Tag: Things that have icons crossword clue

Bill’s time: 10m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Sales spiel : PITCH

A spiel is a lengthy speech or argument designed to persuade, like a sales pitch. “Spiel” comes to us from German, either directly (“spiel” is the German for “play”) or via the Yiddish “shpil”.

13A She can speak more than 20 languages : SIRI

Siri is a software application that works with Apple’s iOS operating system. “Siri” is a short form of “Sigrid”, the name of a Norwegian co-worker of the app’s developers. Voice-over artist Susan Bennett revealed herself as the female American voice of Siri a few years ago. The British version of Siri is called Daniel, and the Australian version is called Karen. Also, “Siri” is a Norwegian name meaning “beautiful woman who leads you to victory”, and was the name the developer had chosen for his first child.

20A Noodle : NOGGIN

Slang terms for “head” include “bean”, “coconut”, “gourd”, “noodle” and “noggin”.

23A Successes for sluggers, for short : RBIS

Runs batted in (RBIs)

37A Character with a famous opening line? : ALI BABA

In the folk tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, the title character is a poor woodcutter who discovers the magic phrase “Open sesame!” that opens the thieves’ den.

45A March Madness org. : NCAA

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year. Another name is “the Big Dance”.

49A One might feature rivers and bluffs : POKER GAME

In the card game called Texas hold ‘em, two hole cards are dealt to each player, and five community cards are dealt face up on the table. The community cards are dealt in three stages. The first three cards are dealt in one stage (the flop), then the fourth card is shown (the turn), and finally the fifth card (the river).

54A Comedian Jon : STEWART

Comedian Jon Stewart is best known for hosting “The Daily Show”. He is a fan of crosswords. Stewart proposed to his girlfriend and future wife in a personalized crossword that was created with the help of crossword editor Will Shortz.

56A Its motto is “Industry” : UTAH

When Mormon pioneers were settling what is today the state of Utah, they referred to the area as Deseret, a word that means “beehive” according to the Book of Mormon. Today Utah is known as the Beehive State and there is a beehive symbol on the Utah state flag. In 1959, “Industry” was even chosen as the state motto, for the term’s association with the beehive.

59A Luxuriates outdoors, in a way : GLAMPS

“Glamping” is “glamorous camping”, camping with comforts and amenities.

66A Complete fiasco, slangily : EPIC FAIL

Back in the mid-1800s, “fiasco” was theater slang meaning “failure in performance”. The meaning morphed soon after into any kind of failure or flop. The term evolved from the Italian “far fiasco”, a phrase that had the same meaning in Italian theater, but translated literally as “make a bottle”. It turns out that “fiasco” and “flask” both derive from the Latin “flasco” meaning “bottle”.

69A Emmy-winning role for Tina Fey : LIZ

“30 Rock” is a sitcom on NBC that was created by the show’s star Tina Fey. Fey plays an ex-performer and writer from “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) and uses her experiences on that show as a basis for the “30 Rock” storyline. Fey plays Liz Lemon, the head writer for the fictional sketch comedy series “TGS with Tracy Jordan”.

71A Words that might be seen on a docent’s badge : ASK ME

“Docent” is a term used for a university lecturer. There are also museum docents, people who serve as guides for visitors to their institutions and who usually provide their services for free. The term comes from the Latin “docere” meaning “to teach”.

72A Letters found near some bars : LTE

In the world of telecommunications, the initialism LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution, and is a wireless broadband communication standard. In general terms, LTE improves broadband speeds. As I understand it, LTE technology allows a 3G network to perform almost as well as a true 4G network, and so LTE is sometimes marketed as 4G LTE, even though it’s really “3G plus”.

Down

1D The “A” in L.P.G.A.: Abbr. : ASSN

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) was founded in 1950 by a group of 13 lady golfers, and today it is the oldest ongoing women’s sports professional organization in the US.

5D Spotted youngster that might be spotted on the savanna : HYENA CUB

The spotted hyena of Sub-Saharan Africa is also known as the laughing hyena because of the sound it often makes, which resembles maniacal laughter.

7D One end of the Suez Canal : RED SEA

The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. It took ten years to construct, and opened in 1869. The northern terminus of the waterway is Port Said, and the southern is Port Tewfik in the city of Suez, which gives the canal its name.

8D Many a “Bridgerton” lady : PEERESS

“Bridgerton” is a fascinating period drama TV series based on a series of historical romance novels by Julia Quinn. Most of the action takes place in London’s high society during the Regency Era. An intriguing element is the show’s approach to race. There is a common, albeit unfounded, assertion that King George III’s wife Queen Charlotte was of African descent. “Bridgerton” runs with this assertion, portraying the era’s society as quite diverse.

10D Slavic title : TSAR

The term “czar” (also “tsar”) is a Slavic word that was first used as a title by Simeon I of Bulgaria in 913 AD. “Czar” is derived from the word “caesar”, which was synonymous with “emperor” at that time. We tend to use the “czar” spelling, as opposed to “tsar”, when we describe a person today with great power or authority, e.g. “Drug Czar”.

12D Cause of a squeaky voice, maybe : 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.

22D ___ Minor : URSA

Ursa Minor (Latin for “Smaller Bear”) sits right beside the constellation Draco (Latin for “Dragon”). Ursa Minor used to be considered the wing of Draco, and was once called “Dragon’s Wing”. The tail of the “Smaller Bear” might also be considered as the handle of a ladle, and so the constellation is often referred to as the Little Dipper.

31D Show to be bogus : DEBUNK

The word “bunk” is short for “bunkum”, the phonetic spelling of “Buncombe”, which is a county in North Carolina. Supposedly, a state representative made a dull and irrelevant speech that was directed to his home county of Buncombe, bringing the term “bunkum” into the language with the meaning of “nonsense”. The derivative word “debunk” first appeared in a novel by William Woodward in 1923, when he used it to describe “taking the bunk out of things”.

39D Garment that is typically around six yards long : SARI

The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that it is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

40D Captain Hook’s right-hand man : SMEE

In J. M. Barrie’s play and novel about Peter Pan, Smee is one of Captain Hook’s pirates and is Hook’s bosun and right-hand man. Smee is described by Barrie as being “Irish” and “a man who stabbed without offence”. Nice guy! Captain Hook and Smee sail on a pirate ship called the Jolly Roger.

41D Evergreen trees with red arils : YEWS

The family of trees and shrubs known as yews propagate by producing a seed surrounded by a soft, sweet and brightly colored aril. Birds eat the fruit and then disperse the seed in their droppings. The birds leave the seed undamaged, and so are unharmed by the potent poisons taxane and taxol that are found within the seed. The seeds are highly toxic to humans.

43D Cat that can purr but can’t roar : PUMA

The mountain lion is found in much of the Americas from the Yukon in Canada right down to the southern Andes in South America. Because the mountain lion is found over such a vast area, it has many different names applied by local peoples, such as “cougar” and “puma”. In fact, the mountain lion holds the Guinness record for the animal with the most number of different names, with over 40 in English alone.

49D Surface of a well-used wok : PATINA

Patina is the oxide film that develops on brass and similar metals over time. For example, it’s the copper patina that makes Lady Liberty the lovely green color that she is.

50D Pocket rockets, e.g., found in a 49-Across : HOLE CARDS

A pair of aces are referred to as pocket rockets, particularly when holding them in the hand (the pocket) in the popular variant of poker known as Texas hold ‘em. The term “rockets” is used as the letters A written side-by-side look like two small rockets on the launchpad (AA).

53D Polyhymnia or Clio : MUSE

In Greek mythology, the muses are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. The number of muses is a subject of debate at times, but the most popular view is that there are nine:

• Calliope (epic poetry)
• Clio (history)
• Erato (lyric poetry)
• Euterpe (music)
• Melpomene (tragedy)
• Polyhymnia (choral poetry)
• Terpsichore (dance)
• Thalia (comedy)
• Urania (astronomy)

55D Group with the 1994 12x platinum album “CrazySexyCool” : TLC

“CrazySexyCool” is a 1994 studio album released by girl group TLC. The album was a commercial success. About 20 years later, a 2013 TV movie about the trio was released under the title “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story”.

63D Skeleton, say : SLED

“Luge” is a French word meaning “sled”. It describes a small sled used by one or two people, on which one lies face up and feet first. The luge can be compared to the skeleton, a sled for only one person and on which the rider lies face down and goes down the hill head-first. Yikes!