painting”, a show which provided instructions for budding artists. He was known for some colorful phrases that he tended to repeat on screen, one of the most famous being “let’s add some happy little trees”.

27 Young haddock : SCROD

Scrod is the name given to fish that has been “scrawed” i.e. split open, dried and then broiled.

29 Subject of New York City’s first public statue of a woman (1915) : JOAN OF ARC

Joan of Arc (also “Jeanne d’Arc”, her birth name) led the French Army successfully into battle a number of times during the Hundred Years War with England. When she was eventually captured, Joan was tried in Rouen, the seat of the occupying English government in France at that time. There she was burned at the stake having been found guilty of heresy. In fact, after the fire died down, the executioner raked the coals to display the charred body, proving Joan had died, and then burned the corpse again, twice, so that relics could not be collected. The remaining ashes were then cast into the Seine River. Joan of Arc was canonized some 600 years later, in 1920, and is now one of the patron saints of France.

31 Prime minister of Ireland : TAOISEACH

The Prime Minister of Ireland is referred to, both in English and in Irish, by the Irish name for the office: “an Taoiseach”. The Irish term translates into English as “chief, leader”. “Taoiseach” is reserved for the Prime Minister of Ireland. When referring, in Irish, to a prime minister of another country, the more generic term “príomh-aire” is used, which translates as “chief minister”.

32 Corp. money managers : CFOS

Chief financial officer (CFO)

37 Brownish grays : TAUPES

Taupe is a dark, gray-brown color. The word “taupe” comes from the Latin name of the European Mole, which has skin with the same color.

42 Model Hadid who wore a spray-on dress at a 2022 Paris fashion show : BELLA

Bella Hadid is an American fashion model. She has modeling in her blood, as her mother is Yolanda Hadid (née van den Herik), a Dutch-born former model. Yolanda is a star on the TV show “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”. Bella is one of the highest paid models in the world.

43 Poet whose line “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom” is quoted in “Bull Durham” : BLAKE

William Blake was an English poet and artist who is considered now to have been a powerful force in his field during the Romantic Age. One of Blake’s more famous poems is “The Tyger”, which has the celebrated lines:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” is a set of texts written by English poet William Blake between 1790 and 1793. Two quotations from this work persist to this day as proverbs:

• The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom
• The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction

45 Antepenultimate word in a noted Neil Armstrong quote : LEAP

Neil Armstrong was the most private of individuals. You didn’t often see him giving interviews, unlike so many of the more approachable astronauts of the Apollo space program. His famous, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind” statement; that was something that he came up with himself, while Apollo 11 was making its way to the moon.

The term “ultimate” means “last. “Penultimate” means “second-to-last”, and “antepenultimate” means “third-to-last”.

48 Being, to Sartre : ETRE

Jean-Paul Sartre was a leading French philosopher, as well as a writer and political activist. Sartre also served with the French army during WWII and spent nine months as a prisoner of war having been captured by German troops. He was one of the few people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize and to have then refused to accept it. Sartre was named winner of the prize for Literature in 1964, for his first novel “Nausea”. Before his win, Sartre knew that his name was on the list of nominees so he wrote to the Nobel Institute and asked to be withdrawn from consideration. The letter somehow went unread, so he found himself having to refuse the award after he had been selected.

50 “Mahalo nui ___” (words from a grateful Hawaiian) : LOA

In Hawaiian, “mahalo” means “thank you” and “mahalo nui loa” translates as “thank you very much”.

52 Like three-balls : RED

One side (player) in a game of pool uses the “solid” balls, the other the “stripes”.