This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for April 3–April 9, 2021

An unopened Nintendo video game was auctioned off in Dallas this week, selling for a record $660,000. The copy of Super Mario Bros. had been given as a Christmas gift in 1986 and then left in a desk drawer for 35 years. The previous record was $114,000, for a 1987 copy of the same game. Auction is defined as "sell by increasing bids," and its root means "to increase."

The Stanford Cardinals defeated the Arizona Wildcats on April 4 to win the NCAA women's basketball championship. It was the team's first championship title since 1992. Down by ten in the third quarter, Arizona cut Stanford's lead to three points during the game's last ten minutes but came up short with a final score of 54-53. Championship comes from a Late Latin word that means "gladiator."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a contest to improve face mask designs. The Mask Innovation Challenge is inviting entries until April 21 and offers a $500,000 award for the winning design. The contest is inspired by the proven effectiveness of masks to stem the spread of infectious diseases like Covid-19 — and the challenges of finding comfortable ones.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she is working with G20 countries to establish a global minimum corporate tax. Such a tax would apply to multinational businesses no matter where their headquarters were located. Yellen said the global tax would discourage countries from competing to attract business by lowering corporate tax rates, a practice that has resulted in what she called a "30-year race to the bottom." The European Union has expressed its support for the idea.

Artist Alex Da Corte will install an homage to Sesame Street's Big Bird this month on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The commission, titled As Long as the Sun Lasts, will feature the blue, Brazilian version of the famously tall feathered Muppet, suspended from a mobile and perched on a crescent moon. The exhibit runs from April 16 to October 31.

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter survived its first solo night on the surface of Mars, enduring subzero temperatures. Without the aid of the Perseverance rover, Ingenuity had to rely on its own battery and solar panels to keep its electrical components from freezing. The temperature on Mars can drop as low as negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Ingenuity originally meant "nobility," but it's now defined as "cleverness and inventiveness."

A famous Moscow grocery store will close on April 11 after 120 years in business. The Eliseevsky food emporium has long been a beloved tourist landmark, thanks to its grand art nouveau style and rich history. Gilt columns, ornate chandeliers, and stained glass make the store feel more like a palace than a supermarket. Eliseevsky was popular with the Russian nobility during the czarist era, and it continued to sell luxury foods under Soviet rule.

The Navajo Nation reached a milestone recently: zero cases and zero deaths from Covid-19 in a 24-hour period. Since March, the tribe has reported low rates of the virus, after having the highest U.S. infection rate a year ago. Over half of its population on tribal lands has been vaccinated, more than any state. Navajo leaders remain concerned as case numbers increase around the country. Milestones were once literal stone pillars marking one-mile distances along a road.

Over the next several months, the U.K. will install the world's largest underwater system to monitor sharks. Scientists will be able to keep an eye on more than four million square kilometers of ocean around overseas territories including the Cayman Islands and Anguilla via a network of cameras on carbon fiber sticks. Conservationists hope that monitoring parts of the ocean that were previously inaccessible can aid in protecting sharks against the effects of climate change.

Twenty-two mummies were paraded through downtown Cairo before being moved to their new museum space in Fustat, three miles away. Eighteen Egyptian kings and four queens were displayed during an event called The Pharaohs' Golden Parade, among them the mummified remains of the 12th century King Ramses II. The Persian root of mummy is mum, which means "wax."

Over the past week indoor performances have slowly begun returning to New York. A Broadway musical, stand-up comedy, and cabaret shows all opened to limited capacity audiences following a change in state regulations. More performances are scheduled to begin over the next month, despite the fact that New York remains a hot spot for new coronavirus cases, with nearly 25,000 each week.

Piñata sales in Mexico have plummeted during the pandemic, due to restrictions on gatherings. Some Mexican artisans have recently added a green, spiky coronavirus-shaped piñata to their repertoire, and for many of them it's become the highest-selling option. Cracking open a piñata is an essential part of Mexican celebrations, and the crisis has hit the business hard. The satisfaction of pummeling the virus itself has tempted customers, providing a boost to a struggling industry.

Despite rising vaccination rates and a reduction in hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19, scientists worry that virus variants will prolong the pandemic. At a time when many states are reopening businesses and removing restrictions, highly contagious variants, some of them more deadly, are spreading rapidly. Experts fear that if variant spread outpaces vaccination, the pandemic will take much longer to be fully controlled.

Major League Baseball announced it will relocate this year's All-Star Game and draft from Atlanta to Denver, in response to Georgia’s recently passed voting law. The law, which restricts voters' access and makes absentee voting more difficult, is seen by its critics as voter suppression. The MLB commissioner said in a statement that the League "fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box."

On April 5, the National Labor Relations Board found that Amazon retaliated illegally when it fired two employees who criticized the company publicly. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, outspoken critics of the company's climate and labor policies, were fired last year. The decision means that Amazon must either settle the case or face a judge for unfair labor practices. Retaliate, "pay back in kind," was originally used in both good and bad senses.

A long-held private rift between the former crown prince of Jordan and the country's current king was brought into public this week. On April 4, King Abdullah II accused Prince Hamzah of conspiring to disrupt Jordan's stability and hinted at an attempted coup. By the following day, both had agreed to mediation, and the situation appeared to de-escalate. Jordan is known as a calm, stable presence in the tense Middle East, and the rift shook the region.

The NCAA men's basketball tournament ended in a rout, with Baylor beating undefeated Gonzaga 86-70. A Zags win would have made the team the first since 1976 to play a perfect season. Baylor's victory was also historic — it was the Bears' first ever national championship. Rout comes from a Latin root meaning "to break."

A new initiative in San Francisco will help support artists by giving them a monthly stipend of a thousand dollars. The pilot program will fund 130 artists for six months. In St. Paul, Minnesota, a similar program started this week: 25 artists will receive a $500 stipend for 18 months. The initiatives are intended to benefit artists (particularly artists of color) who have found it especially challenging to pay for food and rent over the past year.

Lego theft is on the rise worldwide, with thieves targeting unopened limited edition sets of the colorful bricks. Recent thefts at toy stores in Paris and the U.S. have raised concerns over a possible black market in Lego. Gerben van IJken, an expert in collectibles including Lego, said that sets like Lego Café Corner and the Millennium Falcon, in their original boxes, are currently worth more than three thousand dollars.