Tag: Age-old navigation aid crossword clue

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Constructed by: Malaika Handa

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time:11m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10A Wedding traditions that involve rings : HORAS

The hora is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans. It was brought to Israel by Romanian settlers, and is often performed to traditional, Israeli folk songs. The hora (also “horah”) is a regular sight at Jewish weddings. Sometimes the honoree at an event is raised on a chair during the dance.

17A Shape that might resemble a hexagon sliced in half : TRAPEZOID

A trapezoid is a four-sided shape in which at least one pair of sides are parallel.

19A Goddess believed to be the divine mother of the pharaoh : ISIS

Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children. She was the personification of the pharaoh’s power. The name “Isis” translates as “throne”, and she is usually depicted with a headdress shaped like a throne.

20A Part of JPY : YEN

The Japanese yen (JPY) is the third-most traded currency in the world, after the US dollar and the euro.

23A Texting tech : SMS

Short Message Service (SMS) is the name for the text messaging service that many of us still use on our cell phones to contact friends and family.

24A Some characters on the U.K. show “The Thick of It” : MPS

The UK Parliament is divided into two houses, with the upper house known as the House of Lords and the lower house as the House of Commons. The members of the House of Commons (MPs) are elected, but most new members of the House of Lords are appointed. Historically, a large proportion of the membership of the upper house were hereditary peers, but recent legislative changes are reducing the numbers who can sit in the House of Lords by virtue of birthright.

“The Thick of It” is a satirical sitcom that pokes fun at the inner workings of government in the UK. It is cringeworthy stuff, and noted for the prolific use of swear words. The show was created by the great Scottish writer and performer Armando Iannucci. Following the success of “The Thick of It”, Ianuccia was commissioned to write a similar sitcom, and so he came up with “Veep”, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I’d describe “Veep” as a toned-down version of “The Thick of It”.

26A “Entertaining Is Fun!” columnist Garten : INA

Ina Garten is an author as well as the host of a cooking show on the Food Network called “Barefoot Contessa”. She is a mentee of Martha Stewart, and indeed was touted as a potential “successor” to the TV celebrity when Stewart was incarcerated in 2004 after an insider trading scandal. Garten has no formal training as a chef, and indeed used to work as a nuclear policy analyst at the White House!

28A Actress Issa : RAE

Issa Rae rose to prominence with her highly popular web series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl”, which premiered in 2011. This led to her co-creating and starring in the acclaimed HBO comedy series “Insecure”, which garnered her multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. She’s also expanded into film roles and has her own media company, Hoorae.

29A Asterisk : STAR

The name of the typographical symbol “asterisk” comes from the Greek word “asteriskos” meaning “little star”. The original use of the asterisk was by printers of family trees in feudal times. Back then it was a symbol indicating the date of birth.

30A 1960s hit covered by Salt-N-Pepa : TWIST AND SHOUT

While the most famous version of the great song “Twist and Shout” was released by the Beatles in 1963, it was originally recorded by the Top Notes in 1961, and then more successfully by the Isley Brothers in 1962. Salt-N-Pepa released a hip-hop version of “Twist and Shout” in 1988, which made it fairly high in the charts.

36A “Star Wars” heroine who inspired an Ali Hazelwood romance novel : REY

“The Love Hypothesis” is a best-selling romance novel by Ali Hazelwood. Hazelwood is a professor of neuroscience, and her novel is about a Stanford professor and a Ph. D. candidate who pretend to be in a relationship. “The Love Hypothesis” started out as fan fiction about a relationship between Kylo Ren and Rey, characters from the “Star Wars” universe.

37A Bird associated with Athena : OWL

The Greek goddess Athena (sometimes “Athene”) is often associated with wisdom, among other attributes. In many representations. Athena is depicted with an owl sitting on her head. It is this linkage of the owl with the goddess of wisdom that led to today’s perception of the owl as being “wise”. Athena’s Roman counterpart was Minerva.

39A __ admin : SYS

A system administrator (in the field of information technology) might be referred to as a “sysadmin”.

40A Some TVs : LGS

LG is a very large South Korean manufacturer of electronics, chemicals and telecom products. The company used to be known as Lucky-Goldstar, whence the initialism “LG”.

41A Key ring attachment : FOB

A fob is attached to an object to make it easier to access. And so, a key fob is a chain attached to a key so that it can be retrieved easily. There are also watch fobs, and the pocket in a vest in which a watch can be placed is called a fob. In fact, the original use of the term “fob” was for a small pocket in which one could carry valuables.

44A Dessert brand with the early slogan “Delicate. Delightful. Dainty.” : JELL-O

If you like Jell-O, then you might want to stop by LeRoy, New York where you can visit the only Jell-O museum in the world. While at the museum, you can walk along the Jell-O Brick Road …

46A Golden ratio symbol : PHI

The golden ratio, sometimes called the “golden mean” and denoted by the Greek letter phi, is a mathematical constant that often turns up in the world of art. Phi is approximately equal to 1.61, and is represented by the two distances, a and b, where (a+b)/a = a/b. Somehow we perceive the ratio of 1.61 as “pleasing” so it appears in many works of art and in building design. For example, many aspects of the Parthenon in Athens have a ratio of 1.61 (width compared to height). Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man also illustrates the golden ratio in the proportions of the human body, where he shows that the distance from the foot to the navel, compared to the distance from the navel to the head, is 1.61.

47A Country name that has an accent called a síneadh fada : ÉIRE

“Éire” is the Irish name for Ireland, coming from “Ériu”. Ériu was the matron goddess of Ireland in Irish mythology.

The síneadh fada (usually just “fada”) is a diacritic mark used in Irish over vowels. “Síneadh fada” translates literally as “long stretch”, and indicates a long vowel sound.

49A Sauce made with a molcajete y tejolote : GUACAMOLE

In Spanish, guacamole can be made with a “molcajete y tejolote” (mortar and pestle).

51A Host of HGTV’s “Ugliest House in America” : RETTA

Actress and standup comedian Retta (born “Marietta Sirleaf”) is perhaps best known for playing Donna Meagle on the sitcom “Parks and Recreation”. Retta is the niece by marriage of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who served as the President of Liberia from 2006 to 2018 and was the first elected female head of state in Africa.

52A Age-old navigation aid : URSA MINOR

We can locate the North Star using the constellation known familiarly as “the Big Dipper”. If we draw an imaginary line from the two outermost stars at the front of the dipper/ladle, that line passes through the North Star. The distance between the top of the dipper and the North Star is seven times the length of the front of the dipper. And, the North Star forms the outer tip of the handle of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor).

54A HelloFresh options : MEAL PLANS

HelloFresh is a Berlin-based company that delivers meal-kits to homes on demand. Meal-kits include all the ingredients for a home-cooked meal, and recipe cards. Actually meal prep is supposed to take just 30-40 minutes. HelloFresh is the largest supplier of meal-kits in the US.

Down

1D Cellular protein in microfilaments : ACTIN

Actin is a family of proteins that join together to form long chains, or filaments. These chains, called F-actin, are important for all sorts of cell activities, from muscle contractions to cell division.

2D Language of the Asghar Farhadi film “The Salesman” : FARSI

Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian movie director and screenwriter. Farhadi won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film on two occasions: for his movies “A Separation” (2012), and “The Salesman (2017).

4D Actor Omar : EPPS

Omar Epps is the actor who played Eric Foreman on the excellent television series “House”. Prior to playing Dr. Foreman, Epps had a recurring role playing Dr. Dennis Gant on “ER”. He is good friends with actor and comedian Marlon Wayans. Epps and Wayans were classmates at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

6D Lilian Jackson Braun genre : COZY MYSTERY

Lilian Jackson Braun was the author of the “The Cat Who” series of mystery novels. The main characters in the stories are an ex-reporter named James Qwilleran and his Siamese cats called KoKo and Yum-Yum.

7D Some xeriscaping plants : ALOES

A location described as “xeric” is extremely dry, arid. The Greek prefix “xero-” means “dry, withered”. The derivative “xeriscaping” is landscaping that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation, i.e. drought-tolerant landscaping.

9D “Double D” in a Cartoon Network trio : EDD

In the children’s animated show “Ed, Edd n Eddy”, Edd is known as “Double D” in order to distinguish himself from Ed. All three are known as “the Eds”.

12D Social media users who celebrate an annual “cake day” : REDDITORS

On Reddit, a cake day marks the anniversary of a user’s account creation. It’s symbolized by a small cake icon that appears next to the username for 24 hours. Essentially, it is Reddit’s version of a birthday for your account.

13D Sailor on Jason’s quest : ARGONAUT

In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts set sail on the Argo from the city of Iolcos in search of the Golden Fleece. Jason’s vessel was called the “Argo” in honor of a man named Argus, who designed and constructed it with the help of the goddess Athena.

The Golden Fleece was the fleece of a winged ram made from pure gold that was held by King Aeëtes in Colchis, a kingdom on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. The fleece is central to the tale of Jason and the Argonauts, who set out on a quest to steal the fleece by order of King Pelias.

14D “Twilight” star : STEWART

Kristen Stewart is an actress from Los Angeles who topped the list of highest-paid actresses in 2010 and again in 2012. One of Stewart’s first roles was playing the daughter of Jodie Foster’s character in the 2002 film “Panic Room”. She later played Bella Swan in “The Twilight Saga” series of movies. Her portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales in the 2021 film “Spencer” earned Stewart a nomination for that season’s Best Actress Oscar.

23D Loose dress : SHIFT

A shift is a dress that is cut above-the-knee and has no clearly-defined waist. This style of dress originated in the 1920s when it was worn by the “flappers”, young women who defied social norms at the time. The shift was comfortable to wear and allowed easy movement, particularly on the dance floor.

25D Related to teaching : PEDAGOGICAL

Strictly speaking, a “pedagogue” is a “schoolteacher”. The term has developed a secondary meaning, to describe someone who is pedantic and overly formal. Back in ancient Greece, a “paidagogos” was a slave who escorted boys to school and supervised them at school.

27D Like fondue : SWISS

Fondue is a traditional Swiss dish composed of melted cheese served in a pot over a tabletop stove, into which diners dip bread. The term “fondue”, which is French for “melted”, is now applied more widely to similar dishes served in a communal pot into which a food is dipped. Traditional fondue is delicious, so very delicious …

39D __ plexus : SOLAR

A nerve plexus is a network of intersecting nerves. One example of a plexus in the human body is the celiac plexus, also known as the solar plexus. The celiac plexus is a network of nerves in the abdomen that serves many of the internal organs.

40D __ apso : LHASA

The Lhasa apso breed of dog originated in Tibet and is named after “Lhasa” (the capital city) and “apso” (a Tibetan word meaning “bearded”). The Lhasa apso has been around since 800 BC and is one of the oldest breeds in the world, one very closely related to the ancestral wolf.

41D “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” singer Apple : FIONA

“Fetch the Bolt Cutters” is a 2020 album released by Fiona Apple. The evocative title is from a line spoken by Detective Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) in the excellent British crime drama “The Fall”. In a scene where a young girl is trapped in a room, Stella instructs: “Fetch the bolt cutters. Don’t waste time with the key”. Apple uses the line as a metaphor for breaking free from self-imposed or external confinements and pursuing one’s own liberation. Very cool …

42D Acrylic material : ORLON

Orlon is the brand name used by the DuPont Corporation for the acrylic fibers the company developed in 1941. It was created as a wool substitute.

46D Name of LaCroix’s unflavored sparking water : PURE

LaCroix is a sparkling water brand that comes from La Crosse, Wisconsin, hence the name.

47D Track legend Zátopek : EMIL

Emil Zátopek was a long-distance runner from Czechoslovakia who is best-remembered for winning three gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He had trained for the 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter events, and won both of them. He then decided to run the first marathon of his life, and won that too! I guess that explains his nickname: the Czech Locomotive.

49D Extra, e.g. : GUM

Extra is a sugar-free chewing gum that was launched in 1984 by the Wrigley Company. Originally using NutraSweet as an artificial sweetener, Extra was reformulated with aspartame in 1997, as aspartame is believed to be a safer ingredient.