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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Playbill groups : CASTS

I get quite a kick out of reading the bios in “Playbill” as some of them can be really goofy and entertaining. “Playbill” started off in 1884 in New York as an in-house publication for just one theater. You can’t see any decent-sized production these days anywhere in the United States without being handed a copy of “Playbill”.

14A Tokyo-based brewery : ASAHI

Asahi is a Japanese beer, and the name of the brewery that produces it. “Asahi” is Japanese for “morning sun”. Asahi introduced a “dry beer” in 1987, igniting a craze that rocketed the brewery to the number one spot in terms of beer production in Japan, with Kirin close behind.

16A Snackable seaweed : NORI

Nori is an edible seaweed that we used to know as “laver” when we were living in Wales. Nori is usually dried into thin sheets. Here in the US, we are most familiar with nori as the seaweed used as a wrap for sushi.

20A Paper view? : OP-ED

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

22A Its antlers can grow up to an inch per day : ELK

Male elks are called bulls, and females are known as cows. Bull elks are known for their very loud screaming, which is called bugling. Cow elks are attracted to bulls that bugle more often and most loudly.

23A Cheese tested as cannon ammunition on “MythBusters” (it didn’t work) : EDAM

“MythBusters” is an entertaining TV show that was originally hosted by Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. Prior to the launch of “MythBusters”, Hyneman and Savage had both developed careers in the world of special effects. In the show, the hosts test the validity of myths and assumptions used in famous movie scenes.

33A Mamá’s boy : NINO

In Spanish, a “madre” (mother) might have a “niño” (boy).

34A Gold, at the Milano Cortina Olympics : ORO

Italy has hosted four Olympic Games:

• The 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo
• The 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome
• The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin
• The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina

36A Sheriff’s backup : POSSE

Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”

38A Tech review site : CNET

CNET is a technology website, with the acronym “CNET” standing for “computer network”. It started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a CNET show.

46A Russian revolutionary of the early 1900s : TROTSKY

Leon Trotsky was a Soviet politician and revolutionary, the founder and first leader of the Red Army as well as one of the first members of the Politburo. Trotsky was ousted and deported in 1929 when he opposed the policies of Joseph Stalin. Trotsky continued to be vocal in opposition to Stalin in Mexico, his place of exile. Stalin had him assassinated there in 1940.

47A Longtime Yankee nickname : A-ROD

Baseball player Alex Rodriguez, nicknamed “A-Rod”, hit his 600th home run on August 4th, 2010. He had hit his 500th home run exactly three years earlier, on August 4th, 2007, when he became the youngest player in Major League history to join the 500-home run club.

48A “___ to the West Wind” : ODE

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote “Ode to the West Wind” in 1819 when he was living in Florence, Italy. One interpretation of the work is that it expresses his dismay at not being home in England, while another is that it is a lament for the loss of his son who died earlier in the same year.

49A Isle in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides : SKYE

The Isle of Skye is off the northwest coast of Scotland in the Inner Hebrides. It is the second largest island in the country, and has been linked to the mainland by a road bridge since 1995. I’ve never been there, but I hear the views are spectacular.

51A “It’s fun to stay at the ___” (1978 lyric) : YMCA

“YMCA” was released in 1978 by Village People and has been adopted as an anthem by the gay community. The song was written by Victor Willis, a straight member of the mostly gay band, and he clarifies that the lyrics extol the virtues of the “YMCA” as a source of recreation for black urban youth. I think he might have been winking when he said that …

55A Presidential power : VETO

The verb “veto” comes directly from Latin and means “I forbid”. The term was used by tribunes of ancient Rome to indicate that they opposed measures passed by the Senate.

59A Blizzard ingredient : OREO

A Blizzard is an offering on a menu at Dairy Queen outlets. It was introduced in 1985, with a recipe of soft-serve ice cream mixed with a choice of ingredients that include common sundae toppings, brownies and candy. Apparently, the DQ employee serving today’s Blizzard must hold it upside down to demonstrate to the customer that it won’t spill. If that demonstration doesn’t take place, there’s a coupon available for a free Blizzard at the next visit. Well, that’s what I just read …

60A English singer Parks : ARLO

“Arlo Parks” is the stage name of British singer and poet Anaïs Marinho. Parks seems to have hit the big time early in her career, with her first studio album “Collapsed in Sunbeams” (2021) garnering a lot of positive attention.

61A Potato-based Hanukkah serving : LATKE

A latke is a delicious potato pancake (I’m Irish, so anything made with potatoes is delicious, to be honest).

Down

1D Hunter’s attire, informally : CAMO

Our word “camouflage” (often abbreviated to “camo”) evolved directly from a Parisian slang term “camoufler” meaning “to disguise”. The term was first used in WWI, although the British navy at that time preferred the expression “dazzle-painting” as it applied to the pattern painted on the hulls of ships.

3D Drink that’s often served hot in the winter : SAKE

We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.

4D When and where, in slang : THE DEETS

“Deets” is slang for “details”.

5D One-named singer with the 2022 hit “Unstoppable” : SIA

“Unstoppable” is a 2016 song co-written and recorded by Australian singer Sia. It has been used in several different marketing campaigns. For example, Major League Baseball used “Unstoppable” to promote the 2016 season, Lancôme used it in ads featuring Zendaya promoting the Idôle fragrance, and Samsung used it in an ad for the Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone.

7D Bird with a long, downward-curving bill : IBIS

The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!

8D Brest besties : BONS AMIS

Brest is a port city in northwest France, and is the second largest military port in the country. Brest was an important base for German U-boats during WWII when France was occupied by the Nazis. Brest is the most westerly city in the whole country.

9D “Holy cannoli!” : EEK!

Cannoli (singular “cannolo”) are Italian sweet pastries that originated in Sicily. Cannoli are made by filling tubes of fried pastry dough with a creamy filling that usually contains ricotta cheese. “Cannolo” is Italian for “little tube”.

11D Clear cocktail often served with lime : VODKA TONIC

The original tonic water was a fairly strong solution of the drug quinine dissolved in carbonated water. It was used in tropical areas in South Asia and Africa where malaria is rampant. The quinine has a prophylactic effect against the disease, and was formulated as “tonic water” so that it could be easily distributed. In British colonial India, the colonial types got into the habit of mixing gin with the tonic water to make it more palatable by hiding the bitter taste of quinine. Nowadays, the level of quinine in tonic water has dropped, and sugar has been added.

18D Genre for Blink-182 and Sum 41 : SKATE PUNK

The rock band Blink-182 formed in 1992 in Poway, a suburb of San Diego, California. The group performed under several names before adopting “Blink”. They eventually added the random number “182” on hearing that there was already an Irish band with the name “Blink”.

22D Toy inventer Rubik : ERNO

Inventor? Inventor, surely?

24D Bit of Morse code : DAH

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”.

30D Big name in plumbing : ROTO-ROOTER

The Roto-Rooter is an invention of Samuel Oscar Blanc. Blanc came up with the idea in 1933 after having to deal with a sewer line in his son’s apartment that was blocked with roots from a tree, a common problem. He put together his first version of the device using a washing machine motor, roller skate wheels and a steel cable. The “rotating rooter” snaked down the sewer line, and rotating blades at the tip of the cable cut through the troublesome roots. Blanc sold his machine for decades to people who set up their own drain clearing businesses. In 1980 the Blanc family sold the Roto-Rooter company to a Cincinnati concern that started buying up independent franchises that used the Roto-Rooter and created the national service with which we are familiar today. Oh, and my advice is, save yourself the cost of the service call and just rent a machine. That’s what I do …

31D Photographer Adams : ANSEL

Long before he was a world-famous photographer, Ansel Adams was a highly talented classical pianist. He trained seriously from the age of 12 with the intention of becoming a concert pianist, and for many years he earned a living by giving piano lessons. It wasn’t until around 1930, when he was in his late 20s, that he finally decided to devote his life to photography instead of music.

38D Milky Way or Mars : CANDY BAR

Having lived on both sides of the Atlantic, I find the Mars Bar to be the most perplexing of candies! The original Mars Bar is a British confection (and delicious) that was first manufactured in 1932. The US version of the original Mars Bar is called a Milky Way. But there is a candy bar called a Milky Way that is also produced in the UK, and it is completely different to its US cousin, being more like an American “3 Musketeers”. And then there is an American confection called a Mars Bar, something different again. No wonder I try not to eat candy bars …

42D Indian P.M. of the 1990s : RAO

P. V. Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996. Rao is seen by most as the leader who transformed his country’s economy into the market-driven engine that it is today.

44D Destination for Frodo in “The Lord of the Rings” : MT DOOM

Mordor is a fictional land in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. It is a place of great danger, but also home to the volcano Mount Doom. Mount Doom is the only place where the One Ring can be destroyed, and so it is the destination of the Fellowship of the Ring in their quest to save Middle-earth.

50D Letter between Juliet and Lima : KILO

The NATO phonetic alphabet is also called the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet. Alfa, Bravo, Charlie … X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

54D One of the Twelve Olympians : ARES

Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece. In Greek mythology, it was home to the gods, and in particular home to the principal gods known as the Twelve Olympians.

56D Pitching stat : ERA

Earned run average (ERA)

57D Comic book onomatopoeia : BAM!

Onomatopoeia is the naming of something by vocally imitating the sound associated with it. Examples of onomatopoeia are “chirp”, “clash”, “click” and “hiccups”.