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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11A Bench press muscle, for short : PEC

“Pecs” is the familiar name for the chest muscle, which is more correctly known as the pectoralis major muscle. “Pectus” is the Latin word for “breast, chest”.

18A ___ Basin (D.C. attraction) : TIDAL

A tidal basin is an area that fills with water at high tide, and then that water level is maintained by artificial means. I used to live in a village on the East Coast of Ireland where there was a saltwater swimming pool that would be filled by the high tide twice a day. The same principle I guess.

22A Texas A&M athlete : AGGIE

Texas A&M is the largest university in the United States by enrollment on a single campus, and was the first public higher education institute in Texas when it accepted its first students in 1876. The full name of the school was the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (hence “A&M”) and its primary mission used to be the education of males in the techniques of farming and military warfare. That’s quite a combination! Because of the agricultural connection, the college’s sports teams use the moniker “Aggies”. Texas A&M is also home to the George Bush Presidential Library.

25A “I really, really appreciate it!” : THANKS A MILLION! (raising LIMA)

Lima is the capital city of Peru. It was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who named it “la Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). He chose this name because the decision to found the city was made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the three kings to Jesus in Bethlehem. Lima is home to the oldest university in all of the Americas, as San Marcos University was founded in 1551 during the days of Spanish colonial rule.

27A Unspoken communication syst. : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)

28A After-the-fact discount : MAIL-IN REBATE (raising BERN)

We mostly use “rebate” as a noun, one describing a return part of a payment. The term “rebate” came into English from the French verb “rebattre” meaning “to beat down, drive back”. Makes sense to me …

Bern (sometimes “Berne”, especially in French) is the capital city of Switzerland. The official language of the city is German, but the language most spoken in Bern is a dialect known as Bernese German.

30A Big movie theater chain : AMC

The AMC theater chain used to go by the name American Multi-Cinema Inc., hence the initialism “AMC”.

31A Website that calls itself “the heart of the internet” : REDDIT

The website Reddit is often called “the front page of the internet”. It is a social news aggregator comprising a vast collection of user-created forums known as “subreddits”. Content is ranked by user “upvotes” and “downvotes,” which determines the visibility of posts and comments.

32A Paramedic’s skill : CPR

The standard CPR mannequin is called Resusci Anne, and is often called “the most kissed face of all time”. She was modeled after the death mask of an unidentified young woman who drowned in the Seine in the late 19th century. Toymaker Asmund Laerdal selected the image for the first CPR doll in 1960, believing her peaceful expression would be non-threatening to trainees learning the technique.

37A Harbingers : OMENS

A harbinger is a person or a thing that indicates what is to come. The word comes from the Middle English “herbenger” describing a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings.

39A One-named singer with the 1994 hit “You Gotta Be” : DES’REE

Des’ree is an R&B singer from London, England. One of her biggest hits is the song “Kissing You”, which was used in the 1996 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

46A Degree holder, informally : ALUM

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or alumnus.

49A Poet ___ St. Vincent Millay : EDNA

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright, and the third woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (in 1923 for “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”). Millay was noted not only for her work, but also for the open arrangement that she and her husband had in their marriage. Millay took many lovers, including the poet George Dillon for whom she wrote a number of sonnets.

53A Dancing hippo’s wear in Disney’s “Fantasia” : TUTU

“Fantasia” was Disney’s third feature length movie, and was released in 1940. The film had a disappointing critical reception and pushed the Disney company into financial difficulties. RKO took over the film’s distribution in 1941. For the 1942 general release, the folks at RKO cut a significant portion off the running time and relaunched the movie. If you haven’t seen “Fantasia”, I urge you to do so. It’s a real delight …

55A Actress Shirley of “The Apartment” : MACLAINE

Actress Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia in 1934. Perhaps in an unknown nod to her future, she was named for child actress Shirley Temple. MacLaine’s younger brother is actor Warren Beatty, who also changed the spelling of his name for his acting career.

“The Apartment” is a fabulous Billy Wilder comedy-drama movie starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine that was released in 1960. “The Apartment” was Wilder’s next project after the hugely successful “Some Like It Hot” that was released the prior year, also starring Jack Lemmon.

61A Beethoven’s Third : EROICA

Beethoven originally dedicated his “Symphony No. 3” to Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven admired the principles of the French Revolution and as such respected Bonaparte who was “born” out of the uprising. When Napoleon declared himself Emperor, Beethoven (and much of Europe) saw this as a betrayal to the ideals of the revolution so he changed the name of his new symphony from “Bonaparte” to “Eroica”, meaning “heroic, valiant”.

62A David Foster Wallace’s “Tense Present,” e.g. : ESSAY

American author David Foster Wallace’s most famous work is his 1996 novel “Infinite Jest”. Wallace’s books are known for extensive use of explanatory footnotes and endnotes, which can take up as many pages as the novel’s text. Wallace struggled with depression for about twenty years. Sadly, he ended up committing suicide in 2008 by hanging himself, when he was only 46 years old. Wallace left an unfinished novel called “The Pale King” that, even though published incomplete, became a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

63A Conspiring cliques : CABALS

A cabal is a small group of plotters acting in secret, perhaps scheming against a government or an individual. The use of “cabal” in this way dates back to the mid-1600s. It is suggested that the term gained some popularity, particularly in a sinister sense, during the reign of Charles II in the 1670s. At that time, it was applied as an acronym standing for “Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale”, a group of ministers known for their plots and schemes.

A clique is a small, exclusive group of people. The term “clique” comes to us from France, where it has the same meaning. In French, it somehow evolved in meaning from the original “clique” meaning a sharp noise, or as we would say today, “click”.

65A Judge of diamond value? : AARON

Aaron Judge is a baseball outfielder who was selected as 2017’s American League Rookie of the Year. Judge is a big guy. He weighs 282 pounds, and is 6 foot 7 inches tall. Judge set the American League single-season home run record in 2022 with 62 home runs, surpassing Roger Maris’s 61 from 1961.

66A Grab (onto) : GLOM

“Glom” is a slang term meaning “steal”, although it can also be used to mean “latch onto” when used as “glom onto”. The term probably comes from the Scots word “glam” meaning “to snatch at”.

69A Britain’s most prestigious military decoration : VICTORIA CROSS (raising CAIRO)

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. It is nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” because of its impressive skyline replete with Islamic architecture. The name “Cairo” is a European corruption of the city’s original name in Arabic, “Al-Qahira”.

71A Fantasizes about : DROOLS OVER (raising OSLO)

Oslo, the capital of Norway, is an ancient city that was founded around 1048. The medieval city was destroyed by fire in 1624 and was rebuilt by the Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV and renamed to Christiania. In 1877 there was an official change of the spelling of the city’s name to “Kristiana”, and then more recently in 1925 the name was restored to the original Oslo. Things have almost gone full circle and now the area that would have been contained by the original medieval walls is known as Gamlebyen (The Old Town).

73A Block someone’s passage, say : ERECT A BARRIER (raising RABAT)

Rabat is the capital city of the Kingdom of Morocco. After WWII, the United States maintained a major Air Force Base in Rabat, part of Strategic Air Command (SAC). Responding to pressure from the Moroccan government of King Mohammed V, the USAF pulled out in 1963.

75A Egyptian symbol of life : ANKH

The ankh was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character for “eternal life”. The ankh wasn’t just used in inscriptions but was often fashioned into amulets and as surrounds for mirrors (perhaps symbolizing a view into another world). The ankh is also known as “the key of the Nile” and “crux ansata” (Latin for “cross with a handle”).

79A Brand seen on the U.S. World Cup jerseys : NIKE

Nike was founded in 1964 in Eugene, Oregon by entrepreneur Phil Knight and track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). BRS started out by distributing athletic shoes made in Japan. The company started making its own shoes in 1971 and changed its name to Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory.

The FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious tournament in the sport of soccer. The competition has been held every four years (excluding the WWII years) since the inaugural event held in Uruguay in 1930. The men’s World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, even outranking the Olympic Games. And, the women’s World Cup is fast catching up …

85A Restrictive undergarment : CORSET

A corset is a close-fitting undergarment that is stiffened with a material such as whalebone. Corsets are more usually worn by women, to shape the body. The word “corset” is a diminutive of the Old French “cors” meaning “body”.

88A Pia ___ (brain covering) : MATER

Pia mater is Latin, and means “tender mother”. It is the name given to the mesh-like envelope that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The pia mater brings blood to some of the exterior parts of the brain, and provides physical support for larger blood vessels passing over the brain’s surface.

90A Linings of nautilus shells : NACRES

Nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, is the strong iridescent material laid down by some mollusks on the inside of their shells, and it’s also what makes up pearls. The creature lays down nacre as a defensive mechanism, protecting the soft tissue of its body from the rough surface of the outer shell. Similarly, it uses nacre to encapsulate harmful debris or a parasite that penetrates the shell, and that’s how a pearl is formed. Cultured pearls are made by inserting a tissue graft from a donor oyster, around which the nacre is laid down.

The marine creature called a nautilus (plural “nautili”) is referred to as a “living fossil”, as it looks just like the spiral-shelled creatures that are commonly found in fossils. The spiral shape is a great example of the Fibonacci series defining a natural phenomenon, as the spiral is a Fibonacci spiral, described by the famous series of numbers. The nautilus moves using jet propulsion, by ingesting water at one end and then squirting it out at the other.

92A Hired detectives, for short : PIS

Private investigator (PI)

94A Slow ___ (Asian primate) : LORIS

The slow lorises are a group of nocturnal primates found in the forests of southeast Asia. They are unique among primates in that they have a toxic bite. The slow loris licks a sweat gland on its arm that secretes a chemical, a chemical that becomes actively toxic when mixed with saliva.

98A Prefix with -bar : ISO-

An isobar is a line on a weather map connecting points of equal barometric pressure.

104A Peak of religion? : SINAI

According to the Bible, Mount Sinai is the mountain on which Moses was given the Ten Commandments. The Biblical Mount Sinai is probably not the mountain in Egypt that today has the same name, although this is the subject of much debate. The Egyptian Mount Sinai has two developed routes that one can take to reach the summit. The longer gentler climb takes about 2 1/2 hours, but there is also the steeper climb up the 3,750 “steps of penitence”.

110A Bank offering for a property buyer : HOME MORTGAGE (raising ROME)

Our word “mortgage” comes from the Old French “mort gaige” which translated as “dead pledge”. Such an arrangement was so called because the “pledge” to repay “dies” when the debt is cleared.

The Italian capital of Rome is known as the Eternal City, a name given by ancient Roman poets and writers.

112A 2000 Christina Aguilera #1 hit : WHAT A GIRL WANTS (raising RIGA)

Christina Aguilera is a singer who got her start on television’s “Star Search”. From there she took a role on Disney’s “The Mickey Mouse Club”. Like several singers today it seems, Aguilera developed a more provocative alter ego for herself. She had a few body piercings, dyed her hair black and adopted the name “Xtina”.

Riga is the capital city of Latvia. The historical center of Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, declared as such because of the city’s magnificent examples of Art Nouveau architecture. In fact, Riga has the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in the world, with over 750 buildings in the city center designed in the style.

113A “T-bone steak, cheese eggs and Welch’s ___” (Notorious B.I.G.’s breakfast in “Big Poppa”) : GRAPE

“The Notorious B.I.G.” was the stage name of rap star Christopher Wallace, who also went by the names Big Poppa, Biggie Smalls and Biggie. While at the height of his fame, Wallace was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, a murder case that has never been solved. The 2009 movie “Notorious” is about Wallace’s life and stars fellow rap artist Jamal Woolard (aka Gravy) in the title role.

Down

4D Top priority on the agenda : MAIN ITEM

“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.

5D Strauss opera inspired by a Sophocles tragedy : ELEKTRA

“Elektra” is an opera by Richard Strauss that premiered in 1909. The work is based on Greek mythology, and is centered on Elektra, the daughter of the Greek king Agamemnon.

“Electra” is a tragedy penned by Greek playwright Sophocles. The title character is the daughter of King Agamemnon, commander of the Greek forces in the Trojan War. In the play, Electra takes revenge on her mother Clytemnestra, who killed Agamemnon.

7D Baton Rouge institution, familiarly : LSU

LSU’s full name is Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, and is located in Baton Rouge. LSU was founded in 1860 as a military academy, with then-Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent.

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the state of Louisiana. The name “Baton Rouge” is French for “red stick” or “red staff”. The city was named by a French explorer in 1699 after he observed a red cypress pole used as a boundary marker by local Native American tribes.

8D Five Pillars religion : ISLAM

Followers of the Muslim tradition believe in the Five Pillars of Islam, five obligatory acts that underpin Muslim life. The Five Pillars are:

1. The Islamic creed
2. Daily prayer
3. Almsgiving (Zakat)
4. Fasting during the month of Ramadan
5. The pilgrimage to Mecca (haj, hajj, hadj) once during a lifetime

10D Mötley Crüe frontman Vince ___ : NEIL

Mötley Crüe is an American rock band from Los Angeles. They’ve been around since 1981, co-founded by the famous drummer Tommy Lee. Tommy Lee is also known for his two celebrated marriages, the first with Heather Locklear and the second with Pamela Anderson. The name “Mötley Crüe” was chosen as someone once described the band members as a “motley looking crew”. The spelling was made to look a little more exotic, with the umlauts added over the “o” and “u” one day, as the band were drinking bottles of “Löwenbräu” beer!

12D Spanish folk hero : EL CID

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar was known as El Cid Campeador, which translates as “The Champion” or perhaps “The Lord, Master of Military Arts”. El Cid was a soldier who fought under the rule of King Alfonso VI of Spain (among others). However, he was sent into exile by the King in 1080, after acting beyond his authorization in battle. El Cid then offered his services to his former foes, the Moorish kings. After a number of years building a reputation with the Moors, he was recalled from exile by Alfonso. By this time El Cid was very much his own man. Nominally under the orders of Alfonso, he led a combined army of Spanish and Moorish troops and took the city of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast in 1094, making it his headquarters and home. He died in Valencia, quite peacefully, in 1099.

15D Nabokov novel : ADA

“Ada” is a 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The story takes place in the 1800s on Antiterra, an Earth-like planet that has a history similar to ours but with interesting differences. For example, there is a “United States”, but that country covers all of North and South America. What we call eastern Canada is a French-speaking province called “Canady”, and western Canada is a Russian-speaking province called “Estoty”. The storyline is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.

17D Doc using an otoscope : ENT

An ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT) uses an otoscope to look into the interior of one’s ears.

20D TV’s Don Draper and his co-workers : ADMEN

“Mad Men” was the flagship show on the AMC television channel for several seasons. Set in the sixties, it’s all about an advertising agency located on Madison Avenue in New York (hence the title). “Mad Men” became the first show created by a basic cable channel to win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.

31D “Star Wars” character Kylo ___ : REN

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

33D Tube-shaped pasta : PENNE

The pasta known as penne comes in two main types, i.e. penne lisce (which is smooth) and penne rigate (which is furrowed).

34D Do some road maintenance on : RETAR

The terms “tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call “tarmac”.

40D Western mountain range, informally : SIERRAS

The American Sierra Nevada range lies in California and Nevada. The Spanish Sierra Nevada range is in Andalusia, with the name meaning “snowy range” in Spanish.

41D Arm bones : ULNAE

The ulnae are the stabilizing bones of the human forearm. They act as stationary hinges for the rotating radii. At one end of each ulna is the olecranon: the bony “hook” that forms the point of the elbow.

45D Classic Italian appetizer : BRUSCHETTA

In Italy the word “bruschetta” is pronounced differently than most people tend to pronounce the same word here in the US. We should be saying “broo-sketta” and not “broo-shetta”.

52D Puerto ___ : RICO

Puerto Rico (PR) is located in the northeastern Caribbean (in the Atlantic Ocean), east of the Dominican Republic. The name “Puerto Rico” is Spanish for “rich port”. The locals often call their island Borinquen, the Spanish form of “Boriken”, the original name used by the natives.

58D Brandy letters : VSO

Brandy is a spirit distilled from wine. The term “brandy” ultimately comes from the Dutch “gebrande wijn” meaning “burnt wine”. The length of this aging of the spirit defines the various grades of brandy:

• VS: Very Special … at least 2 years storage
• VSOP: Very Special (or Superior) Old Pale … at least 4 years storage
• XO: Extra Old … at least 10 years

60D Artist Chagall : MARC

Marc Chagall was a Russian-French artist, one of the most successful of the 20th century. Unlike so many painters, Chagall was able to achieve wealth and fame for his work during his own lifetime. It did help that Chagall lived to a ripe old age though. He passed away in 1985, when he was 97 years young. One of Chagall’s most famous works is the ceiling of the Paris Opera. The new ceiling for the beautiful 19th-century building was commissioned in 1963, and took Chagall a year to complete. Chagall was 77 years old when he worked on the Paris Opera project.

67D They’re at the ends of some rainbows : PRISMS

When light passes through a prism, it splits up (disperses) into differing wavelengths. It then becomes clear that white light is actually a mixture of different colors, which show up as a beautiful spectrum.

68D Test for M.A. seekers : GRE

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

69D Explorer da Gama : VASCO

Vasco da Gama left on his first voyage of discovery in 1497. da Gama journeyed around the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost tip of Africa, and across the Indian Ocean making landfall in India. Landing in India, his fleet became the first expedition to sail directly from Europe to the sub-continent. Vasco da Gama was well known for acts of cruelty, especially on local inhabitants. One of his milder atrocities was inflicted on a priest whom he labeled as a spy. He had the priest’s lips and ears cut off, and sent him on his way after having a pair of dog’s ears sewn onto his head.

73D Ambulance initials : EMS

Our word “ambulance” originated from the French term “hôpital ambulant” meaning “field hospital” (literally “walking hospital”). In the 1850s, the term started to be used for a vehicle transporting the wounded from the battlefield, leading to our “ambulance”.

77D Summer mo. : AUG

As the first Emperor of Rome, Octavian was given the name Caesar Augustus. The month of August, originally called “Sextilis” in Latin, was renamed in honor of Augustus.

79D Sam Elliott’s role in “The Big Lebowski” : NARRATOR

“The Big Lebowski” is a 1998 comedy directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Jeff Bridges. The film’s script is loosely based on the Raymond Chandler novel “The Big Sleep”. I thought “The Big Lebowski” was just “okay” though …

Sam Elliot has to be one of the most distinctive and well-known character actors. He has graced the screen, with his deep and sonorous voice, in many hit movies, including “We Were Soldiers”, “Thank You for Smoking”, “Up in the Air” and “A Star Is Born”. More recently, he took on a starring role in the Western TV miniseries “1883”. Elliott married fellow actor Katharine Ross in 1984.

91D ___ slalom (event at the Summer Olympics) : CANOE

Canoe racing has been featured as a competition sport in the Summer Olympic Games since the 1936 Games in Berlin. There are two disciplines of canoeing in competition: slalom and sprint. Slalom is an event in which competitors navigate a course of gates that are placed in a river. Sprint is an event in which competitors race over a fixed distance on a calm body of water.

93D Coastal region of ancient Greece : IONIA

The geographic region called Ionia is located in present-day Turkey. It was prominent in the days of ancient Greece, although it wasn’t a unified state and rather a collection of tribes. The tribal confederacy was more based on religious and cultural similarities than a political or military alliance. Nowadays we often refer to this arrangement as the Ionian League.

95D The ‘gram : INSTA

Instagram (often abbreviated to “Insta”, or “IG”) is a photo-sharing application, one that is extremely popular. Instagram started in San Francisco in 2010. Facebook purchased Instagram two years later, paying $1 billion. The billion-dollar Instagram company had just 13 employees at the time of the sale …

96D Pound the pavement? : STOMP

Back in Ireland, the “pavement” is what we call the “sidewalk, footpath” (because the footpath is “paved”, often with “paving” stones!). It’s very confusing when you arrive in this country from Ireland, and a little dangerous when one has been taught from a young age to “walk on the pavement” …

100D ___-Ball : SKEE

Skee-Ball is the arcade game in which the player rolls balls up a ramp trying to “bounce” them into rings for varying numbers of points. The game was first introduced in Philadelphia, in 1909.

101D Any of the U.C.s : SCH

University of California (UC)