Category: Stella Zawistowski

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Constructed by: Stella Zawistowski
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): First to Discharge

Themed answers each start with a synonym of “discharge”:

• 16A Stop by briefly : POP IN TO SAY HELLO
• 23A Make a rude noise : BLOW A RASPBERRY
• 41A Be extremely self-satisfied : BURST WITH PRIDE
• 56A Digress from the main topic : GO OFF ON A TANGENT

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 5m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Cardi B genre : RAP

“Cardi B” is the stage name of rap artist Belcalis Almánzar from the Bronx in New York City. The name “Cardi B” comes from the brand name “Bacardi”.

9 Fashion-forward : CHIC

“Chic” is a French word meaning “stylish”.

13 Boxing family name : ALI

Boxer Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky. Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. Who can forget Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame for the 1996 games in Atlanta?

Laila Ali is the daughter of the great Muhammad Ali and is a very capable boxer in her own right. Laila’s professional record is an impressive 24 wins, including 21 knockouts. Now retired, she never lost a fight, and nor did she ever draw. One of those victories was against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, daughter of her father’s nemesis Joe Frazier. Laila is not a bad dancer either, coming in third place in the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars”.

19 YA fiction, e.g., familiarly : TEEN LIT

Young adult (YA)

21 First name of actors Holland and Hollander : TOM

Tom Holland is an English actor whose big break came when he was cast in London’s West End production of “Billy Elliot the Musical”. Several years later, Holland landed the part of Spider-Man, starting with the 2016 film “Captain America: Civil War”. Tom’s father is Dominic Holland, who is quite a successful stand-up comedian in the UK.

English actor Tom Hollander is known for the tremendous variety in the roles that he has played. On this side of the Atlantic, he might be known for playing Queen’s manager in the 2018 film “Bohemian Rhapsody” and in the rather creepy British expat in the second season of the TV show “The White Lotus”.

23 Make a rude noise : BLOW A RASPBERRY

Not so much here in America, but over in Britain and Ireland “blowing a raspberry” is a way of insulting someone (I think that it’s usually called “a Bronx cheer” in the US). The verb “to razz” comes from a shortened form of “raspberry”.

31 Positive result at the gym : GAIN

No pain, no gain.

34 “The Favourite” queen : ANNE

“The Favourite” is an entertaining 2018 comedy about two women vying to be “the favourite” at the court of Queen Anne. The two competitors are portrayed by Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, and the marvelous Olivia Colman plays the queen. Recommended …

35 Belgian surrealist painter James : ENSOR

James Ensor was a Belgian painter who was active in the first half of the twentieth century. He lived in Ostend for almost all of his life. In fact, Ensor only made three brief trips abroad, to Paris, London and Holland.

37 Freight barge : SCOW

A scow is a flat-bottomed boat with squared-off ends that’s often used for transportation, usually pushed or pulled by a barge. Often, a scow can be seen carrying junk or garbage.

38 Way to go: Abbr. : RTE

Route (rte.)

39 Lydic of “The Daily Show” : DESI

Comedian and actress Desi Lydic is perhaps best known as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”, a gig that she signed up for in 2015.

40 Big name in canvas shoes : KEDS

Keds is a brand of athletic shoe first introduced in 1916 by US Rubber. The shoe was originally marketed as a rubber-soled, canvas-topped sneaker. The company first opted for the brand name “Peds”, from the Latin “ped” meaning “foot”. That name was already taken by another product, and so a quick rebranding took place resulting in “Keds”. The brand celebrated its centennial with a “Ladies First Since 1916” campaign that focuses on female empowerment.

47 Yellowfin tuna : AHI

Yellowfin and bigeye tuna are usually marketed as “ahi”, the Hawaiian name. They are both big fish, with yellowfish tuna often weighing over 300 pounds, and bigeye tuna getting up to 400 pounds.

48 Shops at Goodwill, perhaps : THRIFTS

Goodwill Industries is a non-profit organization focused on providing aid to people in the community. Goodwill is funded by thrift stores located right across North America. The organization has its roots in an urban outreach program of the Morgan Methodist Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts that started operations in 1902. That program involved the collection of discarded household goods and clothing, and the repair of the items so that they could be distributed to the needy.

61 Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist of __” : FATE

Bob Dylan wrote the song “Simple Twist of Fate”, and released it in 1975 on his album “Blood on the Tracks”. This is a song that has evolved, in that Dylan has revised the lyrics over the decades that he has performed it live.

Down

5 Disc-tossing team sport : ULTIMATE

Ultimate is a team sport that is similar to football or rugby in that the goal is to get a flying disc into an endzone or goal area. The sport used to be called “Ultimate Frisbee”, but the “Frisbee” was dropped as it is a registered trademark.

7 Lip balm brand in spherical containers : EOS

eos Products is a company that was founded in 2006 in New York City. eoS sells beauty products such as lotions and creams, and is most famous for its lip balm. The initials “eos” stand for “Evolution of Smooth”.

8 Clear the deck? : SWAB

“Swabbie” (also “swabby, swab, swabber”) is a slang term meaning “sailor” that we’ve been using since the late 1700s. A swab was originally a member of the crew assigned to the swabbing (mopping) of the ship’s decks.

23 __ knots: intricate Black hairstyle : BANTU

Bantu knots are a hairstyle that originated with the Zulu people of southern Africa. They are created by sectioning the hair into small sections, twisting each section, and then wrapping it into a knot. Bantu knots can be worn on any hair type, but they are especially popular for textured hair.

24 Sharply hit baseball : LINER

In baseball, a line drive (“liner”) is a ball that is hit low, hard and straight.

25 Magician/skeptic The Amazing __ : RANDI

James Randi is a retired Canadian-American magician who had a stage career using the name “The Amazing Randi”. He now spends his time investigating the paranormal, or in fact mainly challenging claims of paranormal activity. If you’re interested, the James Randi Educational Foundation is offering one million dollars to anyone who can demonstrate paranormal activity under controlled test conditions.

27 Teensy bit : SKOSH

“Skosh” is a slang term meaning “a little bit”, and was originally military slang that came out of the Korean War. “Skosh” derives from the Japanese word “sukoshi” which translates as “few, little, some”.

28 Played Mario Kart, perhaps : RACED

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

29 __ Island Red : RHODE

The Rhode Island Red is a breed of chicken that was developed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts from the Malay chicken, and as such, the new chickens were originally named Red Malays. The Rhode Island Red was made the state bird of Rhode Island in 1954.

30 Swerves at sea : YAWS

The word “yaw” means to deviate from the line of a course and is used mainly at sea and in the air. “Yaw” is derived from the Old Norse word “jaege” which means “to drive, chase”. As such, “yaw” is etymologically related to our word “yacht”.

37 Enjoying Aspen, perhaps : SKIING

Aspen, Colorado used to be known as Ute City, with the name change taking place in 1880. Like many communities in the area, Aspen was a mining town, and in 1891 and 1892 it was at the center of the highest production of silver in the US. Nowadays, it’s all about skiing and movie stars.

45 Safari herbivores : RHINOS

There are five types of rhinoceros that survive today, with the smaller Javan Rhino being the most rare. The rhinoceros is probably the rarest large mammal on the planet, thanks to poaching. Hunters mainly prize the horn of the rhino as it is used in powdered form in traditional Chinese medicine.

“Safari” is a Swahili word meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

48 “Bring on the weekend!” letters : TGIF!

“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF)

49 Kotb of “Today” : HODA

Hoda Kotb is an Egyptian-American television journalist who is perhaps best known as a co-host of the NBC morning show “Today”. She is also the author of the bestselling autobiography “Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee”.

52 “South Park” kid in a blue-and-red hat : STAN

“South Park” is an adult-oriented cartoon series on Comedy Central. I don’t do “South Park” …

53 Trompe l’__: eye-fooling art : OEIL

“Trompe l’oeil” is a technique in art that creates the optical illusion that a drawn object exists in three dimensions. “Trompe-l’oeil” is French for “deceive the eye”.

55 Sporty car option : T-TOP

A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

57 Reddit Q&A : AMA

Reddit.com is a networking and news website that started up in 2005. It is essentially a bulletin board system with posts that are voted up and down by users, which determines the ranking of posts. The name “Reddit” is a play on “read it”, as in “I read it on Reddit”. One popular feature of the Reddit site is an online forum that is similar to a press conference. Known as an AMA (for “ask me anything”), participants have included the likes of President Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Gates, Stephen Colbert and Gordon Ramsay. President Obama’s AMA was so popular that the high level of traffic brought down many parts of the Reddit site.