Tag: Voguing sequence crossword clue

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

12A Company that made the world’s first two-nanometer chip in 2021 : IBM

Tech giant IBM was founded as the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896. The company changed its name to the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in 1911 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. The name “International Business Machines” (IBM) was given first to the company’s Canadian subsidiary, and then to its South American subsidiary. In 1924, it was decided to adopt the International Business Machines name for the whole company. Good choice …

15A High-tech means of seeing oneself into work : RETINAL SCAN

An iris scan is a method of biometric identification. It relies on the fact that the complex patterns in the irises are unique to an individual. Note that an iris scan differs from a retinal scan. The latter uses technology that scans the unique pattern of blood vessels in an individual’s retina.

22A Civil rights activist Baker : ELLA

Ella Baker was a human rights activist and champion of civil rights for African Americans. As well as fighting racism in America, she fought sexism within the civil rights movement.

23A Drummer Peart : NEIL

Rush is a Canadian rock band that has been around since 1968. The band has three members: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart.

24A Dish of stuffed grape leaves : DOLMA

Dolmas are stuffed vegetable dishes from the Middle East. Strictly speaking, dolmas are made by hollowing out some vegetables before adding a stuffing. The derivative dish called “sarma” is made by wrapping vine or cabbage leaves around a filling. In many cuisines, the name “sarma” has been dropped in favor of “dolma”.

29A Nissan Stadium team : TITANS

The Tennessee Titans football team is based in Nashville, having relocated to Nashville from Houston in 1997. The team was called the Tennessee Oilers for two seasons, before adopting the “Titans” moniker.

Nashville’s Nissan Stadium is mainly used for football. It is the home field for the Tennessee Titans of the NFL and the Tennessee State Tigers.

31A Viva voce : SPOKEN

“Viva voce” translates literally from Latin as “with living voice”, and we use the phrase today to mean “by word of mouth”. The term might also be used for an oral exam in university, or for a voice vote in a governing assembly.

33A So-called “father of macroeconomics” : KEYNES

John Maynard Keynes was a British economist. He argued that a country’s economy could and should be managed by fiscal and monetary policy in order to mitigate the effects of inevitable recessions and depressions. A wise man …

34A They’re protected by scabbards : SABERS

A saber (sometimes “sabre”) is a sword with a curved blade and a relatively large hand guard. It is thought that the term originated with the Hungarian verb “szabni” meaning “to cut”.

37A 1988 Best Country Song Grammy winner for “Hold Me” : OSLIN

Singer K. T. Oslin is best known for her string of country hits in the eighties.

46A Voguing sequence : POSES

Voguing is a modern house dance that originated in the 1980s. It gained mainstream attention after being featured in Madonna’s 1990 song “Vogue”. The dance style is characterized by model-like poses from fashion magazines, including “Vogue”, hence the name of the dance.

50A Valuable city-building resource in Catan : ORE

The Settlers of Catan (now just “Catan”) is a board game that was introduced in 1995, in Germany as “Die Siedler von Catan”. The game is very popular in the US and was called “the board game of our time” by the “Washington Post”. My son plays it a lot, and as a lover of board games, I am going to have to check it out …

52A Jazz guitarist Montgomery : WES

Wes Montgomery was a jazz guitarist from Indianapolis. He was known for his unique playing style and innovative use of octaves in his solos. He also played with his thumb rather than a pick, which gave his playing a warmer and more rounded tone.

53A Intuitive alarm bells, informally : SPIDEY-SENSE

“Spidey-sense” is a term used to describe one’s intuition or instinct, especially when sensing something that might be dangerous. The term arises from the comic book hero Spider-Man’s ability to sense danger before others.

Down

3D One of 32 in the country of Kiribati : ATOLL

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.

Kiribati is an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean that gained its independence from the UK in 1979. Under the UK’s rule, the archipelago was known as the Gilbert Islands, named for British mariner Thomas Gilbert. Gilbert was captaining one of two vessels that sailed through the island chain in 1788, after transporting convicts to Australia.

6D Gamer’s frustration : LAG

In Internet terms, lag is a delay in response caused by network latency. We might notice lag when streaming a video, for example.

8D About half of all these are made in Philadelphia, for short : US COINS

The nation’s first mint was established in Philadelphia in 1792, as back then Philadelphia was the capital of the United States. That first mint was located in a building that previously housed a whiskey distillery.

9D Nickelodeon series whose episode titles all start with the same letter as the show itself : ICARLY

“iCarly” is a sitcom for teens that has been airing on Nickelodeon since 2007. The show is all about a girl called Carly Shay who makes a regular web broadcast with her friends titled “iCarly”.

21D Play list? : ROSTER

Our word “roster”, meaning “list, register”, actually comes from the same root as our word “roast”, would you believe? “Roster” came into English from the Dutch “rooster”, meaning “table, list”. An alternative use of the Dutch “rooster” was “gridiron”, from the “roosten” meaning “to roast”. The connection is that a roster of names is often listed on a sheet of paper that has grid lines resembling the marks left by a gridiron on roasted meat. Quite interesting …

28D Neighbor of the uvula : TONSIL

The palatine tonsils are located at the back of the human throat. The exact role that tonsils play isn’t completely understood, but it is known that they are in the first line of defense in the body’s immune system. They provide some level of protection against pathogens that are ingested and inhaled.

The uvula is a conical fleshy projection hanging down at the back of the soft palate that plays an important role in human speech, particularly in the making of “guttural” sounds. The Latin word for “grape” is “uva”, so “uvula” is a “little grape”.

29D Put off : TABLE

These “tabling” and “shelving” idioms drive me crazy, because they are often misused. If a topic is shelved, it is set aside. If a topic is tabled, it is brought “off the shelf” and put “on the table” for discussion. I know that language evolves, but I think that it should at least make sense …

30D Midmonth marker : IDES

There were three important days in each month of the old Roman calendar. These days originally depended on the cycles of the moon but were eventually “fixed” by law. “Kalendae” were the first days of each month, originally the days of the new moon. “Nonae” were originally the days of the half moon. And “idus” (the ides) was originally the day of the full moon, eventually fixed at the 15th day of a month. Actually, the ides were the 15th day of March, May, July and October. For all other months, the ides fell on the 13th. Go figure …

36D Existentialist’s inquiry : WHO AM I?

The philosophy of existentialism basically posits that the individual is responsible for his or her life. One cannot look to a higher being, accident of birth, or any other outside influence to define the meaning of one’s life.

38D Axolotl lookalikes : NEWTS

An axolotl is a salamander that is native to Central Mexico. The name “axolotl” translates as “water monster”, It’s an ugly little creature …

40D Tamiflu manufacturer : ROCHE

The giant pharmaceutical and medical diagnostics company Hoffmann-La Roche is based in Basel, Switzerland. The company was founded back in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, and initially produced vitamins.

Tamiflu is a brand name for the antiviral medication oseltamivir.

43D The “E” of the New York Stock Exchange’s “EL” : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales “volume” …

46D Orgs. with “war chests” : PACS

A political action committee (PAC) is a private group that works to influence the outcome of a particular election or group of elections. Any group becomes a PAC by law when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election. In 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that PACS that did not make direct contributions to candidates or parties could accept unlimited contributions. These “independent, expenditure-only committees” are commonly referred to as “super PACs”.

49D 2004 biopic for which Jamie Foxx won an Oscar : RAY

Ray Charles came up with his stage name by dropping the family name from his real moniker “Ray Charles Robinson”. His life was a wild ride, and was well-represented in the excellent 2004 biopic called “Ray” starring Jamie Foxx in the title role. Ray Charles was married twice and fathered 12 children with nine different women. As I said, a wild ride …

“Jamie Foxx” is the professional name used by Eric Marlon Bishop, an actor from Terrell, Texas. Foxx is a very versatile entertainer. He is an Oscar-winning actor (for playing the title role in “Ray”), and a Grammy Award winning musician. He is also a stand-up comedian and a talk-radio host.