Tag: Treading water so to speak crossword clue

Bill’s time: 11m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 What you see hear? : TYPO

Without the typo, the clue would read “What you see here?”

16 Plays the nice guy? : ENDS UP LAST

“Nice guys finish last”.

17 Fins : ABES

The US five-dollar bill is often called an “Abe”, as President Abraham Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a “fin”, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.

20 Eponymous diplomat Lord St __, friend of explorer George Vancouver : HELENS

The active volcano in Washington state called Mount St. Helens was named by explorer George Vancouver for his friend, British diplomat Lord St Helens. 57 people died when When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, making it the deadliest eruption in the history of the US.

George Vancouver was a British explorer, and an officer in the Royal Navy. As well as exploring the coast of Australia, he is best known for his travels along the northwest coast of North America. The city of Vancouver was named in his honor. Travelling with him on his American voyage was a lieutenant Peter Puget, and in his honor, Vancouver named the waters south of the Tacoma Narrows “Puget’s Sound”. Nowadays, the name “Puget Sound” describes an area much greater than Vancouver had envisioned.

22 Peters out : DIES

The verb phrase “to peter out”, meaning “to fizzle out”, originated in the 1840s in the American mining industry. While the exact etymology isn’t clear, it probably derives from the term “saltpetre”, a constituent of gunpowder.

24 Quakers in forests? : ASPENS

The “quaking” aspen tree is so called because the structure of the leaves causes them to move easily in the wind, to “tremble, quake”.

27 Harlequin output : ROMANCES

The romance genre of novels was first introduced by the British company Mills and Boon in the UK. These books were resold in the US by Canadian firm Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, beginning in 1957. Harlequin continued to publish exclusively British romance novels until 1975, when it finally published an American author, namely Janet Dailey.

28 ’90s Rather co-anchor : CHUNG

Journalist Connie Chung has been a news anchor and reporter for several television networks over the years. Most famously, she was co-anchor on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in the 1990s. Chung is married to talk show host Maury Povich.

29 Caribbean native : CUBAN

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean. The exact etymology of the name “Cuba” seems a little unclear. Most believe “Cuba” to be derived from the Taíno terms for “where fertile land is abundant” (cubao) or “great place” (coabana).

30 Univ. mentors : RAS

A resident assistant or resident adviser (RA) is a peer leader found in a residence hall, particularly on a college campus.

31 Chloé fragrance maker : COTY

Coty is a producer of beauty products that was founded in 1904 in Paris.

32 Angel in Venezuela? : FALLS

Angel Falls in Venezuela is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world, at a height of 3,213 feet. The waterfall is named for an American aviator called James Angel, who was the first to fly a plane over the falls.

33 Soup made with stock called dashi : MISO

Miso is the name of the seasoning that makes miso soup. Basic miso seasoning is made by fermenting rice, barley and soybeans with salt and a fungus to produce a paste. The paste can be added to stock to make miso soup, or perhaps to flavor tofu.

Dashi is a style of cooking stock used in Japanese cuisine. Most famously, dashi” is the stock that is used as the base for miso soup. Traditional dashi is a fish stock to which is added edible kelp called kombu and shavings of preserved and fermented skipjack tuna called katsuobushi.

34 Pollution monitoring gp. : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

35 Blender button : PUREE

A purée is a food that has been made smooth by straining or blending. “Purée” is a French term, which I believe is now used to mean “pea soup” (more completely written as “purée de pois”). The French verb “purer” means “to strain, clean”, from the Latin “purare” meaning “to purify, clean”.

39 Symbols seen in pairs, briefly : PARENS

Parentheses (parens.)

44 Show with a Miami spin-off : CSI

I quite enjoyed the “CSI” franchise of television shows, all except “CSI: Miami”. I find the character played by David Caruso to be extremely annoying. “CSI: Miami” was cancelled in 2012. No loss …

47 Designer Cassini : OLEG

French-born; American fashion designer Oleg Cassini had two big names particularly associated with his designs. In the sixties he produced the state wardrobe for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and he was also the exclusive designer for Hollywood’s Gene Tierney, who was Cassini’s second wife.

51 Morse sounds : DITS

Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the co-inventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash. When words are spelled aloud in Morse code, a dot is pronounced as “dit”, and a dash is pronounced as “dah”.

54 Close talks : TETE-A-TETES

A “tête-à-tête” is a one-on-one meeting, and a term that translates from French as “head-to-head”.

Down

1 Passes at a tournament : BYES

The word “bye”, as used in sport, originated in cricket. A bye is a run scored due to an error by the wicketkeeper (similar to a catcher in baseball) when he fails to stop a ball bowled by the bowler (like a pitcher in baseball). Later the word “bye” in sport came to mean the position of a player in a tournament who is left without a competitor when the rest have drawn pairs. In these commercial times, those byes tend to be awarded to the best (seeded) players, so that the most popular players always advance past the first round of competition.

6 Nepalese money : RUPEES

The rupee is a unit of currency used in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. The term “rupee” comes from the Sanskrit word “rupya”, which once meant “stamped, impressed” and then “coin”.

7 Widemouthed stewpots : OLLAS

An olla is a traditional clay pot used for the making of stews. “Olla” was the Latin word used in Ancient Rome to describe a similar type of pot.

8 Badlands Natl. Park’s state : SDAK

Badlands may be “bad lands” for agriculture (hence the name), but they can be beautiful. A badlands is an extensive area from which the topsoil has been eroded by wind and water, leaving exposed rock and very little vegetation. One of the most beautiful badlands areas in the US is preserved for the nation as South Dakota’s Badlands National Park.

9 Navy lt.’s subordinate : ENS

Ensign is (usually) the most junior rank of commissioned officer in the armed forces. The name comes from the tradition that the junior officer would be given the task of carrying the ensign flag.

10 Charlotte Amalie’s island : ST THOMAS

Saint Thomas is one of US Virgin Islands (USVI) in the Caribbean Sea. The US purchased Saint Thomas, along with Saint John and Saint Croix, in 1917. The intent of the purchase was to enhance US control of the Caribbean and the Panama Canal during WWI. One of the more famous people born on Saint Thomas is the actor Kelsey Grammer.

Charlotte Amalie is the capital and largest city in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Located on St. Thomas, the city was named after the queen consort of King Christian V of Denmark, Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel.

11 Phishing, e.g. : CYBERCRIME

Phishing is the online practice of stealing usernames, passwords and credit card details by creating a site that deceptively looks reliable and trustworthy. Phishers often send out safe-looking emails or instant messages that direct someone to an equally safe-looking website where the person might inadvertently enter sensitive information. “Phishing” is a play on the word “fishing”, as in “fishing for passwords, PIN numbers etc.”

15 Hawk’s claw : TALON

A talon is a claw of a bird of prey. The term “talon” ultimately derives from “talus”, the Latin word for “ankle”.

21 Obi-Wan portrayer : EWAN

Ewan McGregor is a very talented Scottish actor, one who got his break in the 1996 film “Trainspotting”. McGregor’s first big Hollywood role was playing the young Obi-Wan-Kenobi in the “Star Wars” prequels. Less known is his televised marathon motorcycle journey from London to New York via central Europe, Ukraine, Siberia, Mongolia and Canada. The 2004 trip was shown as “Long Way Round” on TV. McGregor did a similar trip in 2007 called “Long Way Down”, which took him and the same travelling companion from the north of Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the more beloved of the “Star Wars” characters. Kenobi was portrayed by two fabulous actors in the series of films. As a young man he is played by Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, and as an older man he is played by Alec Guinness.

23 __ gas : NOBLE

The noble gases (also “rare gases”) are those elements over on the extreme right of the Periodic Table. Because of their “full” complement of electrons, noble gases are very unreactive. The six noble gases that occur naturally are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon.

25 Mall portmanteau : SHOPAHOLIC

A portmanteau was a large suitcase, one that could be taken apart into two separate pieces. The word “portmanteau” is French for a “travelling bag”, from “porter” (to carry) and “manteau” (a coat, cloak). We also use “portmanteau” to mean a word that has been melded together from two parts (just as the suitcase comprised two parts). This usage was introduced to the world by Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. He explained to Alice that the nonsense words in the “Jabberwocky” poem were actually portmanteau words. For example “slithy” comes from from “slimy” and “lithe”.

29 1990 Best New Artist Grammy winner : CAREY

Mariah Carey produced her first album in 1990 under the guidance of Tommy Mottola, an executive at Columbia Records. Mottola and Carey must have hit it off, because they were married three years later (although Mottola is now married to a different singer …).

35 __ John’s Pizza : PAPA

Papa John’s is the third largest takeout and delivery pizza chain in the US, with Pizza Hut and Domino’s taking the top spots.

38 Settled matter : DREGS

The dregs in wine, the sediment that settles during fermentation (and sometimes in the bottle), are also called “lees”.

39 Former Spanish coin : PESETA

The peseta is the former currency of Spain, and the de facto currency of Spain’s neighbor, the Principality of Andorra. The peseta was replaced by the euro in 2002.

41 Guard dog originally bred in Germany, familiarly : DOBIE

The Doberman Pinscher is a breed of dog that was developed around 1890 in Germany. The person responsible for introducing the breed was Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann, explaining the “Doberman” (sometimes “Dobermann”) name. “Pinschers” are a group of Germanic breeds that probably owe their name to the English word “pinch”, a reference to the tradition of cropping (pinching) the ears.

43 Singer with The Blackhearts : JETT

Joan Jett is the stage name of rock guitarist and singer Joan Marie Larkin. She is best known as a member of the band Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, which formed in 1979.

44 Gambler’s marker : CHIT

A chit is a note or a short letter. The term tends to be used these days in the sense of an amount owed (as in a poker game). The word used to be “chitty”, which is now obsolete but was closer to the original Hindi term. I feel a tad obsolete myself because when we are at school we would be excused class if we had a “chitty”.

45 Marquis de __ : SADE

The Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat with a reputation for a libertine lifestyle. De Sade was also a writer, well known for his works of erotica. He fell foul of the law for some of his more extreme practices and for blaspheming the Catholic church. On and off, de Sade spent 32 years of his life in prison and in insane asylums.

46 June 13, e.g. : IDES

There were three important days in each month of the old Roman calendar. These days originally depended on the cycles of the moon but were eventually “fixed” by law. “Kalendae” were the first days of each month, originally the days of the new moon. “Nonae” were originally the days of the half moon. And “idus” (the ides) was originally the day of the full moon, eventually fixed at the 15th day of a month. Well, actually the ides were the 15th day of March, May, July and October. For all other months, the ides fell on the 13th. Go figure …

49 Migration flight pattern : VEE

Apparently, birds that fly in a V-formation do so for a couple of reasons. One is that it makes for efficient flight and conserves energy. The leading bird gets no advantage, but every following bird gets to “slipstream” a little. It has been noted that the lead bird drops to the back of the formation when he/she gets fatigued. It’s also thought that the flock can stick together more easily when in formation, so it is more difficult to lose someone along the way.

50 Marlins’ MLB div. : NLE

National League East (NLE)

The Miami Marlins baseball team started out life in 1993 as the Florida Marlins. The franchise changed its name to the Miami Marlins in 2011 when it relocated to the newly constructed Marlins Park.