November 11, 2024 - LAXCrossword.com (2024)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Paper money : CASH

Our word “cash” comes from the Middle French “caisse” meaning “money box”.

14 City west of Venice : PADUA

The city of Padua is in northern Italy, and not far from Venice. Padua has many claims to fame. For example, Galileo was one of the lecturers at the University of Padua, and William Shakespeare chose the city as the setting for his play “The Taming of the Shrew”.

19 Comics icon Lee : STAN

Stan Lee was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer, who is best known for co-creating many of Marvel Comics’ most iconic superheroes, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Black Panther.

21 __ acid : AMINO

Amino acids are essential to life in many ways, not least of which is their use as the building blocks of proteins. Nine amino acids are considered “essential” for humans. These nine must be included in the diet as they cannot be synthesized in the body.

22 “Oorah!” military org. : USMC

United States Marine Corps (USMC)

25 Southern California’s June Gloom, essentially : CLOUD COVER

“June Gloom” is an expression used mainly in Southern California to describe cloudy, overcast skies with lower temperatures encountered in the month of June. If such weather patterns arrive a month or so early, the terms “Graypril” and “May Gray” might be used. The same weather seen a little later in the year gave rise to the terms “No-Sky July” and “Fogust”.

38 Candy treat shaped like a chick or bunny : MARSHMALLOW PEEP

Peeps are marshmallow candies, usually in the shapes of chicks and bunnies, primarily sold around the Easter holiday. Peeps were introduced in 1952 by a Russian immigrant called Sam Born whose company “Just Born” makes the candies to this day. The original candies were yellow and hand-shaped to look like little chicks, hence the name “Peeps”.

41 Some Fidelity offerings, for short : IRAS

Fidelity Investments is a financial services company headquartered in Boston. It was founded back in 1946 as Fidelity Management & Research.

43 Snorer’s affliction : APNEA

Sleep apnea (“apnoea” in British English) can be caused by an obstruction in the airways, possibly due to obesity or enlarged tonsils.

45 Trademarked pastry creation : CRONUT

A cronut is a pastry that resembles a doughnut but is made using a croissant-like dough. It is filled with cream and deep-fried in grapeseed oil. It is a relatively new pastry, having been invented by New York bakery owner Dominique Ansel in 2013. The term “cronut” is a portmanteau of “croissant” and “doughnut”.

56 Skeet shout : PULL!

Skeet shooting is one of three types of competitive shotgun target shooting sports, along with trap shooting and sporting clays. The word “skeet” comes from the Scandinavian word “skot,” which means “to shoot.”

62 Flowerpot spot : SILL

“Sill plate”, or simply “sill”, is an architectural term describing a bottom horizontal member to which vertical members are attached. Window sills and door sills are specific sill plates found at the bottoms of windows and door openings.

63 Mideast canal : SUEZ

The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. It took ten years to construct, and opened in 1869. The northern terminus of the waterway is Port Said, and the southern is Port Tewfik in the city of Suez, which gives the canal its name.

64 Battery terminal : ANODE

A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electric energy. A simple battery is made up of three parts: a cathode, an anode and a liquid electrolyte. Ions from the electrolyte react chemically with the material in the anode producing a compound and releasing electrons. At the same time, the electrolyte reacts with the material in the cathode, absorbing electrons and producing a different chemical compound. In this way, there is a buildup of electrons at the anode and a deficit of electrons at the cathode. When a connection (wire, say) is made between the cathode and anode, electrons flow through the resulting circuit from the anode to cathode in an attempt to rectify the electron imbalance.

65 “The __-bitsy spider … ” : ITSY

The itsy-bitsy spider crawled up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,
And the itsy-bitsy spider went up the spout again.

Down

1 Beach bottle no. : SPF

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

2 Actress Whitman : MAE

Actress Mae Whitman played “the daughter” in some successful movies early in her career. She was Meg Ryan’s daughter in “When a Man Loves a Woman”, George Clooney’s daughter in “One Fine Day” and Bill Pullman’s daughter in “Independence Day”. More recently, she played the lead in the 2015 teen comedy film “The Duff”.

3 Toothpaste-endorsing org. : ADA

The American Dental Association (ADA) is the largest and oldest national dental association in the world. Today the ADA is based in Chicago, but the association was founded in Niagara Falls, New York in 1859. The ADA started out as a group of 26 dentists, and it now has more than 152,000 members.

5 “Clue” actress Madeline : KAHN

Madeline Kahn was an actress best known for her comedic roles, especially those directed by Mel Brooks. Kahn also had her own TV sitcom, called “Oh Madeline”. But, it only lasted one season, in 1983.

“Clue” is a 1985 comedy mystery film that is based on the board game of the same name. This film did poorly at the box office, but I found it to be very entertaining and cleverly written. One unique feature of the movie is that it has three different endings.

6 Diamond birthstone month : APRIL

The exact etymology of “April”, the name of the fourth month of our year, seems to be uncertain. The ancient Romans called it “mensis Aprilis”, which roughly translated as “opening month”. The suggestion is that April is the month in which fruits, flowers and animals “open” their life cycles.

7 “Halo” star Schreiber : PABLO

Pablo Schreiber is a Canadian actor who was born in a hippie commune in British Columbia. He is the half-brother of fellow actor Liev Schreiber.

9 __ urchin : SEA

Sea urchins are globular, spiny creatures found just about everywhere in the ocean. The “roe” of a sea urchin is eaten as a delicacy in several cuisines around the world. In a sushi restaurant, the sea urchin roe is called “uni”. The term “roe” normally means “fish eggs”, but in the case of the sea urchin it refers to the gonads of both the male and female.

10 Pink cocktail, familiarly : COSMO

Like so many famous cocktails, the actual origins of the cosmopolitan are disputed. It is a very nice drink, in my humble opinion. One of the standard recipes is 4 parts citrus vodka, 1.5 parts Cointreau, 1.5 parts lime juice and 3 parts cranberry cocktail.

12 MacGowan of the Pogues : SHANE

Shane MacGowan was a British-born, Irish musician who was the lead vocalist for the Celtic punk band The Pogues. He was highly regarded as a lyricist in Ireland, and was known for writing songs about the experience of the Irish diaspora. One of his most famous compositions, which he co-wrote with fellow band member Jim Finer, is 1987’s “Fairytale of New York”.

13 Accept, as a coupon : HONOR

The original coupon, back in the early 1800s, was a certificate of interest due on a bond. The bond included coupons that could be cut from the paper periodically and redeemed for that interest payment. The term “coupon” comes from the French “couper” meaning “to cut”.

22 Savory quality : UMAMI

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. Umami was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

24 Catherine’s “Schitt’s Creek” role : MOIRA

In the excellent Canadian sitcom “Schitt’s Creek”, the character Moira Rose is an outrageous former soap star, and wife of Johnny Rose and their two adult children, David and Alexis. Moira is played by actress and comedian Catherine O’Hara. Supposedly, the character was inspired by the reality stars on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “The Real Housewives” franchise.

26 Mountain range from Kazakhstan to the Arctic Ocean : URALS

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

32 National park in Alberta : BANFF

Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada is located high in the Canadian Rockies and is a popular tourist destination. The town of Banff and the surrounding park were given their name in 1884 by then president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, George Stephen. He named Banff for his birthplace of Banffshire in Scotland.

44 Alley-__ : OOP

An alley-oop is a play in basketball in which one player lobs the ball close to the basket for a teammate who usually scores with a slam dunk.

45 Keyboard shortcut starter : CTRL

The Control (CTRL) key on a PC keyboard is used to modify the function of other keys. For example, pressing CTRL+C copies a selection to the clipboard, and CTRL+V pastes the contents of the clipboard to a location defined by the cursor. Control keys were introduced on teletypewriters to generate “control characters”, which are non-printing characters that instruct a computer to do something like print a page, ring a bell etc.

49 Pharmaceutical giant Eli __ : LILLY

Eli Lilly is the largest corporation in the state of Indiana. Founder Eli Lilly was a veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War, and a failed Mississippi plantation owner. Later in life he returned to his first profession and opened a pharmaceutical operation to manufacture drugs and sell them wholesale. Under Lilly’s early guidance, the company was the first to create gelatin capsules to hold medicines and the first to use fruit flavoring in liquid medicines.

51 Posh : RITZY

The adjective “ritzy” meaning “high quality and luxurious” derives from the opulent Ritz hotels in New York, London, Paris, etc.

55 Onetime Swedish automaker : SAAB

“SAAB” stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB, which translates into English as Swedish Aeroplane Limited. Although we usually think of SAAB as an auto manufacturer, it is mainly an aircraft manufacturer. If you take small hops in Europe you might find yourself on a SAAB passenger plane. The SAAB automotive division was acquired by General Motors in the year 2000, who then sold it to a Dutch concern in 2010. However, SAAB (automotive) finally went bankrupt in 2011. The assets were acquired in 2012 by NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), a new company that used the SAAB name on its vehicles for several years.

60 Media that’s burned before reading : CDS

The compact disc (CD) was developed jointly by Philips and Sony as a medium for storing and playing sound recordings. When the first commercial CD was introduced back in 1982, a CD’s storage capacity was far greater than the amount of data that could be stored on the hard drive of personal computers available at that time.