Tag: Academically stylish crossword clue

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Constructed by: Jeffrey Wechsler
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 9m 07s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Victorian constraint on women? : CORSET

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”.

15 Gamer’s guise : AVATAR

The Sanskrit word “avatar” describes the concept of a deity descending into earthly life and taking on a persona. It’s easy to see how in the world of online presences one might use the word avatar to describe one’s online identity.

16 Home terrarium area, perhaps : SUNPORCH

A terrarium (plural “terraria”) is a contained environment used to house land animals. The term “terrarium“ comes from the equivalent “aquarium”, a tank for holding mainly fish. In general, a contained environment for keeping live animals or plants is known as a “vivarium”

21 XXXII, quintupled : CLX

In Roman numerals, XXXII (32) quintupled (x5) is CLX (160).

22 “__ Can Cook”: PBS show : YAN

“Yan Can Cook” is a PBS show about Chinese cooking presented by Martin Yan. Yan is Chinese-born American who arrived in the US via Hong Kong and Canada. Although his own show doesn’t run anymore, he still makes TV appearances and has been a judge several times on “Iron Chef America”.

26 Centers of attention : FOCI

A focus (plural “foci”) is a point of convergence, or a center of activity. “Focus” is a Latin word meaning “hearth, fireplace”. The hearth can be a focus of a room.

27 Spots at the prom? : ACNE

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

29 Plural used for people but not animals : ELKS

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome. The list of US presidents that have been members of the BPOE includes Presidents Eisenhower, Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Ford.

Male elks are called bulls, and females are known as cows. Bull elks are known for their very loud screaming, which is called bugling. Cow elks are attracted to bulls that bugle more often and most loudly.

31 Ancient portico : STOA

A stoa was a covered walkway in ancient Greece. A stoa usually consisted of columns lining the side of a building or buildings, with another row of columns defining the other side of the walkway. The columns supported a roof. Often, stoae would surround marketplaces in large cities.

“Portico” is an Italian word that describes a porch or roofed walkway leading to the entrance of a building.

33 First name in Canadian whisky : HIRAM

Hiram Walker founded his distillery in Windsor, Ontario in 1858. Walker’s most successful brand was Canadian Club Whisky.

34 Lose energy : FLAG

Our verb “to flag” meaning “to tire” was originally used in the sense of something flapping about lazily in the wind. From this it came to mean “to go limp, droop”, and then “to tire”.

38 B-bravo link : … AS IN …

Our verb “to flag” meaning “to tire” was originally used in the sense of something flapping about lazily in the wind. From this it came to mean “to go limp, droop”, and then “to tire”.

46 Russian veto : NYET

The English word “no” translates into Russian as “nyet”, and into German as “nein”.

47 “No time to lose!” : ASAP!

As soon as possible (ASAP)

48 David’s “Frasier” role : NILES

In the sitcom called “Frasier”, Niles Crane is the brother of the title character Frasier Crane. Frasier is played by Kelsey Grammer and Niles is played by David Hyde Pierce. Frasier was originally intended to be an only child in the show’s storyline, but the producers decided to add a brother when they noted the remarkable similarity in appearance between David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer.

“Frasier” is a very successful sitcom that originally ran for eleven seasons, from 1993 to 2004. Kelsey Grammer plays the title character, psychiatrist Frasier Crane. The show is a spinoff of the equally successful sitcom “Cheers” that ended its original run just a few months before “Frasier” premiered. By the time “Frasier” aired its last show, Grammer’s portrayal of Crane tied the record for the longest-running character on primetime TV. As an aside, that tie was with James Arness’ portrayal of Matt Dillon on “Gunsmoke”. As a further aside, the record was later broken by Richard Belzer’s portrayal of Detective John Munch on the shows “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Law & Order: SVU”.

49 “The younger rises when the old doth __”: “King Lear” : FALL

Shakespeare was inspired to write his famous drama “King Lear” by the legend of “Leir of Britain”, the story of a mythological Celtic king.

52 Longtime beverage sponsor for the New York Mets : RC COLA

Claude A. Hatcher ran a grocery store in Columbus, Georgia. He decided to develop his own soft drink formula when he balked at the price his store was being charged for Coca-Cola syrup. Hatcher launched the Union Bottling Works in his own grocery store, and introduced Royal Crown Ginger Ale in 1905. The Union Bottling Works was renamed to Chero-Cola in 1910, the Nehi Corporation in 1925, and Royal Crown Company in the mid-fifties. The first RC Cola hit the market in 1934.

60 Hurtle : ROCKET

Our verb “to hurtle” means “to move rapidly or forcefully”, and comes from an early 14th-century word “hurteln” meaning “to crash together, knock down”. I guess the idea is that hurtling along can cause a nasty collision.

62 Academically stylish : TWEEDY

Tweed is a rough woolen fabric that is very much associated with Scotland in the UK, and with County Donegal in Ireland. The cloth was originally called “tweel”, the Scots word for “twill”. Apparently a London merchant misinterpreted some handwriting in the early 1800s and assumed the fabric was called “tweed”, a reference to the Scottish River Tweed, and the name stuck …

Down

1 Hardly a nice guy : CAD

Our word “cad”, meaning “person lacking in finer feelings”, is a shortening of the word “cadet”. “Cad” was first used for a servant, and then students at British universities used “cad” as a term for a boy from the local town. “Cad” took on its current meaning in the 1830s.

3 Northern Italian city near the Adriatic : RAVENNA

Ravenna is an inland Italian city located close to the Adriatic Sea, and connected to it by 7 miles of canal.

6 __ coat : TRENCH

The trench coat was developed primarily for the use of the military. It is a waterproof coat that extends to just below the knee, and generally has a removable lining. In the world of Hollywood we often encounter the trench coat. One is worn by Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”, and by Peter Sellers in the “Pink Panther” movies.

7 Pre-1991 atlas initials : SSR

Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR)

8 Irascible : QUICK TO ANGER

Someone described as irascible has a hot temper and is easily provoked. The term “irascible” comes from the Latin “ira” meaning “anger”.

9 Symbol since the War of 1812 : UNCLE SAM

The Uncle Sam personification of the United States was first used during the War of 1812. The “Uncle Sam” term was so widely accepted that even the Germans used it during WWII, choosing the code word “Samland” for “America” in intelligence communiques.

Ghent is a city in the Flemish region of Belgium. The War of 1812 (between Britain and the US) formally concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. The American negotiating team in Ghent included statesman Henry Clay and future vpresident John Quincy Adams.

11 Bespectacled “Snow White” figure : DOC

In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale called “Snow White”, the seven dwarfs were not given any names. The names were added for the 1937 classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The seven dwarfs are:

• Doc (the leader of the group)
• Grumpy (that would be me, according to my wife …)
• Happy
• Sleepy
• Bashful
• Sneezy
• Dopey

Disney’s 1937 masterpiece “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the first cel-animated feature film. It is still one of the top ten box office hits in North America, adjusting for inflation. The film was a massive, expensive undertaking in the 1930s, and Walt Disney even had to mortgage his house to help with financing.

12 Company that trademarked Silly Putty : CRAYOLA

Silly Putty is a silicone polymer that is marketed as a toy, usually sold in an egg-shaped plastic container. It is a remarkable material that can flow like a liquid and can also bounce. Silly Putty was one of those accidental creations, an outcome of research during WWII in search of substitutes for rubber. The substitution became urgent as Japan invaded rubber-producing countries all around the Pacific Rim.

13 Nickname for antiaircraft guns : ACK-ACKS

Back in the late 1800s, the British routinely used an oral spelling code to distinguish letter names used in wireless and telephone conversations. For example, “toc” was used for “T” and “emma” for “M”. The oral code for “A” was “ack”. When “antiaircraft” guns were developed, the abbreviation “AA” was used for such artillery, which in oral code was pronounced “ack-ack”. We still hear the term “ack-ack” being used, although I tend to associate it mainly with WWII movies …

14 Like the area along a German river : RHENISH

Something that is “Rhenish” pertains to the Rhine River or the area surrounding it.

The river running through Europe that we know in English as the Rhine, is called “Rhein” in German, “Rhin” in French and “Rijn” in Dutch.

35 Layered entrée : LASAGNA

“Lasagna” was originally the name of a cooking pot, but the term came to mean a dish that was cooked in it. “Lasagna” also became the name of the flat noodle used in the dish. If you order lasagna on the other side of the Atlantic, you’ll notice the “lasagne” spelling, the plural of “lasagna”. The plural is used as there is more than one layer of pasta in the dish.

37 Econ. indicator : GDP

A country’s Gross National Product (GNP) is the value of all services and products produced by its residents in a particular year. GNP includes all production wherever it is in the world, as long as the business is owned by residents of the country concerned. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is different, although related, and is the value of all services and goods produced within the borders of the country for that year.

40 Where some picnicking takes place : BY A LAKE

Our term “picnic” comes from the French word that now has the same meaning, namely “pique-nique”. The original “pique-nique” was a fashionable potluck affair, and not necessarily held outdoors.

42 Letters on a Cardinal’s cap : STL

The St. Louis Cardinals were originally called the “Brown Stockings”, changing their name to the “Perfectos” in 1899. That obviously didn’t go down well with the locals, as the owners changed it one year later to the Cardinals.

51 Verdi creation : ARIA

Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian composer, mainly of operas, who was active during the Romantic era. Equally as famous as Verdi’s operas, are arias from those operas such as “La donna è mobile” from “Rigoletto”, “The Drinking Song” from “La Traviata” and “The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” from “Nabucco”. Verdi was a big fan of William Shakespeare and wrote three operas based on the Bard’s plays: “Macbeth”, “Otello” and “Falstaff”.

53 Eats : CHOW

“Chow” is a slang term for “food” that originated in California in the mid-1800s. “Chow” comes from the Chinese pidgin English “chow-chow” meaning “food”.

55 Prof’s helpers : TAS

Teaching assistant (TA)

56 Part of CBS: Abbr. : SYS

CBS used to be known as the Columbia Broadcasting System. CBS introduced its “eye” logo in 1951. That logo is based on a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign.