Tag: What a helicopter might fly out of? crossword clue

Bill’s time: 37m 36s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Terrible twos? : SOPHOMORE SLUMPS

The term “sophomore” has been used for a student in the second year of university since the 1680’s. The original meaning of the word was “arguer”. The term has Greek roots, from two Greek words that have been artificially combined in English. The Greek “sophos” means “wise”, and “moros” means “foolish”.

16 Much-viewed showdown of 1975 : THRILLA IN MANILA

The Thrilla in Manila was a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in Manila, Philippines in 1975. It was to be the third and final fight between the two boxers. Ali won the early rounds, but Frazier made a comeback in the middle of the fight. Ali took control at the end of the bout, so much so that Frazier wasn’t able to come out of his corner for the 15th and final round. He couldn’t continue fighting because both of his eyes were swollen shut, giving Ali a victory due to a technical knockout (TKO).

17 Classic Jonathan Swift satire : A MODEST PROPOSAL

Jonathan Swift was an Irish author and cleric. Swift is most famous perhaps for his 1726 novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, but we Irishmen also remember him as the Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Swift was renowned for his wit and satire.

20 “The 1619 Project” publisher, for short : NYT

“The New York Times” (NYT) has been published since 1851, and is sometimes referred to as “the Gray Lady”. These days a viable alternative to buying the paper is to read the news online. NYTimes.com is the most popular online newspaper website in the country.

22 What a helicopter might fly out of? : MAPLE

“Helicopter seed” and “whirlybird” are familiar names given to a type of fruit more correctly called a samara. A samara has a flattened wing or wings made of papery tissue from the ovary wall. These wings enable the wind to carry the seed farther from the parent tree. Samaras are produced by several species of tree and shrub, including elm and ash trees.

25 Home of Switzerland’s oldest university : BASEL

The city of Basel in Switzerland lies right where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, and so has suburbs that lie in both France and Germany.

26 Nation that moved east of the International Date Line in 1892 and west of it in 2011 : 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.

27 Neutral pH : SEVEN

As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

32 Remark while browsing an old photo album … or “Guilty as charged!” : THAT’S ME

The Latin word “album” translates as “white”. Back in the 17th century, public notices and lists of names were written on a board painted white, or in a souvenir book with white pages known as an “albo” (from “album”). Over time, the term “album” came to be used in English for a blank book created to collect signatures or other mementos. By the end of the 19th century, albums were used to collect photographs. The term “album” was applied to long-playing gramophone records in the early 1950s, because the record sleeves resembled large photographic albums.

33 Author Susan whom Meryl Streep portrayed in “Adaptation” : ORLEAN

“The Orchid Thief” is a 1998 book by journalist Susan Orlean about the poaching of the rare Ghost Orchid from a Florida State Park. The book was adapted into the 2002 film “Adaptation” starring Meryl Streep as the author Orlean.

34 Debt notes : CHITS

A chit is a note or a short letter. The term “chit” tends to be used these days in the sense of an amount owed (as in a poker game). The word used to be “chitty”, which is now obsolete but was closer to the original Hindi term. I feel a tad obsolete myself, because when we are at school we would be excused from class if we had a “chitty”.

35 Fertile mixtures : LOAMS

Loam is soil made up of sand, silt and clay in the ratio of about 40-40-20. Relative to other soil types, loam is usually rich in nutrients and moisture, drains well and is easy to till. Loam can also be used in constructing houses as it is quite strong when mixed with straw and dried.

37 Abbr. in a Car and Driver review : MPG

“Car and Driver” is an automotive magazine published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Car and Driver” first appeared in 1955, when it was called “Sports Cars Illustrated”.

42 Mother of Cronus and Rhea : GAIA

The Greek goddess personifying the earth was Gaea (also “Gaia”, and meaning “land” or “earth” in Greek). The Roman equivalent goddess was Terra Mater, “Mother Earth”.

In Greek mythology, Cronus (also “Kronos”) was one of the Titans. Cronus overthrew his father Uranus and took over rule of the Titans. Eventually, Cronus was ousted by his own son Zeus. The Roman equivalent of Cronus was the deity Saturn.

In Greek mythology, Rhea was one of the Titans. She was the sister and wife of Cronus, and together they had six children, the last of which was Zeus. Cronus swallowed all of his children as soon as they were born, except for Zeus, who Rhea managed to hide from her husband.

43 Mens ___ : REA

“Mens rea” is Latin for “guilty mind” and is a central concept in criminal law. The concept is expanded to “actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea” meaning “the act does not make a person guilty unless the mind be also guilty”. In other words, someone should not be deemed guilty of an act, unless he or she had a “guilty mind”, intended to do wrong.

45 Some salad veggies : CUKES

Apparently, scientists have shown that the inside of a cucumber (“cuke” for short) growing in a field can be up to twenty degrees cooler than the surrounding air. That’s something that was believed by farmers as early as the 1730s, at which time the phrase “cool as a cucumber” was coined.

46 Extremely hot peppers named for their scythelike tails : CAROLINA REAPERS

The Scoville scale is a measure of the spiciness of chili peppers. The scale was invented by a pharmacist in 1912, Wilbur Scoville. To determine the position of a pepper on the Scoville scale, the amount of capsaicin in the chili is measured. Capsaicin is an irritant that causes the sensation of burning when it comes into contact with tissue, particularly mucous membranes.

50 Cassette forerunners : REEL-TO-REEL TAPES

The French for “box” is “casse”. So, a “cassette” is a “little box”.

Down

1 Voting rights activist Abrams : STACEY

Stacey Abrams is a politician and voting rights activist who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. In 2019, she delivered the Democratic Party’s response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, and became the first African-American woman to do so.

2 Amount of resistance : OHMAGE

The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

5 Cries after un gran gol de fútbol : OLES

In Spanish, a “fútbol” (football, soccer) supporter might shout “olé!” (bravo!) after “un gol” (a goal).

6 Org. for the New England Revolution : MLS

Major League Soccer (MLS)

7 Like some nondairy milks : OAT-BASED

Oat milk is one of the alternatives to cow’s milk, and is lactose free. I’m a huge fan …

12 2018 inductee into the Toy Hall of Fame : UNO

In my youth I remember being taught a great card game by a German acquaintance of mine, a game called Mau Mau. Years later I discovered that UNO! is basically the same game, but played with a purpose-printed deck instead of the regular deck of playing cards that’s used for Mau Mau. I hear that Mau Mau is derived from the game called Crazy Eights.

22 Buff : MAVEN

I’ve always loved the term “maven”, which is another word for “expert”. Maven comes into English from the Yiddish “meyvn” describing someone who appreciates and is a connoisseur.

23 Vehicles in a Nintendo racing game : KARTS

“Mario Kart” is a go-kart racing video game series from Nintendo.

31 Individually, in a way : A LA CARTE

On a restaurant menu, items that are “à la carte” are priced and ordered separately. A menu marked “table d’hôte” (also called “prix fixe”) is a fixed-price menu with limited choice. “Table d’hôte” translates from French as “table of the host”.

34 Intense movement : CRUSADE

The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between the 11th and 15th centuries. The term “crusade” came into English via French and Spanish from the Latin “crux” meaning “cross”. The use of the term was retrospective, with the first recorded use in English in 1757. The relevance of “crux” is that most crusaders swore a vow to reach Jerusalem from Europe, and then received a cloth cross that was then sewn into their clothing. The term “crusade” persists to this day, and is now used figuratively to describe any vigorous campaign in pursuit of a moral objective.

36 Two-dimensional : PLANAR

The dimension of an object is defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify each point in the object. Therefore, a line is one-dimensional, as you only need an x-coordinate to specify a particular point on the line. A surface is two-dimensional, as you need both an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate to locate a point on the surface. The inside of a solid object is then three-dimensional, needing an x-, y- and z-coordinate to specify a point, say within a cube.

41 Fabric whose name may derive from its country of origin : CHINO

Chino is a twill cloth that is most often used to make hard-wearing pants. The pants themselves have come to be referred to as chinos. Chino cloth was originally developed for use by the military, but quickly became popular with civilians.

42 TV medical reporter Sanjay : GUPTA

Sanjay Gupta is an American neurosurgeon who is best known as CNN’s chief medical correspondent. In 2009, Gupta was offered the post of Surgeon General in the Obama administration, but he declined.