Tag: Chaotic swirl crossword clue

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Constructed by: Matt Revis

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: See Zee Sights

Themed answers are common phrases with a terminal “SEE-” or “ZEE-sound” added:

• 23A Place to learn about chili peppers? : SPICY MUSEUM (“Spy Museum” + “see”)
• 32A Shearing event held under the big top? : FLEECY CIRCUS (“flea museum” + “see”)
• 47A Root for a Calgary franchise? : FANCY THE FLAMES (“fan the flames” + “see”)
• 63A Event for people who won’t drink Coca-Cola? : PEPSI RALLY (“pep rally” + “see”)
• 66A “Gangster Malone takes the bait!”? : BUGSY BITES (“bugbites” + “zee”)
• 83A Coffee table item in a dollhouse? : TEENSY MAGAZINE (“teen magazine” + “see”)
• 95A Where it’s hard to keep a secret? : NOSY MAN’S LAN (“no-man’s-land” + “zee”)
• 109A “Yes, I’ll invest in beachfront property in Arizona!”? : PATSY ANSWER (“pat answer” + “see”)

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

Bill’s time: 13m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7A Georgetown athlete : HOYA

The athletic teams of Georgetown University are known as the Hoyas. The name is derived from “Hoya Saxa”, a traditional cheer yelled out at Georgetown games as far back as 1893. The term is a mixture of Greek and Latin, with the Greek word “hoya” meaning “such” or “what”, and “saxa” translating from Latin as “rocks” or “small stones”. The cheer is usually rendered in English as “what rocks!”.

15A Labor agcy. : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

19A “Weekend Edition Sunday” host Rascoe : AYESHA

Journalist Ayesha Rascoe covered the White House for NPR starting in 2017, after joining the network from Reuters. She began hosting NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” in 2022.

21A Neutral color lighter than greige : ECRU

The term “greige” is a portmanteau of “gray” and “beige”. It describes the state of cloth taken from a loom before it is bleached and dyed. Many such textiles have a gray-beige, greige, color.

23A Place to learn about chili peppers? : SPICY MUSEUM (“Spy Museum” + “see”)

The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. is a private enterprise that opened in 2002. It was founded by Milton Maltz, a former code-breaker during the Korean War. The Spy Museum is a fun place to visit …

25A Shimmery gem : MOONSTONE

Moonstone is a mineral that often has numerous colors, with light reflecting internally within the stone. It’s this unique visual effect that gives the gem the name of moonstone.

29A “Weekend Edition Sunday” airer : NPR

NPR’s flagship news program is “Morning Edition”, a 2-hour show broadcast from Monday through Friday. The sister show “Weekend Edition” is broadcast on Saturday and Sunday.

30A Lake near Syracuse, New York : ONEIDA

Oneida Lake is the largest lake lying entirely within the state of New York. It is situated close to New York’s Finger Lakes, but it isn’t one of them. Having said that, some regard Oneida Lake as the “thumb” that goes along with the “fingers”.

31A Salad bar accessory : TONGS

A pair of tongs is a tool with a scissor-like hinge used to pick up things, like meat cooking on a barbecue grill or ice from an ice bucket. The verb “to tong” means “to handle with tongs”.

32A Shearing event held under the big top? : FLEECY CIRCUS (“flea circus” + “see”)

In a real flea circus, fleas are attached to miniature items that create the illusion that the fleas are performing circus acts. The fleas are harnessed by wrapping a metal wire around their bodies, which is then attached to props. Because fleas have such strong legs, they can then move objects that are a lot larger than they are. Apparently, the concept of a flea circus originated with watchmakers in the early 1800s. The artisans used the “circus” to demonstrate their metalworking abilities.

35A Egg maker : FABERGE

Fabergé eggs are beautiful jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. The tradition of fabricating the eggs started when Tsar Alexander III commissioned Fabergé to create a jeweled egg for his wife in 1885. After this, the House of Fabergé produced more and more elaborate designs, year after year.

38A Tara of “Sharknado” : REID

Tara Reid is an actress known for roles she played on television and the big screen. My guess is that her best-known performances were in the “American Pie” series of movies in which she played Vicky. Sadly, Reid succumbed to the pressure to alter her looks with cosmetic surgery. In interviews, she has shared that her first experience under the knife “went wrong” leading to more surgeries in attempts to rectify the resulting deformity.

“Sharknado” is a 2013 tongue-in-cheek disaster movie that was made for the Syfy television channel. The basis of the plot is a freak hurricane that hits Los Angeles, resulting in a flood that leaves man-eating sharks roaming the city. I don’t think so …

41A Lucy Van __: “Peanuts” kid : PELT

In Charles Schulz’s fabulous comic strip “Peanuts”, Charlie Brown is friends with at least three members of the Van Pelt family. Most famously there is Lucy Van Pelt, who bosses everyone around, and who operates a psychiatric booth that looks like a lemonade stand. Then there is Linus, Lucy’s younger brother, the character who always has his security blanket at hand. Lastly, there is an even younger brother, Rerun Van Pelt. Rerun is constantly hiding under his bed, trying to avoid going to school.

47A Root for a Calgary franchise? : FANCY THE FLAMES (“fan the flames” + “see”)

The Flames are a professional hockey team based in the Alberta city of Calgary. The team has been in Calgary since 1980, but was founded in 1972 in the US as the Atlanta Flames.

55A “The Menu” star Taylor-Joy : ANYA

Actress Anya Taylor-Joy had quite the international upbringing. She was born in Miami, and raised in Buenos Aires and then London. She is perhaps best known for playing the title character in the 2020 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma”, and the lead role in the Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit”.

“The Menu” is a 2022 comedy horror movie starring Ralph Fiennes as a celebrity chef with an exclusive restaurant. I’m afraid that I don’t do horror, not even comedy horror …

57A Colorful method of data visualization : HEAT MAP

A heat map is a visual presentation of data that uses color scales, rather than raw numbers, to represent the intensity and distribution of information. The heat map concept was pioneered by French statistician Toussaint Loua in 1873, when he presented social statistics across the city of Paris using grayscale shading. However, the term “heat map” wasn’t coined until 1991, by software designer Cormac Kinney to describe his real-time financial market displays.

60A __ Kippur : YOM

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. It is also known as the Day of Atonement.

66A “Gangster Malone takes the bait!”? : BUGSY BITES (“bugbites” + “zee”)

1976’s “Bugsy Malone” is a very unique musical comedy movie. It reimagines the gritty world of Prohibition-era gangsters using an entire cast of child actors. The film swapped out lethal bullets for “splurge guns” that fired rapid-fire bursts of whipped cream and flour-filled “soaks”. For me, the shining star in the cast was twelve-year-old Jodie Foster, playing world-weary showgirl Tallulah. Just a few months earlier, Foster had landed her breakout role in “Taxi Driver”.

70A Former U.N. head Hammarskjöld : DAG

Dag Hammarskjöld was the second secretary-general of the United Nations, right up until his death in a plane crash in Rhodesia in 1961. The crash was considered suspicious at the time as the bodyguards were found to have bullet wounds when they died, but this was put down to bullets exploding in the fire after the crash.

76A Chicken cordon __ : BLEU

A “cordon bleu” dish is a meat dish, one prepared by wrapping the meat around cheese, covering it with breading and then pan-frying. Specifically, veal cordon bleu is made using veal that is pounded thin and wrapped around slices of ham and cheese. The term “cordon bleu” translated from French as “blue ribbon”.

78A California wine grape, for short : ZIN

Zinfandel is one of my favorite red wine varietals. It amazes me that the rich and heavy red Zinfandel comes from the same grape as does the sweet White Zinfandel.

82A Triple-A squad in Buffalo : BISONS

The Bisons are a minor league baseball team playing in Buffalo, New York who are known colloquially as “the Herd”. The team was founded in 1979, although the team name dates back to 1879 when the city joined the National League. That earlier franchise now plays in Moosic, Pennsylvania, as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

87A Square root of cuatro : DOS

In Spanish, “dos” (two) is the square root of “cuatro” (four)

88A Dayton’s state : OHIO

Dayton is a city in the southwest of Ohio that is famously home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The city is also referred to as the “Birthplace of Aviation”, as it was in Dayton that Orville and Wilbur Wright built and improved the Wright Flyer. The Wright Flyer made the first controlled and sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

90A Picture of health? : X-RAY

X-rays were first studied comprehensively by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (also “Roentgen”), and it was he who gave the name “X-rays” to this particular type of radiation. Paradoxically, in Röntgen’s native language of German, X-rays are routinely referred to as “Röntgen rays”. In 1901, Röntgen’s work on X-rays won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics that was ever awarded.

92A Stefani of No Doubt : GWEN

Gwen Stefani is lead singer with the rock band No Doubt. She joined the band in 1986, focused on a solo career from 2004-2008, but is now back singing and working with No Doubt. She joined the reality show “The Voice” as a coach in 2014, replacing Christina Aguilera. A year later, Stefani announced a relationship with Blake Shelton, a fellow coach on “The Voice”.

100A Game similar to pétanque : BOCCE

The Italian bowling game of bocce (often anglicized as “bocci” or “boccie”) is based on a game played in ancient Rome. “Bocce” is the plural of the Italian word “boccia” meaning “bowl”.

“Pétanque” is a form of the game of boules that is played in France, mainly in Provence.

103A “Love Will Find a Way” band __ Cruise : PABLO

Despite the persona-type name, Pablo Cruise is a band, a rock quartet from San Francisco. It was founded by members of the existing bands It’s a Beautiful Day and Stoneground. Pablo Cruise made a little history by becoming the first rock act permitted to perform at the city’s landmark Palace of Fine Arts.

104A Letters on some makeup bottles : SPF

Sun protection factor (SPF)

107A Chaotic swirl : MAELSTROM

A maelstrom is a violent or turbulent situation, or a very large whirlpool. “Maelstrom” is derived from the name of a notorious whirlpool located off the northwest coast of Norway.

109A “Yes, I’ll invest in beachfront property in Arizona!”? : PATSY ANSWER (“pat answer” + “see”)

The etymology of the word “patsy” meaning “fall guy” isn’t really understood. One colorful theory suggests that the term comes from an 1890s vaudeville character named Patsy Bolivar. Patsy always got the blame when something went wrong.

112A North __ Sea: Central Asian lake : ARAL

The former Soviet Union decided to divert the two rivers feeding the Aral Sea in order to irrigate food and cotton crops. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea began to shrink dramatically in the 1960s due to the loss of water. Today, the Aral Sea is no more. Instead, there are two relatively small bodies of water labeled as the North Aral Sea and the South Aral Sea.

116A __ Fifth Avenue : SAKS

Saks Fifth Avenue is a high-end specialty store that competes with the likes of Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. The original Saks & Company business was founded by Andrew Saks in 1867. The first Saks Fifth Avenue store was opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1924. There are now Saks Fifth Avenue stores in many major cities in the US, as well in several locations worldwide.

Down

1D Window part : SASH

A movable (up-and-down) window frame is called a sash, from the French word for a frame, “châssis”. The term is also applied to that part of a door or window into which windows are set.

10D Triceps locale : ARM

The triceps brachii muscle is found at the back of the upper arm. The muscle’s name translates from Latin to “three-headed arm muscle”, fitting as it is actually made up of three bundles of muscles.

11D Home of Arizona State : TEMPE

Tempe is a city in the metropolitan area of Phoenix. It is named for the Vale of Tempe in Greece.

Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, and was founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

13D Maven : PRO

I’ve always loved the term “maven”, which is another word for “expert”. Maven comes into English from the Yiddish “meyvn” describing someone who appreciates and is a connoisseur.

14D “Performance is what we do” gas brand : SUNOCO

Back in the late 1800s, Sunoco was known as the Sun Oil Company, hence “Sun-o-co”.

15D Air fryer brand : OSTER

The Oster brand of small appliances was introduced in 1924 by John Oster. He started out by making manually-powered hair clippers designed for cutting women’s hair, and followed up with a motorized version in 1928. The clippers kept the company in business until 1946 when Oster diversified, buying a manufacturer of liquefying blenders in 1946. The blender was renamed to “Osterizer” and was a big hit. Oster was bought by Sunbeam, which has owned the brand since 1960.

16D Unflappable : STOIC

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). We get our adjective “stoic”, meaning “indifferent to pleasure or pain”, from the same root.

17D Dharma follower : HINDU

Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam.

In the Hindu tradition, the term “dharma” describes the laws of the natural universe. The observance of those laws enables one to be content and happy, and to avoid suffering.

29D Composer Rorem : NED

American composer Ned Rorem is famous for his musical compositions, but also for his book “Paris Diary of Ned Rorem” that was published in 1966. Rorem talks openly about his sexuality in the book, and also about the sexual orientation of others including Noël Coward, Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, much to some people’s chagrin.

33D Resonant chant : LITANY

A litany is a resonant form of rhythmic, call-and-response prayer used as a petition for divine aid. The word “litany” comes from the Greek “litaneia” meaning “supplication, prayer”. The contemporary, secular usage of the term is describing a long, tedious list of grievances.

35D Stereotypical name for a poodle : FIFI

The standard poodle breed of dog is considered by many to be the second-most intelligent breed, after the border collie. The name “poodle” comes from a Low German word meaning “to splash about”, reflecting the original use of the breed as a water retriever.

38D Slo-mo reviewer : REF

Back in the early 17th century, a referee was someone who examined patent applications. We started using the same term for a person presiding over a sporting event in the 1820s. “Referee” is a derivative of the verb “to refer”, and literally describes someone who has the authority to make a decision by “referring” to a book, archive etc.

45D Advil alternative : ALEVE

“Aleve” is a brand name used for the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Naproxen sodium.

50D “Butt out!” initials : MYOB!

Mind your own business (MYOB)

52D Auto engine booster : TURBO

A turbocharger is a device that is designed to extract more power out of an internal combustion engine. It does so by increasing the pressure of the air entering the intake. The pressure increase comes from the use of a compressor that is powered, cleverly enough, by the engine’s own exhaust gases.

56D Part of the former Yugoslavia : BOSNIA

Bosnia and Herzegovina was one of six federal units in former Yugoslavia that gained independence after the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. There are three main ethnic groups in Bosnia. The largest group are the Bosniaks, the second the Bosnian Serbs, and the third the Bosnian Croats.

58D Quinn of “Practical Magic” : AIDAN

Aidan Quinn is an Irish American actor. Quinn was born in Chicago but spent some years growing up in Ireland. Mainly known as a movie actor, Quinn also played the role of Captain Tommy Gregson on the excellent TV series “Elementary” that is centered on a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.

“Practical Magic” is a 1998 romcom starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as two sisters who are raised as witches. The film is based on a 1995 novel of the same name written by Alice Hoffman.

59D Academy newbies : PLEBES

A plebe is a freshman in the US military and naval academies. The term “plebe” is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of “plebeian”, and is a term used outside of the military schools.

65D Connecticut Ivy : YALE

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded in 1701, making it the third-oldest university in the US. Originally called the Collegiate School, it was renamed to Yale University in honor of retired merchant Elihu Yale, who made generous contributions to the institution. Yale University’s nickname is “Old Eli”, in a nod to the benefactor.

67D Thingamajig : GIZMO

The word “gizmo” (also “gismo”), meaning something the name of which is unknown or forgotten, was originally slang used by both the US Navy and the Marine Corps. The exact origin seems unknown.

75D May honoree : MOM

Note the official punctuation in “Mother’s Day”, even though one might think it should be “Mothers’ Day”. President Wilson and Anna Jarvis, who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family and not just “mothers” in general, so they went with the “Mother’s Day” punctuation.

84D __ and yang : YIN

The yin and yang can be illustrated using many different metaphors. In one, as the sun shines on a mountain, the side in the shade is the yin and the side in the light is the yang. The yin is also regarded as the feminine side, and the yang the masculine. The yin can also be associated with the moon, while the yang is associated with the sun.

85D South American behemoth : ANACONDA

Anacondas are native to the tropical regions of South America. The green anaconda is one of the world’s largest snakes, growing to 17 feet long and weighing up to 550 pounds! Anacondas are not venomous, and prefer to kill their prey by coiling around it and then squeeeeeezing …

A behemoth is something that is huge in size. The term comes from the Hebrew word “b’hemoth”, which is a beast described in the Book of Job. It is suggested that the Biblical creature is an elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, crocodile or perhaps something mythical.

87D Karate skill level : DAN

Practitioners of judo and karate proceed through a series of proficiency grades known as the kyu-dan system. At each progression, a different colored belt is awarded.

90D Dec. 25 : XMAS

The abbreviation “Xmas” that is used for “Christmas” comes from the Greek letter chi (X), which is the first letter of the Greek word for “Christ” (“Χριστός”).

93D “__-Dick” : MOBY

The full title of Herman Melville’s novel is “Moby-Dick; or, The Whale”. Note that the convention is to hyphenate “Moby-Dick” in the title, as that was how the book was first published, in 1851. However, there is no hyphen in the name of the whale “Moby Dick” as reproduced throughout the text.

94D Cream-filled choux pastry : ECLAIR

The name for the pastry known as an “éclair” is clearly French in origin. The French word for lightning is “éclair”, but no one seems to be too sure how it came to be used for the rather delicious bakery item.

95D “Uncle!,” in Spanish : NO MAS!

“No mas!” translates from Spanish as “no more!”.

To say uncle is to submit or yield. This peculiarly American use of “uncle” dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”

96D Catherine of “Beetlejuice” : O’HARA

Catherine O’Hara was an actress and comedian from Toronto. One of O’Hara’s more famous film roles is Kevin’s mother in the Christmas classic “Home Alone”. She also played a lead character (Moira) in the excellent sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” alongside Eugene Levy.

“Beetlejuice” is a 1988 comedy-horror film directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton in the title role. Beetlejuice is an underworld character who tries to scare away the new inhabitants of a house that is haunted by the ghosts of a deceased couple (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis).

99D Guacamole ingredients : LIMES

Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.

104D Letters on an envelope : SWAK

“SWAK” is an initialism standing for “sealed with a kiss”. SWAK, and the related SWALK (sealed with a loving kiss), are postal acronyms that originated during WWI.

105D Tennis great Sampras : PETE

Pete Sampras is a retired Greek-American tennis professional. Sampras was rated number one in the world rankings for six years in a row in the nineties.

108D Fracas : ROW

“Fracas”, meaning “noisy quarrel”, is a French word that we absorbed into English. In turn, the French usage evolved from the Italian “fracasso” meaning “uproar, crash”.

109D Infotainment spot : PSA

Public service announcement (PSA)