Tag: What the “face with steam from nose” emoji suggests crossword clue

Bill’s time: 6m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A The “S” of N.S.F.W. : SAFE

The abbreviation “NSFW” stands for “not safe/suitable for work”. It’s Internet slang used to describe online content that is best not viewed at work.

10A Artist Salvador : DALI

Artist Salvador Dalí liked to make a splash in public. He was known to walk an anteater on a lead around Paris. He also brought an anteater on stage to an interview on “The Dick Cavett Show” in 1970.

14A “___ Your Enthusiasm” : CURB

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” is an improv comedy show aired by HBO that was created and stars Larry David, the creator of “Seinfeld”. As an aside, Larry David sat a few feet from me at the next table in a Los Angeles restaurant a few years ago. I have such a huge claim to fame …

15A Totally sus, say : PHONY

The slang term “sus” is a shortened form of “suspicious” or “suspect”.

16A Scholarly “same” : IDEM

“Idem” is usually abbreviated as “id.” and is the Latin word for “the same”. In research papers, “idem” is used in a list of references, in place of citations “already mentioned above”.

17A Wave of antigovernment protests in the early 2010s : ARAB SPRING

The term “Arab Spring” has been applied to the wave of protests, riots and civil wars that impacted the Arab world from 2010 to 2012. The uprisings were sparked by the Tunisian Revolution at the end of 2010 that led to the ouster of the longtime president and the institution of democratic elections. The period of instability that followed in some Arab League countries has been dubbed the “Arab Winter”.

19A Old name of Thailand : SIAM

“Siam” was the official name of Thailand up to 1939 (and again from 1945 to 1949).

21A Pint in a pub, maybe : ALE

A US pint comprises 16 fluid ounces, and an imperial pint is 20 fluid ounces. The term “pint” comes into English via Old French, ultimately from the Latin “picta” meaning “painted”. The name arose from a line painted on the side of a beer glass that marked a full measure of ale.

22A Performance at Lincoln Center : OPERA

The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts takes its name from the neighborhood in which it is situated, i.e. Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan.

43A “___ Got Talent” : AMERICA’S

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” (AGT) is part of a global franchise based in the UK. The original show is called “Britain’s Got Talent”, and the whole franchise is owned by Simon Cowell. That said, due to a presenter dispute in the UK, the first show in the franchise to be broadcast was the American version. The first host of “America’s Got Talent” was Regis Philbin (2006), followed by Jerry Springer, Nick Cannon, Tyra Banks and Terry Crews.

58A What the light from a lighthouse may pierce : FOG

The oldest lighthouse still in use is the Tower of Hercules located on the coast of Galicia in northwest Spain. Renovated in 1791, this magnificent lighthouse was built by the Romans in 2nd century CE and has been in constant use since that time. It is believed that the structure’s design is based on the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

61A Singer James : ETTA

“Etta James” was the stage name of celebrated blues and soul singer Jamesetta Hawkins. James’ most famous recording was her 1960 hit “At Last”, which made it into the pop charts. James performed “At Last” at the age of 71 in 2009 on the reality show “Dancing with the Stars”, which was to be her final television appearance. She passed away in 2012.

62A Track-and-field event with a sandpit … or a hint to the ends of 17-, 23- and 51-Across : TRIPLE JUMP

The track and field sport sometimes called the “hop, skip and jump” is more correctly termed “triple jump”. The triple jump dates back as an event to the ancient Olympic Games. When the modern Olympics were introduced in 1896, the triple jump consisted of two hops on the same foot followed by a jump. Today’s triple jump consists of a hop, a bound and then a jump.

68A Area east of the Urals : ASIA

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

71A Actions at the Bellagio or Encore : BETS

The Bellagio is a hotel and casino in Las Vegas that is named for the Italian town of Bellagio located on Lake Como. Famously, the hotel features its own artificial lake that covers 8 acres on the front of the property in which there is a large dancing water fountain.

Down

1D Hoodwink : SCAM

“To hoodwink” has had the meaning “to deceive” since about 1600. Prior to that it meant simply “to blindfold”, and is simply a combination of the words “hood” and “wink”.

3D Beer pong venue, maybe : FRAT HOUSE

The game of beer pong is also known as “Beirut”. It apparently originated as a drinking game in the fraternities of Dartmouth College in the fifties, when it was played with paddles and a ping-pong net on a table. The origin of the “Beirut” name is less clear, but it probably was coined while the Lebanese Civil War was raging in the late seventies and eighties.

5D Garden of Eden fruit : APPLE

According to the Bible’s Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden in order to prevent them from eating the fruit of the tree of life. Cherubim were assigned to guard the garden, and a flaming sword was installed to protect the path to the tree of life.

8D Holiday ___ : INN

The first Holiday Inn hotel opened in 1952. The name for the hotel chain was inspired by the 1942 movie “Holiday Inn” starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The Holiday Inn chain has been British-owned since 1988.

9D MetLife Stadium team, on scoreboards : NYG

The New York Giants (NYG) football team plays home games in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a stadium shared with the New York Jets (NYJ). The Giants are the only team remaining from a group of five that joined the league in 1925. For many years, the Giants shared team names with the New York Giants MLB team, before the baseball franchise moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season.

11D “Goodbye, mes amis” : ADIEU

“Adieu” is French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

18D Piano player in “Casablanca” : SAM

The movie “Casablanca” was released in January of 1943, timed to coincide with the Casablanca Conference, the high-level meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. The film wasn’t a box-office hit, but gained critical acclaim, winning three Oscars including Best Picture. The signature song “As Time Goes By” was written many years earlier for a 1931 Broadway musical called “Everybody’s Welcome”, and was a hit in 1931 for Rudy Vallee. But today we all remember the Casablanca version, sung by Dooley Wilson (who played “Sam” in the film). Poor Dooley didn’t get to record it as a single, due to a musicians’ strike in 1943. The 1931 Rudy Vallee version was re-released that year and became an even bigger hit second time round.

26D King’s partner in castling : ROOK

In the game of chess, the move known as “castling” involves the king moving two squares towards one of the rooks, and then placing that rook in the square over which the king crossed. It is the only chess move involving two pieces at the same time.

28D Group whose “Gold: Greatest Hits” is the second-best-selling album in U.K. history : ABBA

The Swedish sensation ABBA can be called a “supergroup”, in that all four members were already successful, established stars in Sweden before they started performing together:

1. Benny Andersson was in the Hep Stars (often called the “Swedish Beatles”).
2. Björn Ulvaeus was in a popular folk group, the Hootenanny Singers.
3. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad were both successful solo artists.

29D Disneyland transport : TRAM

Walt Disney came up with the idea of building Disneyland after visiting other theme parks with his daughters in the thirties and forties. He started building the park at Anaheim, California in 1954, and the facility opened just one year and one day later. The total cost of construction was $17 million. Opening day did not go smoothly, largely because over 28,000 people visited the park compared to the 11,000 people expected at the invitation-only event. The opening day went so badly that for years Disney executives referred to it as “Black Sunday”.

33D Fastened, as a corset or shoe : LACED

A corset is a close-fitting undergarment that is stiffened with a material such as whalebone. Corsets are more usually worn by women, to shape the body. The word “corset” is a diminutive of the Old French “cors” meaning “body”.

36D Continental money : EURO

The euro sign (€) looks like a letter C, but with two horizontal lines drawn across the middle. Inspiration for the design comes from the Greek letter epsilon.

45D Miso bean : SOY

Miso is the name of the seasoning that makes miso soup. Basic miso seasoning is made by fermenting rice, barley and soybeans with salt and a fungus to produce a paste. The paste can be added to stock to make miso soup, or perhaps to flavor tofu.

49D The Roku Channel, Hulu and others : TV APPS

Roku is a manufacturer of digital media players and distributor of streaming services. The company was founded in Los Gatos, California in 2002 by Anthony Wood. He chose the name “Roku” as it is the Japanese word for “six”, and Roku was the sixth company that Wood founded.

Hulu is a video-on-demand service. Although competing directly with Netflix and Amazon Prime, Hulu’s primary focus is the streaming of television shows rather than movies.

52D One dental specialty, informally : ORTHO

Orthodontics is a branch of dentistry dealing with the straightening of teeth. The name comes from the Greek “orthos” meaning “straight” and “dontia” meaning “teeth”.

53D ___ Banks (barrier islands of North Carolina) : OUTER

The Outer Banks are a 200-mile long chain of barrier islands lying just off the coast of North Carolina (and a small section of Virginia). The seas of the Outer Banks have a reputation as being very treacherous and so are nicknamed the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

55D Abu Dhabi’s land, for short : UAE

Abu Dhabi is an island city in the Persian Gulf that is capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “Abu Dhabi” translates literally from Arabic as “Father of Gazelle”, a name honoring the animal that reportedly led the Bani Yas tribe to a fresh water source on the island in 1761. The Bani Yas then established a fort and some housing in the area. That fort is now the oldest stone building in the city today.

60D Transcript figs. : GPAS

Grade point average (GPA)

62D ___ Cook, longtime tech C.E.O. : TIM

Tim Cook was appointed as Apple’s CEO in 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs. Cook had joined the company back in 1998 as senior vice president in charge of worldwide operations. He came out as gay in October of 2014, making Cook the first openly gay CEO of a company on the Fortune 500 list.

63D Letter before sigma : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R. It is the 17th letter in the Greek alphabet.