Tag: Smeltery refuse crossword clue

Bill’s time: 6m 32s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Single-celled creature : AMEBA

An ameba (also “amoeba”) is a single-celled microorganism. The name comes from the Greek “amoibe”, meaning change. The name is quite apt, as the cell changes shape readily as the ameba moves, eats and reproduces.

6 Cab alternative : UBER

The rideshare service Uber takes its name from the English colloquial word “uber” meaning “super, topmost”, which in turn comes from the German “über” meaning “above”.

A hansom cab is a very specific design of horse and buggy that was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834 in England. The “cab” in the name is short for “cabriolet”, an earlier design of carriage on which the hansom was based. It’s from “hansom cab” that we get our modern term “cab”.

10 Partner of aid : ABET

The word “abet” comes into English from the Old French “abeter” meaning “to bait” or “to harass with dogs” (literally “to make bite”). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of “abet” meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

15 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!”.

17 Pricey violin, for short : STRAD

Generations of the Stradivari family produced violins and other stringed instruments, the most famous of which were constructed by Antonio Stradivari.

19 Start of a spell : ABRA-

The incantation “abracadabra” has a long history. It was used as far back as the 2nd century AD in ancient Rome when the word was prescribed by a physician to be worn on an amulet to help his emperor recover from disease. “Abracadabra” is Aramaic, and roughly translates as “I will create as I speak”.

20 Tenderloin often served with Béarnaise sauce : CHATEAUBRIAND

The dish known as Chateaubriand comprises a thick slice of tenderloin beef served with a rich sauce. It is named for French author François-René de Chateaubriand, although no one seems to really know why.

23 Prince Valiant’s boy : ARN

In the comic strip “Prince Valiant”, Arn is the eldest son of the title character, and Aleta is his wife. Edward, Duke of Windsor, once declared that “Prince Valiant” comic strip the “greatest contribution to English Literature in the past one hundred years”. I’m not so sure …

25 Kindergarten art item : CRAYON

We use the word “crayon” for a stick of colored wax used for drawing. The term was imported in the 16th century from French, in which language it means “pencil”.

30 Smeltery refuse : SLAG

The better ores are processed in a blast furnace, to extract the metal. The waste from this process is called “slag”. Slag does contain some residual metal and it can be processed further in a slag furnace to extract the balance. Slag furnaces also accept lower-quality ores as a raw material.

32 Inc. kin : LLC

A limited liability company (LLC) has a structure that limits the liability of the owner or owners. It is a hybrid structure in the sense that it can be taxed as would an individual or partnership, while also maintaining the liability protection afforded to a corporation.

33 Rockies resort town : VAIL, COLORADO

The Vail Ski Resort in Colorado is the largest single-mountain ski resort in the whole country. The resort was opened in 1962, basically in the middle of nowhere. It was given the name Vail after Vail Pass which runs by the mountain (now also called Vail Mountain). The town of Vail, Colorado was established four years later in 1966, and now has a population of about 5,000.

36 Rifle range supply : AMMO

The word “munitions” describes materials and equipment used in war. The term derives from the Latin “munitionem” meaning “fortification, defensive wall”. Back in the 17th century, French soldiers referred to such materials as “la munition”, a Middle French term. This was misheard as “l’ammunition”, and as a result we ended up importing the word “ammunition” (often shortened to “ammo”), a term that we now use mainly to describe the material fired from a weapon.

39 Federation in OPEC : UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates (states) in the Middle East. Included in the seven are Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with the city of Abu Dhabi being the UAE capital and cultural center.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

40 Les __ les autres: one another : UNES

The French phrase “les unes les autres” can be used to mean “one another”.

41 Sub on a plate : HERO SANDWICH

A hero is a submarine sandwich. The hero originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

46 Court players’ gp. : ATP

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is an organization that looks out for the interests of male tennis professionals. The equivalent organization for women is the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

52 Topiary tool : SHEARS

Topiary is the practice of training and clipping perennial plants into clearly defined shapes.

54 “http” often begins one : URL

An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

56 Biblical phrase in Lincoln’s historic 6/16/1858 speech, and what each set of circled letters contains : A HOUSE DIVIDED

Just after Abraham Lincoln accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for US senator representing Illinois, he made a speech in the Illinois State Capitol. Lincoln’s 1858 address contrasted the two halves of the Union, those states allowing slavery, and those not:

“A house divided against itself, cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.

The phrase “A house divided cannot stand” first appeared in the Christian Bible. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said:

Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.

60 River seen from the Leaning Tower : ARNO

The city of Pisa sits right on the Italian coast, at the mouth of the River Arno. The city is perhaps most famous for its Leaning Tower. The tower is actually the campanile (bell tower) of the city’s cathedral, and it has been leaning since it was completed in 1173. Just shows you how important good foundations are …

64 Rain cats and dogs : POUR

It has been “raining cats and dogs” at least since the 1700s, but no one seems to know the origin of the expression.

66 Eco-friendly word : REUSE

The so-called “waste hierarchy” can be restated as the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The preferences are in order:

1. Reduce consumption
2. Reuse manufactured products
3. Recycle raw materials

67 Falafel holder : PITA

Falafel is a ball of ground chickpeas or fava beans that has been deep fried and served in pita bread. I love chickpeas, but falafel is often too dry to me …

Down

1 ’70s-’80s scandal that inspired “American Hustle” : ABSCAM

The FBI set up a sting operation in 1978 that eventually targeted corruption within Congress. Central to the “scam” was a front company called “Abdul Enterprises, Ltd”, which company name led to the whole operation being nicknamed “Abscam”. At the end of the day, one senator and five House members were convicted of bribery and conspiracy. Karim Abdul Rahman was the fictional sheik that gave “his” name to the front company.

“American Hustle” is a 2013 movie with a plotline that is loosely based on the famous FBI ABSCAM sting of the late seventies and early eighties. The film stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists who are forced to work with an FBI agent played by Bradley Cooper.

2 Lepidopteran foe of Godzilla : MOTHRA

Mothra is a giant moth-like monster that made its big-screen debut in the 1961 film “Mothra”. Mothra turns up quite often in “Godzilla” movies.

A lepidopterist is a person who studies butterflies and moths, a name coming from Lepidoptera, the order of insects that encompasses such flying insects. “Lepidoptera” comes from the Greek words for “scale” and “wing”.

7 Blockhead : BOOB

The word “booby” has described a silly person since the late 1500s, with the term coming from the Spanish “bobo” meaning “stupid person. By the mid 1800s, schoolboys were pranking each other by setting “booby traps”. The latter innocent term took on a lethal meaning during WWI when it described a device designed to kill someone who triggered it unwittingly.

10 Yoga posture : ASANA

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word that translates literally as “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

11 “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer/songwriter : BOB DYLAN

The real name of singer Bob Dylan is Robert Zimmerman. Zimmerman chose that particular stage name because he was greatly influenced by the poetry of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

Bob Dylan wrote the famous song “Blowin’ in the Wind” in 1963, apparently taking all of ten minutes to finish the whole composition. “Blowin’ in the Wind” has been covered many, many times, with a Peter, Paul and Mary version in 1963 the most commercially successful.

13 Sri Lanka export : TEA

The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.

21 Yours, to Yves : A TOI

“À toi” is the French term for “yours”, when talking to someone with whom one is familiar. “À toi” literally means “to you”.

22 Legendary Greek ship : ARGO

In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts sailed on the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece. The vessel was called “Argo” in honor of the ship’s builder, a man named Argus.

26 Ye __ Shoppe : OLDE

The word “olde” wasn’t actually used much earlier than the 1920s. “Olde” was introduced to give a quaint antique feel to brand names, shop names etc. as in “Ye Olde Shoppe”.

27 Some mil. drillers : NCOS

Non-commissioned officer (NCO)

29 Cruet filler, to Rachael Ray : EVOO

Virgin olive oil is oil produced from olives with no chemical treatment involved in the production process at all. To be labelled “virgin”, the oil must have an acidity level of less than 2% and must be judged to have “a good taste”. Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) comes from virgin oil production, and is the portion with acidity levels of less than 0.8% acidity that is judged to have “superior taste”.

Rachael Ray is a celebrity chef and host of several shows on the Food Network television channel. Ray comes from a family that owned and managed a number of restaurants in the northeast of the country. One of Ray’s TV shows is “$40 a Day”, in which she demonstrates how to visit various cities in North America and Europe and eat three meals and a snack on a daily budget of just $40.

30 Tons : SCADS

The origin of the word “scads”, meaning “lots and lots”, is unclear. That said, “scads” was used to mean “dollars” back in the mid-1800s.

31 MGM co-founder Marcus : LOEW

Marcus Loew was a New Yorker born into a poor Jewish family. He started out in a penny arcade business and used its profits to buy into a nickelodeon. He built a whole chain of movie theaters, and then moved into the production of films so that he could guarantee supply of features that he could show in his theaters. Eventually he pulled together the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film production company, and sadly passed away just three years after he inked the deal.

35 German industrial region : RUHR

The Ruhr is a large urban area in western Germany. The area is heavily populated, and is the fifth largest urban area in the whole of Europe, after Istanbul, Moscow, London and Paris. The Ruhr became heavily industrialized due to its large deposits of coal. By 1850, the area contained nearly 300 operating coal mines. Any coal deposits remaining in the area today are too expensive to exploit.

37 Protestant denom. : METH

The Methodist movement started within the Church of England in the 1700s. It was inspired mainly by the teachings of John Wesley and his younger brother Charles.

38 Monocled food mascot : MR PEANUT

Planters is the company with the Mr. Peanut icon. Mr. Peanut was the invention of a first-grader named Antonio Gentile, a young man who won a design contest in 1916. A remarkable achievement, I’d say …

42 Houston MLBer : ‘STRO

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

44 45-Down inscription : INRI
45 Site of the Crucifixion : CALVARY

The letters written on the cross on which Jesus died were INRI. “INRI” is an initialism standing for the Latin “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum”, which translates into English as “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”.

According to the Gospels of the Christian New Testament, Jesus was crucified just outside the walls of Jerusalem at the location called Golgotha. The Bible translates “Golgotha” as the “place of the skull”. This phrase translates into Latin as “Calvariæ Locus”, from which we get the English name “Calvary”.

49 The “r” in pi-r-squared : RADIUS

The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is often referred to as Archimedes’ constant, which we denote with the Greek letter pi (π). The ratio pi can be used to calculate the area of a disk, by multiplying the constant by the square of the radius (πr2).

50 Danish seaport : ODENSE

Odense is a city in Denmark named after the Norse god Odin. One of the most famous sons of Odense was Hans Christian Andersen, the celebrated author of children’s stories.

53 Now, in Nogales : AHORA

Ahora is the Spanish for “now”. “Hoy día” is Spanish for “today”.

Nogales (properly called “Heroica Nogales”) is a city in the Mexican State of Sonora. Nogales lies right on the Mexico-US border, opposite the city of Nogales, Arizona.

58 Film lioness : ELSA

The life story of Elsa the lion was told by game warden Joy Adamson, who had a very close relationship with the lioness from when Elsa was orphaned as a young cub. Adamson wrote the book “Born Free” about Elsa, and then “Living Free” which tells the story of Elsa and her three lion cubs. In the 1966 film based on “Born Free”, Adamson is played by the talented actress Virginia McKenna.

59 Slushy drink brand : ICEE

Icee and Slurpee are brand names of slushy drinks. Ugh …