Wandering through the archives of crossword clues - LAXCrossword.com (2023)

Today's Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

In between

1 Stroll with: MOSEY

"Mosey" is American slang for "stroll" and of unknown origin.

12 Wonderland Cupcake Invitations Alice has accepted: EAT ME

In Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", Alice follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole and finds a bottle that says "DRINK ME". If she drinks the contents, she will shrink. She also sees a cake that has the words "EAT ME" written in currants on it, and when she eats the cake she gets so big that she has trouble getting up. After eating the cake, she utters the words: "Curiouser and Curiouser".

13 Nevada gambling town near Carson City: RENO

Reno's economy took off when open gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931. It wasn't long before a syndicate established the Bank Club in Reno, which was the largest casino in the world at the time.

Carson City is the state capital of Nevada and is named after the Carson River. The river is named for Kit Carson, the Boy Scout who accompanied the team of European Americans who first arrived in the area in 1843. Carson City was made the state capital in 1864.

14 billiard bats: CUE

The more correct name for the game of billiards is "pocket billiards". The term "pool" came after pocket billiards became common in "billiard halls," places where gamblers "pooled" their money to bet on horse races.

15 Category Emmy: DRAMA

The Emmy Awards are the television equivalent of the Oscars for film, the Grammy Awards for music and the Tony Awards for stage. Emmy Awards are presented throughout the year depending on which television sector is honored. The most famous of these ceremonies are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards. The distinctive name "Emmy" is a weakened version of the word "immy", the nickname of the video camera tubes found in vintage television cameras. Designed by television engineer Louis McManus in 1948, the Emmy statuette depicts a woman holding an atom. McManus used his wife as a model for the woman.

16 carousels : CAROUSELS

The amusement park carousel ride can be a bit confusing when traveling around the world. In North America we tend to use the term 'merry-go-round' for the ride, while in the UK and Ireland it's a 'gyroscope' and in Australia it's a 'hurdy-gurdy'. Another difference is the direction of rotation. Carousels generally run counterclockwise in North America and roundabouts in the UK and Ireland run clockwise.

18 wreath of flowers: GARLAND

"Lei" is a Hawaiian word meaning "garland, wreath," although more generally, a lei is a series of objects strung together as ornaments for the body.

21 "fee, __, foe, fum": FIE

The line "fee-fi-fo-fum" (with various spellings) comes from the famous English fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk". In the story, the giant at the top of the beanstalk utters a short poem upon discovering Jack's presence:

Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Whether he is alive or whether he is dead
I will grind your bones to make my bread.

23 DEA-Agent: NARC

"Narc" and "narco" are slang words used to describe a police officer who tracks down criminals related to illegal drugs. Both words are short for "drug officer." Narcs can work for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

25 „She Enchanted“ with Hathaway: ANNE

Actress Anne Hathaway is one of my favorites, I have to say. She starred in The Devil Wears Prada in 2006 and Becoming Jane in 2007, a film I particularly enjoyed. And yes, Baby Anne was named after Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare.

Ella Enchanted is a fantasy novel written by Gail Carson Levine and published in 1997. It is a retelling of the Cinderella story with many mythical creatures added. A film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway in the title role was released in 2004.

27 car or truck: VEHICLE

A vehicle is a means of transportation, usually a motor vehicle. The term "vehicle" comes from the Latin verb "vehere" which means "to carry, to convey".

29 Courses in South America: LLANOS

Llano is a Spanish word meaning "flat, flat region". The Llanos are a vast grassland in northwestern South America.

31 Facts and Figures: DATA

Our word "dates" (singular "date") comes from the Latin "datum" which means "given". The idea is that dates are "given things".

32 USB port: USB

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that addresses the way computers and electronic devices connect and communicate with each other, and how electrical power is handled over those connections.

A USB stick is a USB stick.

35 Buckliges Tier: KAMEL

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of a camel is the large deposit of fatty tissue on its back. The dromedary is the most common camel and has a bulge of fatty tissue on its back. The Bactrian camel has two humps and accounts for only 6% of the world camel population. These fat bumps are useful when food or water isn't available, as fat can be broken down into water and energy.

36 Buffettischserver: URN

Our word "buffet" comes from the French "bufet" which means "bench, dresser". So, a buffet is a meal served by a “buffet”.

40 prom partners: DATE

A prom is a formal dance performed after high school (we call it 'formals' in Ireland). The term "baile" is short for "walk", a term for a type of dance or ball.

46 Girl Who Lost Her Sheep: BO PEEP

The lines most often quoted from the rhyme about "Little Bo Peep" are:

Little Bo-Peep lost her sheep
And you don't know where to find them;
Leave them alone and they will come home
Tail wagging behind them.

But there are actually four other verses, including this one:

It happened one day when Bo-Peep got lost
in a meadow nearby,
There she spied their cocks side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

49 Excavator target: SNOW

A shovel is a hand tool used for lifting and throwing materials such as earth and coal. Our words "shovel" and "shovel" are etymologically related, as a "shovel" is used to "push" things aside.

53 Language of Helsinki: FINNISH

Helsinki is the capital of Finland and by far the largest metropolitan area in the country. In English we tend to stress the "-sink-" in "Helsinki", while the Finns stress the "Hel-".

55 Some horses in a stud farm: STALLIONS

The word "stud", which means "stud horse", is derived from the Old English word "stod", which meant a whole herd of horses. The term "stud" can be used figuratively for a "lady's man".

60 One of the 88 on a piano: KEY

"Eighty-eight" is slang for piano, as a modern piano typically has 88 keys: 36 black and 52 white.

61 Vaporizer Pen, colloquially: E-CIG

An electronic cigarette (also called an "e-cigarette") is a battery-powered device that resembles a real cigarette. Electronic cigarettes vaporize a solution containing nicotine, creating a vapor that resembles smoke. The vapor is inhaled in a process called "vaporization," which releases nicotine into the body. The assumption is that an e-cigarette is healthier than a regular cigarette because the vapor inhaled is less harmful than the smoke inhaled. But it can't be like that...

62 Orange Muppet in the Striped Shirt: ERNIE

For many years I believed that Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were named after two characters in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life. In the film, the policeman's name is Bert and his friend's taxi driver's name is Ernie. However, Sesame Street staff claimed that using the same names was just a coincidence. Aww I don't wanna believe it's a coincidence...

Under

4 Corrin who plays Diana in The Crown: EMMA

Actress Emma Corrin's standout role was portraying Diana, Princess of Wales in the hit drama The Crown. Corrin appeared on the cover of Vogue in 2022, becoming the magazine's first non-binary cover star.

6 buffalo herd: HERD

There are still two species of bison (four species are extinct). The one we know best is the American bison (commonly referred to as the American buffalo), but there is also a European bison, sometimes referred to as the "know".

7 __, two, three: ONE

In Spanish, a count begins with "Uno, dos, tres" (one, two, three).

10 Heart rate: PULSE

A person's pulse is the rhythmic pulsing of the arteries, usually detected in the wrist or neck. The contraction of the heart creates a pressure wave in the blood that moves the walls of the arteries, which is recognized as a pulse.

13 *Creamy Vegetable Sauce: RANCH DRESSING

Ranch dressing has been America's best-selling salad dressing since 1992. The recipe was developed by Steve Henson, who introduced it to guests at his ranch, Hidden Valley Ranch in Northern California, in the 1950s. His ranch dressing became so popular that he opened a factory to make ranch dressing packets that could be mixed with mayonnaise and buttermilk. Henson sold the brand in 1972 for $8 million.

19 Loose: LION

Our word "washbasin" (sometimes "lav") originally referred to a washbasin and comes from the Latin "lavatorium", a place for washing. In the 1600s "toilet" meant a lavatory, and in the 1920s it meant a lavatory.

21 Edie from The Sopranos: FALCO

Actress Edie Falco has won three Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Carmela Soprano in HBO's outstanding drama series The Sopranos. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for the title role in Nurse Jackie, an excellent black comedy.

28 „Atonement“-Romanautor McEwan: IAN

Ian McEwan is an English novelist who has a history of writing well-received novels. His most famous work of recent years, I would say, is Atonement, which capitalized on the success of a fabulous film adaptation released in 2007.

30 *Dog in a Disney Tears Movie: OLD YELLER

Old Yeller is a children's novel by Fred Gipson, first published in 1956. Old Yeller was the first in a three book series, followed by Savage Sam in 1962 and Little Arliss in 1978. The original was made into a very popular film by Walt Disney in 1957. Disney also produced the 1963 sequel to Savage Sam. The title character of "Old Yeller" is a yellow dog who is adopted by a teenager. Spoiler alert: the dog ends up dying...

34 storage units: BYTES

In the computing world, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of either 0 or 1. A "byte" is a small collection of "bits" (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a text character. The prefix mega- means 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabytes and gigabytes. Purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (ie 1,048,576) and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

Athlete 36 SLC: UTE

The Utah Utes are the athletic teams of the University of Utah.

Salt Lake City (SLC) was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young. The city takes its name from the Great Salt Lake on which it sits and was actually known as the "Great Salt Lake" until 1868.

41 Download Google Play: APP

Google Play is Google's distribution service for digital media content. The service was launched in 2008 as Android Market. Android Market was merged with Google Music, Google Movies and Google eBookstore to form Google Play in 2012.

43 cyan: cyan

The beautiful blue-green color is named after the duck named Teal, which has dark blue-green (teal) markings on its head and wings.

46 Enjoy the sun: SUNS

Our verb 'sonnen', meaning 'expose someone to a pleasant warmth', derives from the dreadful 14th-century term 'sonnen', meaning 'to wallow in blood'. Contemporary usage appears to derive from Shakespeare, who used bask in reference to the sun in As You Like It.

53 Packaging for leftovers: FOIL

Before thin sheets of aluminum metal were available as aluminum foil, thin sheets were used in a variety of applications. Tin foil is not a good choice for food packaging as it imparts a metallic taste. Across the pond, aluminum foil has a different name. No, it's not just because of the different spelling of aluminum ("aluminum"). We still call it "Tin Foil". See we're living in the past...

54 Apple Digital Assistant: SIRI

Siri is a software application that works with Apple's iOS operating system. "Siri" is an acronym that stands for Speech Recognition and Interpretation Interface. Voice actor Susan Bennett emerged as the American female voice of Siri a few years ago. The UK version of Siri is called Daniel and the Australian version is called Karen. Also, "Siri" is a Norwegian name meaning "beautiful woman who leads you to victory" and it was the name the developers chose for their first child.

58 „Eternal Atake“-Rapper __ Uzi Vert: LIL

"Lil Uzi Vert" is the stage name of Philadelphia rapper Symere Woods.

59 “What can you ___…” : SEE

"Oh, can you see it by the light of dawn" is the opening line of Francis Scott Key's The Star-Spangled Banner. The song was adopted as the United States national anthem in 1931, although it has been officially used by the United States Navy since 1889 and is played at the raising of the flag.