Tag: Broad Eastern cuisine category crossword clue

Bill’s time: 11m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Groom like a groom, maybe : MANSCAPE

The practice of men removing and trimming their body hair is known as “manscaping”, a portmanteau of “man” and “landscaping”.

17 Beneficiaries of preferential admission : LEGACIES

A legacy might be a person who is granted admission to an organization based on say a familial relationship with an existing member.

19 Texas congressman who ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988 : RON PAUL

Ron Paul is a former Republican Congressman from Texas. Paul is a libertarian, and ran for president in 1988 as a Libertarian Party candidate. He ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and 2012 as a member of the Liberty Caucus of the party. Paul retired from Congress in 2013, and did not enter the 2016 presidential race. Even though he didn’t run in 2016, Paul actually picked an electoral college vote from a Texas faithless elector. That made Ron Paul the oldest person ever (at 81) to receive an electoral college vote.

21 Nice refusal? : NON

The French city of Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in the southeast of the country. Although Nice is only the fifth most populous city in France, it is home to the busiest airport outside of Paris. That’s because of all the tourists flocking to the French Riviera.

25 Aide-__: mnemonic device : MEMOIRE

An aide-mémoire is an aid to memory, a reminder.

28 White wine cocktails : KIRS

Kir is a French cocktail made by adding a teaspoon or so of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) to a glass, and then topping it off with white wine. The drink is named after Felix Kir, the Mayor of Dijon in Burgundy, who used to offer the drink to his guests. My wife is particularly fond of a variant called a Kir Royale, in which the white wine is replaced with champagne.

42 Colorado tributary : GILA

The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado that flows through New Mexico and Arizona. From 1848 to 1853, the Gila marked part of the border between the US and Mexico.

44 “Star Wars” film subtitle : A NEW HOPE

The epic sci-fi film “Star Wars” was released in 1977. When the movie was re-released in 1981, the subtitle “Episode IV: A New Hope” was added.

47 Classist type : SNOB

Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

50 Board game conduits : CHUTES

The game of “Snakes and Ladders” is usually sold as “Chutes and Ladders” in the US. Milton Bradley introduced “chutes” instead of “snakes” in 1943 as children weren’t too fond of snakes back then. Snakes/Chutes and Ladders is based on an ancient Indian game.

52 Storied shelf occupant : ELF

“The Elf on the Shelf” is an illustrated children’s book penned in 2005 by Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell. The title character is dispatched by Santa every Thanksgiving to keep an eye on children during the holiday season, and to determine who is naughty and who is nice.

64 Pavarotti classic : O SOLE MIO

“O sole mio” is a famous Italian song from Naples, written in 1898. The song’s lyrics are usually sung in the original Neapolitan, as opposed to Italian. The title translates from Neapolitan into “My Sun” (and not into “O, My Sun” as one might expect). It’s a love song, sung by a young man declaring that there is a sun brighter than that in the sky, the sun that is his lover’s face. Awww …

Luciano Pavarotti was one of the most celebrated tenors of all time. He was able to appeal to audiences beyond the traditional fans of opera, helped by his performances with the Three Tenors: Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. Pavarotti made his final performance on stage at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, where he sang his famous rendition of the moving aria “Nessun dorma” and brought the house down. Pavarotti passed away from pancreatic cancer the following year, at the age of 71.

65 Father figure? : DAD BOD

A “dad bod” is a man’s body that is softly rounded. Well, that’s the description I like to use …

Down

1 Harris of “thirtysomething” : MEL

Mel Harris is an actress from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Harris is perhaps best known as Hope Murdoch Steadman from the eighties TV show “thirtysomething”. Before she made it as an actress, Harris twice appeared as a contestant on the “Pyramid” game show on television. In 1991 she made a third appearance on the show, only this time as a celebrity player.

2 Flying phenom : ACE

A flying ace is an aviator who has shot down a number of enemy planes during combat. The qualifying number of kills seems to vary, but five is common. The first use of “ace” was during WWI, when the French newspapers dubbed pilot Adolphe Pegoud “l’as” (French for “the ace”) when he shot down his fifth German plane.

3 Eggy drink : NOG

It’s not really clear where the term “nog” (as in “eggnog”) comes from although it might derive from the word “noggin”, which was originally a small wooden cup that was long associated with alcoholic drinks.

5 __ butter : COCOA

Cocoa butter is extracted from the cacao bean and is used to make chocolate, among other things.

7 Single animal-shaped candy? : PEEP

Peeps are marshmallow candies usually in the shapes of chicks and bunnies, primarily sold around the Easter holiday. Peeps were introduced in 1952 by a Russian immigrant called Sam Born whose company “Just Born” makes the candies to this day. The original candies were yellow and hand-shaped to look like little chicks, hence the name “Peeps”.

8 “Let It Go” singer in “Frozen” : ELSA

“Let It Go” is an incredibly successful song from the Disney animated film “Frozen” released in 2013. It was performed in the movie by Idina Menzel, who also was the voice actor for the character Elsa. “Let It Go” is one of the very few Disney songs to make it into the Billboard Top Ten.

13 Divided island north of Australia : TIMOR

Timor is an island in Maritime Southeast Asia. The island is politically divided into West Timor, belonging to Indonesia, and the independent state of East Timor. The name “Timor” comes from a Malay word for “east”, and is used as Timor lies at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands.

14 “Don’t Rain on My Parade” composer : STYNE

Jule Styne was an English songwriter who made a name for himself in America with a series of popular musicals. Styne wrote a number of famous songs including “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl”, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from “Gypsy”.

“Don’t Rain on My Parade” is a song from the 1964 Broadway musical “Funny Girl”. It was recorded by Barbra Streisand, who played the title role in both the Broadway show and in the 1968 movie adaptation.

22 Beast known as the zebra giraffe : OKAPI

The okapi is closely related to the giraffe, although it does have markings on its legs and haunches that resemble those of a zebra. The okapi’s tongue is long enough to reach back and wash its eyeballs, and can go back even further to clean its ears inside and out.

24 Junk dealer in a ’70s sitcom : FRED SANFORD

“Sanford and Son” is an American version of a celebrated hit BBC sitcom that I grew up with in Ireland, called “Steptoe and Son”.

30 Peru panning target : ORO

In Spanish, one might find “oro” (gold) in “una mina” (a mine”).

When prospectors pan for gold, they do so by mixing soil and water in a pan. Because gold is very dense, gravel and soil can be washed over the side of the pan leaving the heavy precious metal at the bottom. The gold has been “panned out”, and so we often use “pan out” figuratively to mean “turn out, succeed”.

35 Nevada tourist mecca : TAHOE

Lake Tahoe (often referred to simply as “Tahoe”) is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is located right on the border between California and Nevada. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the country, and the largest lake in general, behind the five Great Lakes. It’s also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

38 Bee or Em : AUNT

Aunt Bee is a character in “The Andy Griffith Show”. The character’s full name is Beatrice Taylor but everyone in Mayberry calls her “Aunt Bee”. In the storyline, she is the aunt of protagonist Sheriff Andy Taylor, and great-aunt to Andy’s son Opie. Aunt Bee was played by actress Frances Bavier.

In the children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

46 Solo pilot? : HAN

Han Solo is the space smuggler in “Star Wars” played by Harrison Ford. Ford was originally hired by George Lucas just to read lines for actors during auditions for “Star Wars”, but over time Lucas became convinced that Ford was right for the pivotal role of Han Solo.

48 Spoke Burmese? : MEWED

Most Burmese cats today can be traced back to a single ancestor, a female cat given the name Wong Mau that was brought from Burma to America in 1930. Amazing …

49 Actress Massey : ILONA

Ilona Massey was a Hollywood actress, and a native of Budapest in Hungary. Given her cultural background and the period at which she hit the big screen, Massey was marketed by the studios as “the new Dietrich”.

51 Casual greeting : HOLLA

Very casual, I’d say, and new to me …

57 __ Four : FAB

The Beatles were described on the sleeve notes of their 1963 album “With the Beatles” as the “fabulous foursome”. The press picked up on the phrase and morphed it into “the Fab Four”.

61 Familia member : TIA

In Spanish, a “tia” (aunt) is a member of “la familia” (the family).