Tag: Global revolution? crossword clue

Advertisement

Constructed by: David P. Williams
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme None

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

Bill’s time: 10m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Gets in over one’s head? : SCUBAS

As a scuba diver descends into the water, the water pressure on the outside of the eardrum increases, whereas the pressure on the inside of the ear remains constant. This difference in pressure can cause the eardrum to distend, creating pain. A diver avoids the problem by holding the nose and gently blowing air through his or her eustachian tubes, equalizing the pressure inside and outside the eardrum. A similar process operates as the diver ascends, although it is the higher pressure in the middle ear that expels excess air through the eustachian tube into the mouth cavity. If the eustachian tube is blocked, perhaps because of an ear infection, then the persistent pressure difference can result in an excruciating earache after a dive.

7A Italian sports cars, colloquially : LAMBOS

Ferruccio Lamborghini was in the business of manufacturing tractors back in the late forties. Almost two decades later, he founded Automobili Lamborghini to produce high-end sports cars. That’s quite a target market shift …

13A Vancouver team : CANUCKS

The Canucks are Vancouver’s professional hockey team, a franchise that joined the National Hockey League in 1970 as an expansion team. “Canuck” is a slang term for “Canadian”.

15A Globe direction? : EXEUNT

“Exeunt omnes” is a stage direction instructing everyone on stage to exit. The term translates from Latin as “they all go out”.

The Globe Theatre was built in London in 1599, and was used mainly for staging works by William Shakespeare and his theater company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The theater was destroyed by fire in 1613. A second Globe was built on the site a year later, and it remained open until 1642. The original theater was reconstructed on a nearby site by the Thames and opened in 1997. I had the privilege of seeing a fabulous performance of “As You Like It” in Shakespeare’s Globe (as the new theater is called) about a decade ago. Seeing a play in that remarkable theater is tremendous entertainment, much recommended for anyone visiting London.

19A Duane __: NYC drugstore chain : READE

The chain of drug and convenience stores in New York City known as Duane Reade was founded in 1960 by three brothers. The first three stores were serviced by a warehouse in lower Manhattan located on Broadway between Duane and Reade streets, streets that gave the chain its name.

22A Comb builder : BEE

Honeybees create a structure within their nests called a honeycomb that is used to contain their larvae and also to store honey and pollen. The honeycomb comprises hexagonal cells made from wax.

23A Jet stream heading : EAST

Jet streams are narrow air currents high in the atmosphere that move very quickly around the earth. The major jet streams surrounding our planet move in an easterly direction.

24A Gambling swindle : BUNCO

“Bunco” (also “bunko”) is a term dating back to the 19th century with the meaning “confidence trick”. It’s very possible that “bunco” comes from the Italian word “banco” meaning “bank”.

27A Word on some diplomas : MAGNA

When an academic degree is awarded, a level of distinction can be noted depending on the degree of success achieved by the student. There are three types of honor, each with a Latin name:

• cum laude: meaning “with honor” (literally “with praise”)
• magna cum laude: meaning “with great honor”
• summa cum laude: meaning “with highest honor”

32A Professional writing? : LOVE LETTERS

The answer isn’t about a job, but about professing love. Very clever …

33A Part of a skin care regimen : TONER

A skin toner is a cosmetic used to cleanse the skin and to shrink pores.

Quite often, the terms “regime” and “regimen” seem to be used interchangeably. In contemporary usage, “regime” is applied more generally, and “regimen” more specifically. A “regimen” is a systematic approach that one might apply to something, to exercise or diet for example. The term “regime” can also be used in such contexts, but can have additional definitions, such as “government in power”. A form of government cannot be described as a “regimen”.

35A Global revolution? : DAY

A solar day is the time taken for a planet to rotate completely about its axis so the sun reappears in the same position in the sky. A solar day on Earth is 24 hours. A solar day on Mars is just under 24 hours, and is referred to as a “sol”.

38A “Bonanza” brother : HOSS

Dan Blocker was the actor who played Eric “Hoss” Cartwright in the Western TV series “Bonanza”. Hoss was the “slow” character on the show. Paradoxically, Dan Blocker was the most-educated member of the cast, having earned a master’s degree in the dramatic arts. Blocker passed away while “Bonanza” was still running. He was undergoing relatively routine gallbladder surgery and developed a pulmonary embolism which killed him. “Bonanza” ran for just one more season after Blocker passed away.

The TV show “Bonanza” ran from 1959 until 1973, making it the second-longest-running Western series on US television (after “Gunsmoke”). “Bonanza” told the story of the Cartwright family who lived on the Ponderosa ranch located in Nevada, on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. Ben Cartright, the father, was played by Lorne Green. Ben’s three sons were Adam (Pernell Roberts), Eric/Hoss (Dan Blocker) and Joseph/Little Joe (Michael Landon).

41A Guitar kin, informally : UKE

The ukulele (uke) originated in the 1800s and mimicked a small guitar brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

43A Espagnole, for one : SAUCE

Espagnole sauce is one of the five foundational “mother sauces” of French classical cuisine, a list famously codified by the legendary chef Auguste Escoffier. It is a rich, flavorsome sauce that gets its character from brown stock (like veal or beef), a mirepoix (a mix of sautéed carrots, onions, and celery), a brown roux for thickening, and often a touch of tomato. While “Espagnole” means “Spanish” in the French language, the association with Spain is up for debate.

44A Words before a French kiss? : MON AMI

“Mon ami” is French for “my friend”, when referring to a male. The phrase “mon amie” is used for a female.

51A Toed the line : OBEYED

The idiomatic expression “to toe the line” means “to obey”. The etymology of the phrase is disputed, although it is likely to come from the Royal Navy. Barefooted sailors were required to stand to attention for inspection lined up along the seams for the wooden deck, hence “toeing the line”.

Down

2D Warning : CAVEAT

A caveat is a warning or a qualification. “Caveat” is the Latin for “let him beware”.

4D Trademarked pan : BUNDT

Here in the US, what we know as bundt cake takes its name from the ring-shaped pan in which it is usually baked. This pan was introduced in 1950 by the company Nordic Ware, at which time the “Bundt” name was trademarked.

5D Maker of jet-propelled transport : ACME

The Acme Corporation is a fictional company used mainly by Looney Tunes, and within the Looney Tunes empire it appears mostly in “Road Runner” cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is always receiving a new piece of gear from Acme designed to finally capture the Road Runner, but the equipment always leads to his downfall.

6D Carving implement : SKI

When skiing downhill, a skier tilts the skis onto their edges, allowing the hourglass shape of the ski to create a smooth, arcing turn with minimal skidding. This action allows the skis to cut cleanly through the snow, much like a sharp implement carving a precise line, hence the term “carving”.

8D Nerve fiber : AXON

A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron. The long nerve fiber that conducts signals away from the neuron is known as the axon. The axon is surrounded by a myelin sheath, which acts as an electrical insulator and which increases the rate the impulses pass along the axon.

9D Gig part : MEG

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

10D Pet peeves : BUGBEARS

A bugbear is a character from English folklore, a goblin in the form of a bear who was said to eat naughty children. Our contemporary bugbear is less scary and is simply something that is annoying or irritating.

The phrase “pet peeve”, meaning “thing that provokes one most”, seems to be somewhat ironic. A “peeve” is a source of irritation, and the adjective “pet” means “especially cherished”.

12D Wrestler George “The Animal” __ : STEELE

George “The Animal” Steele was a professional wrestler, whose real name was William Myers. In the ring, he would often stick out his tongue like a crazy man, a tongue that he stained green by sucking on Clorets breath mints. Myers led a surprisingly different life outside the spotlight: for many years, he was a respected high school teacher and coach.

14D Bumpy ride, metaphorically : STRUGGLE BUS

To be on the struggle bus is to be in a situation that is difficult or frustrating.

17D Couples in love? : TENNIS TEAMS

In sports like tennis, the score of zero is designated as “love”. Some people believe that this usage originates from the French “l’oeuf” (meaning “the egg”). The idea is that the written character “0” looks like an egg.

27D Atomic clock part : MASER

A MASER is a device that was around long before LASERs came into the public consciousness. A MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is similar to a LASER, but microwaves are emitted rather than light waves. When the storyline for “Star Trek” was being developed, the writers introduced a weapon called a “phaser”, with the name “phaser” derived from PHoton mASER.

An atomic clock is the most accurate tool known for keeping track of time. Most clocks work using some sort of an oscillation that takes place at a regular interval, like a pendulum. In the case of an atomic clock, the oscillation that is measured is between the nucleus of an atom (usually a cesium atom) and its surrounding electrons.

30D Area adjacent to the French Quarter : TREME

Tremé is a New Orleans neighborhood that is more formally known as Faubourg Tremé. It is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, founded in 1810 primarily providing homes for free people of color. Today, it is home to Louis Armstrong Park, Congo Square, the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and the New Orleans African American Museum.

The oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans is the French Quarter, which is also called the “Vieux Carré (French for “Old Square”). After being founded by the French in 1718 as “La Nouvelle-Orléans”, the city developed around this central square.

31D Baloney : NONSENSE

“Baloney” is an American English variant of “Bologna” as in the sausage. The term came to be used to mean “nonsense” in the 1920s. “Baloney” was popularized in the 1930s by New York Governor Alfred E. Smith as he used the term quite often.

33D Digits on scales, maybe : THUMBS

The idiom ‘”to put one’s thumb on the scale” refers to unfairly influencing an outcome to one’s advantage. This saying likely originated from the practice of dishonest merchants who would secretly press a thumb on their weighing scales to make goods appear heavier, thus cheating their customers.

36D “Riverdale” redhead : ARCHIE

“Riverdale” is a teen drama TV show based on the “Archie” comic book series. While the “Archie” comics are light in tone, “Riverdale” is a darker production that explores the complex world of the “Archie” characters.

37D Tossed, slangily : YEETED

In contemporary slang, to yeet is to throw away, discard. “To yeet” usually implies the use of force and a general disregard for what is being discarded. As in, “I really want to yeet the word ‘yeet’ …”

39D Ear pieces? : QTIPS

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

40D Wade Trophy winner Bueckers on the Dallas Wings : PAIGE

Paige Bueckers is a WNBA player who was drafted by Dallas Wings in 2025. She played college basketball for the UConn Huskies, and led the team to a National Championship win in 2025.

The Wade Trophy is the oldest and most prestigious annual award in US women’s college basketball, presented to the top NCAA Division I player. It is named in honor of Lily Margaret Wade, the pioneering coach who led Delta State University to three consecutive national championships in the 1970s.