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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Meaning of Imani, the seventh principle of Kwanzaa : FAITH

Kwanzaa is a celebration of African heritage that lasts from December 26 to January 1 annually. The holiday was introduced in 1966 as an alternative to the existing holidays at the end of the year. The name comes from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza”, meaning “first fruits of the harvest”. The seven days of Kwanzaa are dedicated to seven core principles known as “Nguzo Saba”.

• Umoja (Unity)
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
• Nia (Purpose)
• Kuumba (Creativity)
• Imani (Faith)

14 Sally Bowles’s flatmate in Chelsea, per a “Cabaret” number : ELSIE

The musical “Cabaret” is based on “I Am a Camera”, a 1951 play written by John Van Druten. In turn, the play was adapted from a novel “Goodbye to Berlin” written by Christopher Isherwood. The action in the musical takes place in the 1930s, in a seedy Berlin cabaret called the Kit Kat Klub. “Cabaret” is a great stage musical, although the 1972 film of the musical isn’t one of my favorites.

17 Turning point in telecommunications history? : ROTARY DIAL

The first patent for a rotary dial mechanism for a phone was granted in 1898, and the familiar rotary dial phones (with holes for the finger) were introduced by the Bell System in 1919. This form of dialing was called “pulse dialing”. When you dialed the number 5, say, the dial would rotate back to the start position, opening and closing electrical contacts five times and sending five pulses over the telephone line. I used to love rotary dial phones when I was a kid. My grandfather was a telephone engineer and he showed me how to “tap out” the pulses on the “hook” at the top of a pay phone. I was able to make free calls that way. He definitely contributed to the delinquency of a minor …

19 Spam containers : TINS

Spam is a precooked meat product that is sold in cans. It was introduced by Hormel Foods in 1937. The main meat ingredients are pork shoulder meat and ham. The name “Spam” was chosen as the result of a competition at Hormel, with the winner earning himself a hundred dollars. According to the company, the derivation of the name “Spam” is a secret known by only a few former executives, but the speculation is that it stands for “spiced ham” or “shoulders of pork and ham”. Spam is particularly popular in Hawaii, so popular that it is sometimes referred to as “the Hawaiian steak”.

22 Screenwriter’s way of reintroducing some characters? : PASTE

That would be cut and paste, when writing on a computer.

23 Successor of the Metroliner : ACELA

The Acela Express is the fastest train running routinely in the US, as it gets up to 150 mph at times. The service runs between Boston and Washington D.C. via Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Introduced in 2000, the brand name “Acela” was created to evoke “acceleration” and “excellence”.

25 Masterpiece by Klimt or Rodin : THE KISS

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter who primarily painted the female body, often producing works that were described as erotic. One of Klimt’s most famous paintings is “The Kiss”, which he completed in 1908.

“The Kiss” is a beautiful sculpture created in 1889 by Auguste Rodin. I’ve had the privilege of standing beside a large, life-size marble version of the work on a few occasions in the Rodin Museum, my favorite of all museums in Paris. The Musée Rodin is very special in that the building and garden that hold all of the works were Rodin’s actual home and studio. Well worth a visit if you make it to Paris …

30 Contrary to popular belief, they don’t cause warts : TOADS

The “warts” on the skin of a toad have no relation to the viral infection that can occur on human skin. A toad’s warts are colored bumps that are believed to help the animal blend more effectively into its environment.

31 One who gets all snooty when it’s time to get a cab? : WINE SNOB

Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

The cabernet sauvignon (often just “cab”) grape has been around since the 17th century, and is the result of a chance crossing in southwestern France of the cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc grapes.

34 Singer born Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

37 Burrowing creatures of the African savanna : MEERKATS

The meerkat (also called “suricate”) is a mongoose-like mammal that is native to parts of Africa including the Kalahari and Namib Deserts

46 Outed online : DOXED

Doxing (also “doxxing”) is the publishing of private information about someone on the Internet with the intention of doing harm or causing embarrassment. The term “doxing” is slang, and comes from “dox”, an accepted abbreviation for “documents”.

48 One of 18 on the periodic table : GROUP

Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian chemist. When Mendeleev classified elements according to their chemical properties, he noticed patterns and was able to group elements into his famous 1869 Periodic Table. So powerful was his table that he actually predicted the properties of some elements that had not even been discovered in 1869. Element number 101 is mendelevium, and was named after Mendeleev.

50 Issa of “American Fiction” : RAE

Issa Rae is a Stanford University graduate who created a YouTube web series called “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl”. Rae also plays the title role in the series, a young lady named “J”. “Awkward Black Girl” was adapted into an HBO comedy-drama called “Insecure”, in which Issa Rae stars.

“American Fiction” is a 2023 comedy-drama movie based on a 2023 novel by Percival Everett titled “Erasure”. Jeffrey Wright plays a black writer whose publishers reject his latest story as not being “black enough”. The writer reacts to his lack of success by submitting a satirical novel that panders to black stereotypes. To his surprise, and dismay, the book is a great success.

53 McGregor of “Moulin Rouge!” : EWAN

Ewan McGregor is a very talented Scottish actor, one who got his break in the 1996 film “Trainspotting”. McGregor’s first big Hollywood role was playing the young Obi-Wan-Kenobi in the “Star Wars” prequels. Less known is his televised marathon motorcycle journey from London to New York via central Europe, Ukraine, Siberia, Mongolia and Canada. The 2004 trip was shown as “Long Way Round” on TV. McGregor did a similar trip in 2007 called “Long Way Down”, which took him and the same traveling companion from the north of Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa.

“Moulin Rouge!” is a musical film that was released in 2001, starring Nicole Kidman as the star of the Moulin Rouge cabaret, and Ewan McGregor as the young man who falls in love with her. Although set in the early 1900s, the film uses many, many contemporary songs. There were so many that it took the producers almost two years to secure the rights to use the music.

56 Bit of hypertext : LINK

In essence, the World Wide Web (WWW) is a vast collection of documents that is accessible using the Internet, with each document containing hyperlinks that point to other documents in the collection. So the “Web” is different from the Internet, although the terms are often used interchangeably. The Web is a collection of documents, and the Internet is a global network of computers on which the documents reside. The Web was effectively the invention of British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. The key to Berner-Lee’s invention was bringing together two technologies that already existed: hypertext and the Internet. I, for one, am very grateful …

60 Contact sites : EYES

The concepts that underpin the technology of contact lenses date back to Leonardo Da Vinci. Although Da Vinci didn’t propose the development of the contact lens, he did write about correcting vision by submerging the eye in a bowl of water. Over a hundred years later, René Descartes made a somewhat impractical suggestion, but along the right lines, of using a glass tube filled with liquid that could be placed in contact with the eye to correct vision. The first real contact lenses were developed by German ophthalmologist Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick in 1887.

61 Grace who married Prince Rainier : KELLY

American actress Grace Kelly led the US delegation to the Cannes Film Festival in 1955 and there she met Prince Rainier III, at a photo-op in the Palace of Monaco. Twelve months later the pair were married and Kelly retired from acting at the age of 26. She suffered a stroke while driving her car in 1982, not long before her 53rd birthday. Kelly died in the resulting car crash but her daughter, Princess Stéphanie, survived the accident.

Down

1 Seedless plant : FERN

Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

4 ___ Maria (liqueur) : TIA

Tia Maria is a coffee liqueur that was invented just after WWII in Jamaica using Jamaican coffee beans, Jamaican rum, vanilla and sugar. The drink’s name translates to “Aunt Maria”.

5 Collies and sheepdogs, by nature : HERDERS

The collie isn’t actually a breed of dog, but rather the name given to a group of herding dogs that originated in Scotland and Northern England. An obvious (and wonderful) example would be the border collie. Many dogs classed as collies don’t have the word “collie” in the name of the breed, for example the old English sheepdog and the Shetland sheepdog.

6 Patterned cotton fabric originally from India : MADRAS

Madras is a lightweight fabric with a plaid design that is often used for summer clothing. The pattern is sometimes referred to as “Madrasi checks”. The textile takes its name from Madras, the former name of the city of Chennai in India.

7 First name of fashion designers Tahari and Saab : ELIE

Elie Tahari is an American fashion designer, although he was born in Jerusalem. Tahari immigrated to the US from Israel in 1971 and started work as an electrician in the Garment District in New York City. It was there that he became interested in fashion.

Elie Saab is a Lebanese fashion designer based in Beirut. Saab also goes by the name “ES”.

9 Omakase serving : EEL

When food is ordered “omakase” in a Japanese restaurant, the patron is asking the chef to choose what is served. The term “omakase” comes from the Japanese for “to entrust”.

18 University that awarded the first Ph.D. in the U.S. : YALE

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

22 Stinky ___, “Toy Story 2” antagonist : PETE

“Toy Story 2” is a Pixar feature film that was released in 1999. The film was an even bigger hit than the original “Toy Story”, and grossed just under $500 million.

26 China’s ___ Dynasty : HAN

The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China and lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD. It came after the Qin dynasty, and before the Three Kingdoms.

27 What’s on the agenda : ITEM

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

29 Checker’s move : TWIST

The twist is a dance that was born in the sixties, inspired by the Chubby Checker hit of 1960 called “The Twist”. Chubby Checker sang the song live in front of a crowd in Deland, Florida in October 2012. About 40,000 people danced along to the music, setting a new Guinness World Record for the most people “twisting” at the same time.

33 Red and black, e.g. : BETS

In the game of roulette, players can bet on “rouge” (red) and “noir” (black).

35 Chevy sports car named for a boneless fish : STINGRAY

Rays are fish with flattened bodies that have gill slits on their underside. There are many, many species of ray, including stingrays and skates. Rays are close relatives of sharks, with both being cartilaginous fish, as opposed to bony fish.

38 Last word in the titles of two 1980s James Bond films : … KILL

“A View to a Kill” is 1985 James Bond film, and the last to star Roger Moore as the MI6 agent. The movie’s title comes from an Ian Fleming short story called “From a View to a Kill”, although the plots of the story and the film bear no resemblance to each other. The bad guy in this one is Max Zorin, portrayed by Christopher Walken.

“Licence to Kill” is a 1989 James Bond film, one starring Timothy Dalton as the iconic MI6 agent. One thing to note about “Licence to Kill” is that it is the first film in the series not to use the title of a story authored by Ian Fleming.

44 Sense that dolphins lack : SMELL

Bottlenose dolphins have a very large brain to body mass ratio, second only to humans among mammals in general. Along with the brain-size comes high intelligence. Many dolphins have been trained to carry out military tasks. And then there is their acting ability, as exemplified by “Flipper”.