Tag: Aspirational hashtag crossword clue

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Constructed by: Adrian Johnson

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 21m 56s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Tails the fox’s creator : SEGA

Sega is a Japanese video game company headquartered in Tokyo. Sega actually started out in 1940 as Standard Games and was located in Honolulu, which at that time was a city in the US Territory of Hawaii. The owners moved the operation to Tokyo in 1951 and renamed the company to Service Games. The name “Sega” is a combination of the first two letters of the words “Se-rvice” and “Ga-mes”.

“Tails” is the nickname of a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise of Sega video games. He is a fox with two tails that he can spin like helicopter rotors to achieve flight. His real name is Miles Prower, a pun on “miles per hour”.

5A Remains among the stars? : SPACE WASTE

Ever since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, low Earth orbit has been accumulating human-made objects, ranging from dead satellites to microscopic flecks of paint. The US Space Surveillance Network actively tracks over 27,000 pieces of such debris larger than a softball, all of which orbit the planet at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. Experts warn us of the Kessler syndrome, a theoretical threshold where the density of space waste becomes so great that a single collision could trigger an unstoppable cascade of fragmentation, potentially rendering low Earth orbit unusable for future generations.

19A Cactus League city : MESA

The Arizona city of Mesa is home to two baseball stadiums used by MLB teams for spring training. Sloan Park hosts the Chicago Cubs, and Hohokam Stadium hosts the Athletics.

Professional baseball teams head to Arizona and Florida for spring training. Arizona-training teams are collectively referred to as the Cactus League, and the teams in Florida are known as the Grapefruit League.

20A Puts together : JUXTAPOSES

One juxtaposes different things, places them side by side, in order to compare or to contrast them. The term “juxtapose” comes from the Latin prefix “juxta-”, meaning “beside, near” with the French “poser”, meaning “to place”.

21A “Duh” : OBVI

“Obvi” is a slang term, a clipping of the word “obvious” that has the same meaning. But, I guess that’s obvious …

23A Title for Mo Farah : SIR

Mo Farah is a retired British-Somali long-distance runner. His wins in Olympic and World championship events make him the most successful male track distance runner in history.

24A Impulse-ive path? : SYNAPSE

A synapse is a junction between a nerve cell and another cell over which an electrical or chemical signal can pass.

31A Aspirational hashtag : LIFE GOALS

Two important symbols used in social media are the hashtag (#) and the social tag (@). The former is used to categorize content by topic. The latter alerts a fellow user that you are talking with or about them.I am far from a social media guy, but that is my understanding …

34A Letter between pi and 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.

35A Berry quantities : PINTS

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.

36A Softball stat : RBI

Run batted in (RBI)

42A Chocolaty cereal brand : OREO O’S

Oreo O’s cereal was made by Post from 1998 to 2024. The pieces of cereal were basically O-shaped (like Cheerios) but chocolate-flavored, dark brown in color and with white sprinkles on them. Oh, and lots of sugar.

43A Leila Fadel’s venue : NPR NEWS

Lebanese American journalist Leila Fadel was hired by NPR as Cairo bureau chief in 2012. She took over as co-host of the network’s prestigious news program “Morning Edition” starting in 2022.

45A Brand on a racetrack : STP

The initialism STP stands for “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”. The brand was founded in 1953 in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

56A Name for five kings of Hawaii : KAMEHAMEHA

The House of Kamehameha ruled the Hawaiian Kingdom from 1795 until 1872. The name “Kamehameha” translates from Hawaiian as “The Lonely One”, and originated with Kamehameha the Great, the warrior-king who conquered and united the archipelago’s independent islands. Four subsequent monarchs inherited the royal title, ending with the 1872 passing of Kamehameha V. He died as a bachelor without a named successor, resulting in a new royal lineage.

57A Beyoncé voice role : NALA

2019’s “The Lion King” is described as a “photorealistic” remake of 1994’s movie of the same name, which was made using “traditional animation”. The voice cast for the 2019 film is different from the 1994 version, with one notable exception. We hear the magnificent voice of actor James Earl Jones as Mufasa in both productions. In fact, the lines spoken by Jones are almost identical in both films. Other cast members are Donald Glover (Simba), Seth Rogen (Pumbaa) and Beyoncé (Nala).

61A Ballpark figs. : ERAS

Earned run average (ERA)

Down

4D Fictional city that’s a magic carpet ride away from the Cave of Wonders : AGRABAH

The directors of Disney’s 1992 animated feature “Aladdin” originally intended to anchor the story in Baghdad, hence honoring the traditional “One Thousand and One Nights” folktale. The outbreak of the 1991 Gulf War forced a rapid change of setting, to the fantasy kingdom of Agrabah. The name “Agrabah” melds “Baghdad” with “Agra”, the Indian city home to the Taj Mahal.

5D Sliding screens : SHOJIS

A shoji is a door, window or room divider in Japanese architecture. A shoji consists of translucent paper stretched over a wooden frame.

6D __ platter : PUPU

In Hawaiian, “pupu” is a word originally meaning “snail”. Nowadays “pupu” denotes many different types of food that are usually served as hors d’oeuvres. A “pupu platter” is a selection of such foods served in a Hawaiian restaurant.

7D Centurion co. : AMEX

American Express first adopted its Roman gladiator logo, usually referred to as “the Centurion”, in 1958. The image was intended to project an aura of security, integrity, and unbreakable financial strength.

9D Dating connections in some publications? : EN DASHES

In typography, there are em dashes and en dashes. The em dash is about the width of an “m” character, and an en dash about half that, the width of an “n” character. An en dash is used, for example, to separate numbers designating a range, as in 5-10 years. The em dash seems to be going out of style, and indeed the application I am using to write this paragraph won’t let me show you one!

11D Rice named for a Piedmont municipality : ARBORIO

Arborio is a short-grain rice that originated in the Italian town of Arborio in the Po Valley.

12D Titles for mujeres casadas: Abbr. : SRAS

In Spanish, “mujeres casadas” (married women) are traditionally addressed as “Señoras” (abbreviated to Sras.).

14D Part of a basic Spanish conjugation : ERES

“Eres” means “you are” in Spanish.

25D “Huzzah!” : YAHOO!

“Huzzah” is a cheer, originally a sailor’s interjection, possibly accompanying the hoisting of a sail.

26D Big name in sports statistics : ELIAS

The Elias Sports Bureau has been providing research and statistics for professional sports since 1913. The business was set up in 1913 in New York City by Al Munro Elias and his brother Walter.

32D “Feel Good __”: 2005 hit for Gorillaz : INC

Gorillaz are a virtual band created in 1998 by Blur frontman Damon Albarn, and his one-time flatmate, comic-book artist Jamie Hewlett. The band has four animated members: 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs. Albarn provides the performing voice of 2D, although 2D’s speaking voice has been provided by voice actors.

35D Initial stage of mitosis : PROPHASE

The first stage of cell division is known as prophase, with the name coming from the Greek “pro-” meaning “before, first” and “phasis” meaning “appearance”. Before the start of cell division, DNA is a loose, invisible jumble. At the start of cell division, the cell’s DNA bundles up and becomes visible as distinct chromosomes under a microscope, hence the name “prophase”, meaning “first appearance”.

39D “Capisce?” : GOT THAT?

“Capeesh?” is a slang term meaning “do you understand?” It comes from the Italian “capisce” meaning “understand”.

40D Uno e due : TRE

In Italian, “uno e due” (one and two) is “tre” (three).

47D Shipping platform : SKID

There is a difference between a wooden pallet and a wooden skid, both of which are used for shipping. A pallet has boards on top and bottom, whereas a skid only has boards on top.

48D Qdoba snack : TACO

Qdoba is a chain of casual restaurants specializing in Mexican cuisine. The chain started out in 1995 with the name Zuma Fresh Mexican Grill, then Z-Teca Mexican Grill in 1997. Both “Zuma” and “Z-Teca” were challenged by establishments that already had similar names, and so the company settled on Qdoba Mexican Grill in 1999, a completely invented moniker.

50D Defib experts : EMTS

A defibrillator (defib) might be operated by an emergency medical technician (EMT).

51D Briton forebear : CELT

The Celtic Britons were the Celtic people who inhabited the island of Great Britain until the Middle Ages. They were the ancestors of the Welsh, Cornish and Breton peoples.

54D The “A” of NATO : ALFA

The NATO phonetic alphabet is also called the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet. Alfa, Bravo, Charlie … X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.