Tag: Scandinavian bar exchange crossword clue

Bill’s time: 8m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9. __ Ababa : ADDIS

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia. The city is relatively young, having being founded in 1886 by Emperor Menelik II. Addis Ababa holds an important position within the nations of Africa as it is home to many international organizations that are focused on the continent.

14. Natural skin soother : ALOE

Aloe vera is a succulent plant that grows in relatively dry climates. The plants leaves are full of biologically-active compounds that have been studied extensively. Aloe vera has been used for centuries in herbal medicine, mainly for topical treatment of wounds.

15. Good earth : LOAM

Loam is soil made up of sand, silt and clay in the ratio of about 40-40-20. Relative to other soil types, loam is is usually rich in nutrients and moisture, drains well and is easy to till.

16. Datum in a forensic database : PRINT

In the world of criminology, there are three classes of fingerprints:

• Patent prints are those which are obvious, easily spotted by the naked eye.
• Impressed prints are those made when the fingertips apply pressure to a soft material or surface, such as the skin.
• Latent prints are those that are invisible to the naked eye, but which can be detected using special equipment and materials.

Something described as forensic is connected with a court of law, or with public discussion or debate. The term comes from the Latin “forensis” meaning “of a forum, of a place of assembly”. We mainly use the word today to mean “pertaining to legal trials” as in “forensic medicine” and “forensic science”.

20. Outcasts : PARIAHS

“Pariah” is an anglicized version of the Tamil word “Paraiyar”. The Paraiyar are a social group of about 9 million people found in some Indian states and in Sri Lanka. The term “pariah” came to be a general term for members of the lowest caste in society, outcasts.

22. “No seats” sign : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

23. Score after deuce : AD IN

In tennis, if the score reaches deuce (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the advantage. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. If the one of the players is calling out the score then if he/she has the advantage then that player announces “ad in” or more formally “advantage in”. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

36. Early 20th-century touring cars : REOS

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale and the REO Flying Cloud.

41. 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.

42. Massey of old films : 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”.

45. “Git!” : SCAT!

Our word “scat!” means “get lost!” It comes from a 19th-century expression “quicker than s’cat”, which meant “in a great hurry”. The original phrase probably came from the words “hiss” and “cat”.

51. Night school subj. : ESL

English as a Second Language (ESL) is sometimes referred to as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

53. Scandinavian bar exchange : SKOALS

“Skoal” is a Swedish and Norwegian toast that has roots in the old Norse word “skaal” meaning “cup”.

61. Local anesthesia effect : NERVE BLOCK

“Aisthesis” is the Greek word for “feeling”, from which “anaisthesia” is Greek for “want of feeling, lack of sensation”. And that’s how we get our English term “anesthesia”.

64. Words in some English resort town names : -ON-SEA

Towns on the English coast often have the suffix “-on-sea” in their names. Examples are Southend-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea and Frinton-on-Sea, all of which are on the southeast coast in the county of Essex.

66. First name in homespun humor : ERMA

Erma Bombeck wrote for newspapers for about 35 years, producing more than 4,000 witty and humorous columns, under the title “At Wit’s End”, describing her home life in suburbia.

Down

2. Wasatch Mountains resort : ALTA

Alta ski resort actually lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont. The ski resort of Snowbird, located next to Alta, has been in operation since 1971.

The Wasatch Range is at the western edge of the Rocky Mountains and runs through Utah. “Wasatch” is a Ute word meaning “mountain pass”.

3. __ grapes : SOUR

Our expression “sour grapes” is used to describe a negative attitude adopted by somebody towards something just because that person can’t have the thing himself or herself. The phrase alludes to one of Aesop’s fables, the story of “The Fox and the Grapes”. In the fable, a squirrel could climb up to grapes high in a tree that a fox was unsuccessful in getting to. On seeing this, the fox said, “It’s okay, the grapes were sour anyway”.

4. Some Chrysler engines : HEMIS

“Hemi” is short for “hemisphere”, and is the name given to an internal combustion engine with hemispherical combustion chambers. Chrysler is famous for using Hemi engines in many of its models.

6. Half a Daily Planet byline : LOIS

Lois Lane has been the love interest of Superman/Clark Kent since the comic series was first published in 1938. Lois and Clark both work for the big newspaper in the city of Metropolis called “The Daily Planet”. The couple finally got hitched in the comics (and on television’s “Lois and Clark”) in 1996. One has to wonder how challenging the crossword is in “The Daily Planet” …

7. __ Antonio : SAN

The city of San Antonio, Texas was named by Spanish explorers. They came upon a Native American settlement in the area on 13 June 1631, the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua.

8. Texting interjection : OMG

“OMG” is text-speak for “Oh My Gosh!” “Oh My Goodness!” or any other G-words you might care to use …

12. Like some JFK flights : INTL

The Idlewild Golf Course was taken over by the city of New York in 1943 and construction started on a new airport to serve the metropolis and relieve congestion at LaGuardia. The Idlewild name still persists, even though the airport was named after Major General Alexander E. Anderson from the first days of the project. When the facility started operating in 1948 it was known as New York International Airport, Anderson Field. It was renamed to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in 1963, one month after the President was assassinated.

13. Lid issue : STYE

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

21. Cassis apéritif : KIR

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.

24. Mirage site : DESERT

A mirage occurs when light rays are bent by passing say from cold air to warmer air. The most often cited mirage is a “lake” seen in a desert, which is actually the blue of the sky and not water at all. The word “mirage” comes to us via French from the Latin “mirare” meaning “to look at in wonder”. “Mirage” has the same root as our words “admire” and “mirror”.

27. At all : NOHOW

The peculiarly American term “nohow” means “not at all”. It comes from the words “no” and “how” constructed in the same way as the earlier word “nowhere”.

31. City in New York’s Mohawk Valley : UTICA

The ancient city of Utica was perhaps the first colony founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa. Located in modern-day Tunisia, Utica surrendered to Rome shortly before the Third Punic War after which it became the capital of the Roman province of Africa.

The Mohawk Valley is a region in New York state located between the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains. Centered on the Mohawk river, the area includes the cities of Schenectady, Utica and Rome.

32. Stalin-era prison : GULAG

The Gulag was a government agency in the Soviet Union that administered forced labor camps. The term “gulag” was used for the camps themselves, especially when used for political dissidents. “GULag” is actually an acronym standing for the Russian “Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies”.

35. Policy __ : WONK

A wonk is an overly studious person. It is an American slang term that has been around at least since 1954. More recently, “wonk” has acquired an air of respectability as it has come to mean someone who has studies a topic thoroughly and become somewhat expert.

47. Court figures, for short : DAS

District Attorney (DA)

48. Ensenada pronoun : ESTA

Ensenada is a city in Baja California, Mexico which sits on the coast about 80 miles south of San Diego. Ensenada is noted as a cruise ship destination, and is also a producer of outstanding wine.

52. Velcro alternative : LACES

The hook-and-loop fastener that we now call “Velcro” was invented in 1941 by Georges de Mestral, a Swiss engineer. Mestral noticed that the seeds of the burdock plant (burrs or burs) stuck to his clothes. Under the microscope he found hooks on the burrs that grabbed hold of loops in his clothing. After years of development, he came up with a way of simulating the natural hook using man-made materials, and Velcro was born.

53. Nose-in-the-air sort : 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.

54. __ Ration : KEN-L

Ken-L Ration was a brand of dog food introduced by Quaker Oats. The brand sponsored the pet kennel at Disneyland back in the sixties, and so visitors used to be able to board their dogs at “Ken-L Land”.

56. With, on le menu : AVEC

In French, “avec” (with) and “sans” (without) are opposites.

58. Dr. Johnny Fever’s fictional station : WKRP

Johnny Fever is a wild and wacky disk jockey in the sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati”. Fever is played by actor Howard Hesseman. The character was actually inspired by a real-life DJ from Atlanta named Skinny Bobby Harper.

59. Soprano Gluck : ALMA

“Alma Gluck” was the stage name of Romanian-born American soprano Reba Feinsohn. Gluck’s second marriage was to violinist Efrem Zimbalist. Gluck and Zimbalist’s son was Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. The younger Efrem was a noted actor and star of television’s “77 Sunset Strip”.

60. Sommelier’s concern : YEAR

“Sommelier” is the French word for “wine steward”. If that steward is a female, then the French term is “sommelière”.

62. “__ you out of your mind?” : ARE

Yeah, probably. That’s why I write this blog every day …