Tag: Voice of the modern age crossword clue

Bill’s time: 9m 32s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Exploiting an I.R.S. loophole, e.g. : TAX DODGE

Tax evasion is illegal, and tax avoidance is legal. Evading taxes involves dishonest tax reporting, whereas avoiding taxes uses the tax laws as written to reduce the amount of tax owed. Both evasion and avoidance might be regarded as noncompliance, because tax avoidance often involves legal manipulation of the system (using “loopholes”) in a manner that subverts the intent of the tax code.

15A Like the national dish tavë kosi (baked lamb with yogurt sauce) : ALBANIAN

The Republic of Albania is a country in the Balkans in southeastern Europe. It became a communist state after WWII, but communism in the state collapsed in the 1990s. It has been a member of NATO since 2009, and was accepted as an official candidate to join the European Union in 2014. The nation’s capital and largest city is Tirana.

16A Moon that’s a neighbor of Ganymede and Io : EUROPA

So far, Jupiter is known to have about 150 moons, more than any other planet in the Solar System. The four largest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were discovered by Galileo in 1610, making them the first objects found that did not orbit either the Earth or the Sun.

18A How Jean Valjean repeatedly breaks out in “Les Misérables” : IN SONG

Victor Hugo’s famous 1862 novel “Les Misérables” has been translated into English several times. However, the title is usually left in the original French as a successful translation of “les misérables” seems to be elusive. Some suggestions for an English title are “The Wretched”, “The Victims” and “The Dispossessed”. The novel follows the lives of several characters including an ex-convict Jean Valjean, a fanatic police inspector Javert, a beautiful prostitute Fantine, and Fantine’s illegitimate daughter Cosette.

20A The o’s in xoxo, symbolically : HUGS

In the letter sequence “X-O-X”, the X represents a kiss, and the O a hug. “O-O-O” is a string of hugs, and “X-X-X” a string of kisses. Hugs and kisses …

25A Resident of Muscat : OMANI (off sides from “ROMANIA”)

Muscat is the capital city of Oman. It lies on the northeast coast of the state on the Gulf of Oman, an arm of the Arabian Sea that connects to the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz.

Romania sits just east of Hungary and north of Bulgaria in Europe. It was formed from the union of two principalities in 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia. The Kingdom of Romania grew larger in size after WWI with the addition of three new regions, including the “vampirish” Transylvania.

42A ___ Lasso, fictional A.F.C. Richmond coach : TED

“Ted Lasso” is a marvelous sports-comedy TV show about an American college football coach who moves to the UK to manage an English soccer team. The title character is played very admirably by Jason Sudeikis. Sudeikis first played Lasso in a series of TV commercials commissioned to promote NBC’s coverage of the British Premier League. The character became so popular that he inspired a whole TV series. Great stuff, and highly recommended …

43A Big Bad Wolf’s disguise : GRANDMA

The Big Bad Wolf is a character in many folklore stories, including “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Three Little Pigs”. Walt Disney’s version of the Big Bad Wolf is called Zeke Wolf, and has a son called Li’l Bad Wolf, or just “Li’l Wolf” to his friends.

45A ___ badge : MERIT (off sides from “EMERITA”)

“Emeritus” (female form “emerita”, and plural “emeriti”) is a term in the title of some retired professionals, particularly those from academia. Originally an emeritus was a veteran soldier who had served his time. The term comes from the Latin verb “emerere” meaning to complete one’s service.

47A Opposite of paleo- : NEO-

The prefix “paleo-” means “prehistoric, primitive”. It comes from the Greek word “palaios” which means “old, ancient”. The prefix “neo-” would be the opposite, meaning “new, recent”.

48A Voice of the modern age : 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.

50A Site for indie designers : ETSY

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

51A Crooner Mel : TORME (off sides from “STORMED”)

Mel Tormé was a jazz singer with a quality of voice that earned him the nickname “The Velvet Fog”. Tormé also wrote a few books, and did a lot of acting. He was the co-author of the Christmas classic known as “The Christmas Song”, which starts out with the line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire …”

53A Beginning of the spelling of “Hera” : ETA

Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and the goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth. She was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

55A U-___ (German subway) : BAHN

“U-Bahn” is the name given to the underground train system in several cities around Germany including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Nuremberg.

56A It has Earth’s highest and lowest points : ASIA

Mount Everest was first summited in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese-Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Hillary and Norgay were part of an expedition from which two pairs of climbers were selected to make a summit attempt. The first pair were Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, and they came within 330 feet of their goal but had to turn back. The expedition sent up the second pair two days later, and history was made on 29 May 1953.

The Middle East’s Dead Sea lies more than 1,400 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point on the Earth’s landmass. It is also one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, with a salt content that is almost ten times that of most oceans.

58A N.C.A.A.’s ___ Eight : ELITE

In the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship, the teams remaining at various stages of the tournament are known as:

• The “Sweet Sixteen” (the regional semi-finalists)
• The “Elite Eight” (the regional finalists)
• The “Final Four” (the national semi-finalists)

62A Certain fatty acids, informally : OMEGAS

Fish oils are noted for containing omega-3 fatty acids, which have many health benefits including the reduction of inflammation. Like so many essential nutrients that we get from animals, the only reason the animal has them is that it feeds on plants. In this case, fish cannot manufacture omega-3 fatty acids, and instead absorb them from algae. Omega-3 fatty acids are also readily found in other plant oils such as flaxseed oil.

64A Certain hockey and soccer infractions … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled and shaded squares : OFFSIDES

In soccer, the offside rule prevents players from gaining an unfair advantage by standing in front of the opposing team’s goal and waiting for the ball to be passed to them. A player is in an offside position if they are in the opponent’s half of the field and closer to the opponent’s goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent.

66A Country singer Lee Ann : WOMACK

Lee Ann Womack is a country music singer and songwriter from Jacksonville, Texas.

Down

1D First president to sit in the Oval Office : TAFT

William Howard Taft may have been the 27th President of the United States, but his lifelong ambition was to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The future president had served as dean and professor at the Cincinnati Law School. President Taft was able to realize that dream in 1921, eight years after losing his bid for re-election as president. As Chief Justice, this former US President swore in two new presidents: Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929). William Howard Taft is also remembered as the most obese president. In the last year of his presidency, he weighed about 340 pounds (he was 5 feet 11 inches tall). Twelve months after leaving the White House, President Taft had dropped 80 pounds and substantially lowered his blood pressure.

Although there have been several “oval” offices used by US presidents in the White House, the current Oval Office was designed and constructed at the behest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The room has four doors. One door opens onto the Rose Garden; a second door leads to a small study and dining room; a third opens onto the main corridor running through the West Wing; the fourth door opens to the office of the president’s secretary.

3D Halo console : XBOX

Halo is a series of video games that was introduced in 2001. Apparently, there’s a lot of shooting, and a lot of aliens …

4D Jean Arp, e.g. : DADAIST

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement was launched in Zurich, Switzerland by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire. The same group frequently expressed disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

Jean Arp was a prominent artist and sculptor who played a crucial role in the development of the Dada and Surrealist movements at the beginning of the 20th century. In the early years of his career, Arp experimented with a range of styles, including Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism. In 1916, he co-founded the Zurich Dada movement with artists such as Tristan Tzara and Hugo Ball. After the Dada movement began to decline in the 1920s, Arp became associated with the Surrealist movement and continued to explore the possibilities of abstraction in his art.

9D Thomas Jefferson’s belief : DEISM

Deism (from the Latin “deus” meaning god) is the belief that a supreme being created the universe, a belief based on observation and reason, and without the need for faith. Further, a deist does not accept divine intervention and rather believes that the supreme being, having created the universe, leaves the world to its own devices.

Thomas Jefferson was the US’s first Secretary of State (under George Washington), the US’s second Vice President (under John Adams), and the US’s third president. Anyone interested in biographies of US presidents might like to read Jon Meacham’s “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power”. I highly recommend it …

11D Ordnance depot : ARSENAL

Our word “arsenal” comes from the Italian “arzenale”, a word adapted from the Arabic for “workshop”. There was a large wharf in Venice called the Arzenale that became associated with the storage of weapons and ammunition, and this led to our contemporary usage of “arsenal”.

21D Master class? : GOD TIER

“God tier” is a term from the world of gaming, and applies to the highest level of power or skill.

24D Setting for Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” : SALEM

“The Crucible” is a 1952 play by Arthur Miller that tells the story of the Salem witch trials. Miller wrote it as an allegory for the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings that were being chaired by Senator Joe McCarthy around that time. Miller was called before the Committee himself, and was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to “name names”.

29D Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out,” to name two : GAY ANTHEMS

“Born This Way” is a 2011 song recorded and co-written by Lady Gaga. Gaga describes it as her “freedom song”, and wrote lyrics that suggest self-empowerment of minority groups.

“I’m Coming Out” is a disco song recorded by Diana Ross in 1980. Although initially intended as a celebratory declaration of Ross’s solo career following her departure from Motown, “I’m Coming Out” has been embraced as an anthem of empowerment and self-acceptance, particularly within the LGBTQ+ community. Ross used the song as an opening number at almost all of her concerts.

37D Lepidopterists’ needs : NETS

A lepidopterist is a person who studies butterflies and moths. The term “lepidopterist” comes from “Lepidoptera”, the order of insects that encompasses such flying insects. “Lepidoptera” itself comes from the Greek words for “scale” and “wing”.

38D Operation Neptune, familiarly : D-DAY

The Allied Invasion of Normandy during WWII was given the codename “Operation Overlord”. The Normandy landings that kicked off the invasion on D-Day (6 June 1944) were given the codename “Operation Neptune”.

44D Electric sign filler : NEON GAS

The basic design of neon lighting was first demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. Such lighting is made up of glass tubes containing a vacuum into which has been introduced a small amount of neon gas. When a voltage is applied between two electrodes inside the tube, the neon gas “glows” and gives off the familiar light.

51D Nation whose name sounds like a plea for seconds : SAMOA

The official name for the South Pacific nation formerly known as Western Samoa is the Independent State of Samoa. Samoa is the western part of the island group, with American Samoa lying to the southeast. The whole group of islands used to be known as Navigators Island, a name given by European explorers in recognition of the seafaring skills of the native Samoans.

54D ___ Virtue, three-time gold medalist ice dancer : TESSA

Tessa Virtue is a Canadian ice dancer who won the 2010 and 2018 Olympic gold along with her partner Scott Moir. Virtue and Moir have been skating together since 1997, when they were seven and nine years old respectively. That makes them the longest-standing Canadian ice dance team in history.

55D Word after finger or poke : BOWL

Poke is a Native Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. “Poke” is a Hawaiian word meaning “to slice”.

57D Do for Jimi Hendrix : AFRO

Many of his contemporaries regarded Jimi Hendrix as the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. Hendrix was from Seattle and didn’t really have a really stellar start to his working life. He failed to finish high school and fell foul of the law by getting caught in stolen cars, twice. The courts gave him the option of the army or two years in prison. Hendrix chose the former and soon found himself in the famous 101st Airborne. In the army, his less-than-disciplined ways helped him (as he would have seen it) because his superiors successfully petitioned to get him discharged after serving only one year of his two-year requirement, just to get him out of their hair.

65D Noted San Francisco weather phenomenon : FOG

Acceptable nicknames for the California city of San Francisco are “the City by the Bay” and “Fog City”. Locals usually just refer to it as “the City” and never, never “Frisco”.