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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 One known as “the Alive, the Eternal” : ALLAH

The name “Allah” comes from the Arabic “al-” and “ilah”, meaning “the” and “deity”. So, “Allah” can be translated as “God”.

11 Org. featured in 2011’s “Contagion” : CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

A contagion is a contagious disease or a disease-producing agent. The term “contagion” ultimately derives from the Latin “com” meaning “with” and “tangere” meaning “to touch”. A distinction is sometimes made between the nouns “contagion” and “infection”, with the former referring to transmission of disease by contact, and the latter referring to transmission through the air by floating germs.

18 ___ Rose, Catherine O’Hara’s character on “Schitt’s Creek” : MOIRA

Catherine O’Hara is an actress and comedienne from Toronto, Ontario. One of O’Hara’s more famous film roles is Kevin’s mother in the Christmas classic “Home Alone”. She also plays a lead character in the excellent sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” alongside Eugen Levy.

19 Chevron subsidiary : TEXACO

Texaco gets its name from “The TEXA-s CO-mpany”. Today, Texaco is just a brand name owned by Chevron. It used to be its own operation, founded as the Texas Fuel Company in 1901.

The oil and gas company Chevron is a descendent of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. The US government stepped in and broke up Standard Oil in 1911, with one of the resulting “pieces” being Standard Oil Co. (California). Standard Oil of California changed its name to Chevron in 1984.

20 Language in the Tai family : LAO

Lao is the official language of Laos. Lao is also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, but there the language is known as Isan.

Lao, the language of Laos, does not use spaces between words (or periods!), although this is apparently changing. Spaces are used between sentences and clauses.

21 Kind of skirt : HULA

The hula skirt is made from grass.

25 Tabloid twosome : ITEM

An unmarried couple known to be involved with each other might appear in the gossip columns. This appearance as “an item” in the papers, led to the use of “item” to refer to such a couple, but only since the very early seventies.

“Tabloid” is the trademarked name (owned by Burroughs Wellcome) for a “small tablet of medicine”, a name that goes back to 1884. The word “tabloid” had entered into general use to mean a compressed form of anything, and by the early 1900s was used in “tabloid journalism”, which described newspapers that had short, condensed articles and stories printed on smaller sheets of paper.

29 Half of a legal warning : CEASE

That would be “cease and desist”.

30 There are 24 in a cuboctahedron : EDGES

A cuboctahedron is a polyhedron with 6 square faces and 8 triangular faces.

42 Poet Rainer Maria ___ : RILKE

“The Book of Hours” is a poetry collection published in 1905 by the Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke. The collection comprises religious works, relating in particular to Saint Francis and the search for God. The title comes from a Christian devotional book that was popular in the Middle Ages, referred to as the book of hours.

44 First winner of the Nebula Award for best science fiction novel (1965) : DUNE

The less-than-successful 1984 movie “Dune” (directed by David Lynch) was an adaptation of the spectacularly successful 1965 novel of the same name written by Frank Herbert.

47 Therapists’ org. : APA

American Psychiatric Association (APA)

48 Director Craven : WES

Wes Craven was a very successful film director and writer specializing in movies of the horror genre, which means that I don’t watch them! He was responsible for “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and the “Scream” films. Craven passed away in August 2015.

51 First square of a crossword? : STARTING BLOCK

Arthur Wynne is generally credited with the invention of what we now know as a crossword puzzle. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England and emigrated to the US when he was 19-years-old. He worked as a journalist and was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1913 when he introduced a “Word-Cross Puzzle” in his page of puzzles written for the “New York World”. The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Shuster & Shuster, in 1924. The collection of puzzles was a huge hit, and crosswords were elevated to the level of “a craze” in 1924 and 1925.

55 Walking the dog, for instance : YO-YO TRICK

A common yo-yo trick is to “walk the dog”. It involves spinning the yo-yo at the end of its string, and then letting the yo-yo touch the ground. The spin then causes the yo-yo to “walk” along the ground beside you, as if you are walking a dog.

58 One might bend over backward : YOGI

A yogi is a practitioner of yoga.

59 Who actually lives in Lapland, some say : SANTA

Lapland is a geographic region in northern Scandinavia, largely found within the Arctic Circle. Parts of Lapland are in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The people who are native to the region are called the Sami people. The Sami don’t like to be referred to as “Lapps” and they regard the term as insulting.

60 Accord maker : HONDA

Honda started manufacturing the Accord model in Marysville, Ohio in 1982, making the Accord the first Japanese car to be produced in the US. The Accord was the best-selling Japanese car in America from 1982 to 1997, and 1989 was the first import to become the best-selling car in the US.

61 Author of 29 Federalist Papers : MADISON

James Madison was one of the Founding Fathers, and the fourth President of the US. Madison played a key role in drafting the US Constitution as well as the Bill of Rights, and so is sometimes referred to as the Father of the Constitution. Along with future president Thomas Jefferson, Madison founded the Democratic-Republican Party, which was one of the nation’s first two major political parties along with Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party.

The Federalist Papers are a series of published articles promoting the ratification of the US Constitution that were written anonymously by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. In fact, all three authors used “Publius” as a pen name, in honor of the Roman consul Publius Valerius Publicola. Publius was one of four Roman aristocrats who led the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in the revolution of 509 BC, effectively founding the Roman Republic.

65 Playwright who wrote “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything” : SHAW

George Bernard Shaw (GBS) was a very successful Irish playwright. Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature, and an Oscar. He won his Oscar for adapting his own play “Pygmalion” for the 1938 film of the same name starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. Most people are more likely to have seen the musical adaptation of “Pygmalion” that goes by the title “My Fair Lady”.

70 Raison d’___ : ETRE

“Raison d’être” is a French phrase meaning “reason for existence”.

72 Something a mover or a movie might have : TRAILER

The term “trailer” was originally used in the film industry to describe advertisements for upcoming features. These trailers were originally shown at the end of a movie being screened, hence the name. This practice quickly fell out of favor as theater patrons usually left at the end of the movie without paying much attention to the trailers. So, the trailers were moved to the beginning of the show, but the term “trailer” persisted.

73 Threesome : TRIAD

A triad is a group of three and, specifically in music, a chord made up of three notes.

75 The “B” in its name stands for “brush” : ORAL-B

The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

77 Oldest independent state in the Arab world : OMAN

Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is neighbored by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Oman is a monarchy, and the official name of the state is the Sultanate of Oman. All of the country’s legislative, executive and judiciary power resides with the hereditary sultan.

78 Genre for “Booksmart” and “Clueless” : TEEN MOVIE

“Booksmart” is a 2019 comedy film about two high school students breaking out of their relatively bookish ways just prior to graduation. The movie was actress Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, and apparently, the critics loved this film.

The 1995 movie “Clueless” is apparently based on Jane Austen’s “Emma”, which is a favorite novel of mine. As a result, I am going to have to check out the film …

86 Trident look-alike : PSI

Psi is the 23rd and penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks a bit like a trident or a pitchfork.

A trident is a spear with three prongs. The term “trident” comes from the Latin adjective “tridentem” meaning “three-pronged, three-toothed”. “Tridentem” comes from “tri-” (three) and “dens” (tooth).

88 Small bird : TIT

The birds known as chickadees or titmice in North America, are usually called simply “tits” in the rest of the English-speaking world.

90 Southern cooking staple : OKRA

The plant known as okra is mainly grown for its edible green pods. The pods are said to resemble “ladies’ fingers”, which is an alternative name for the plant. Okra is known as “ngombo” in Bantu, a name that might give us the word “gumbo”, the name for the name of the southern Louisiana stew that includes okra as a key ingredient.

106 Doctor Zhivago : YURI

“Doctor Zhivago” is an epic novel by Boris Pasternak that was first published in 1957. I haven’t tried to read the book, but the 1965 film version is a must-see, directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif in the title role. The story centers on Yuri Zhivago, a doctor and poet, and how he is affected by the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War.

107 Where subs are standard : DELIS

The word “delicatessen” (or “deli” for short) came into English from the German “Delikatessen”. The Germans borrowed the word from French, in which language “délicatesse” means “delicious things (to eat)”. The term’s ultimate root is “delicatus”, the Latin for “giving pleasure, delightful”.

109 Semiaquatic creature : NEWT

Newts wouldn’t be my favorite animals. They are found all over the world living on land or in water depending on the species, but always associated with water even if it is only for breeding. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental stages during their lives. They start off as larvae in water, fertilized eggs that often cling to aquatic plants. The eggs hatch into tadpoles, the first developmental form of the newt. After living some months as tadpoles swimming around in the water, they undergo another metamorphosis, sprouting legs and replacing their external gills with lungs. At this juvenile stage they are known as efts, and leave the water to live on land. A more gradual transition takes place then, as the eft takes on the lizard-like appearance of the adult newt.

113 Missing : AWOL

MPs (military police officers) often track down personnel who go AWOL (absent without leave).

114 Blackjack dealer? : DESIGNATED HITTER

The card game known as “twenty-one” was first referred to in print in a book by Cervantes, the author famous for writing “Don Quixote”. He called the game “veintiuna” (Spanish for “twenty-one”). Cervantes wrote his story just after the year 1600, so the game has been around at least since then. Twenty-one came to the US but it wasn’t all that popular so bonus payments were introduced to create more interest. One of the more attractive bonuses was a ten-to-one payout to a player who was dealt an ace of spades and a black jack. This bonus led to the game adopting the moniker “Blackjack”.

117 Niche mag : ZINE

A zine is a magazine. The term “zine” is often reserved for noncommercial publications, including those issued online.

119 Product that increases volume : MOUSSE

Our word “mousse” is an Old French term meaning “froth”.

120 “Moonlight” actress Janelle : MONAE

Janelle Monáe is a singer and actress. I’m not familiar with her as a singer, but did see Monáe play NASA engineer Mary Jackson in the excellent 2016 film “Hidden Figures”.

“Moonlight” is a 2016 semi-autobiographical film based on an unpublished play by Tarell Alvin McCraney titled “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”. “Moonlight” won the season’s Best Picture Oscar, thus becoming the first film to do so with an all-black cast, and the first with an LGBT storyline.

121 Joie de vivre : ZEST

“Joie de vivre” means “joy of living” in French. We use the phrase to mean the happy, carefree enjoyment of life, like when we finish our crossword puzzles …

123 Chain whose name derives from its founders, the Raffel brothers : ARBY’S

The Arby’s chain of fast food restaurants was founded in 1964 by two brothers, Forrest and Leroy Raffel. The name “Arby’s” is a homonym of “RB’s”, standing for “Raffel Brothers”. There is a rumor out there that the initials “RB” were chosen for “roast beef”, but that’s not true.

Down

1 Book before Obadiah : AMOS

Amos is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament’s Book of Amos is attributed to him.

The Book of Obadiah is the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible. It consists of just one chapter that is divided into 21 verses.

5 Solo traveling in space : HAN

Han Solo is the space smuggler in “Star Wars” played by Harrison Ford. Ford was originally hired by George Lucas just to read lines for actors during auditions for “Star Wars”, but over time Lucas became convinced that Ford was right for the pivotal role of Han Solo.

7 Frequent subjects of Taylor Swift songs : EXES

Singer Taylor Swift had one of her first gigs at the US Open tennis tournament when she was in her early teens. There she sang the national anthem and received a lot of favorable attention for the performance.

8 Measures, in music : BARS

Musical scores are divided into measures, although on the other side of the Atlantic the term “bar” is used instead of “measure”.

10 Actor Menzies who won an Emmy for “The Crown” : TOBIAS

“The Crown” is a historical drama produced for Netflix that covers the life of British Queen Elizabeth II from her marriage to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. For the first two seasons, Elizabeth is played by Claire Foy and Philip by Matt Smith. For the next two seasons, Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies take over as Elizabeth and Philip.

12 One hell of a writer? : DANTE

Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” is an epic poem dating back to the 14th century. The first part of that epic is “Inferno”, which is the Italian word for “Hell”. In the poem, Dante is led on a journey by the poet Virgil, starting at the gates of Hell on which are written the famous words “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”.

13 One way for packages to arrive, in brief : COD

Cash on delivery (COD)

16 Lager alternatives : ALES

The many, many different styles of beer can generally be sorted into two groups: ales and lagers. Ales are fermented at relatively warm temperatures for relatively short periods of time, and use top-fermenting yeasts, i.e. yeasts that float on top of the beer as it ferments. Lagers ferment at relatively low temperatures and for relatively long periods of time. Lagers use bottom-fermenting yeasts, i.e. yeasts that fall to the bottom of the beer as it ferments.

19 “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking” brand : TIMEX

The Timex Group, a manufacturer of watches, evolved from the Waterbury Clock Company that was founded in 1854 in Waterbury, Connecticut. The company achieved tremendous success in the early sixties largely due to an innovative marketing campaign. Advertisements featured the memorable tagline “Timex – Takes a licking and keeps on ticking”. In 1962, one out of every three watches sold in the US was a Timex.

24 Theater award : OBIE

The Obies are the Off-Broadway Theater Awards. The Obies have been presented annually since 1956. The recipients used to be chosen by “The Village Voice” newspaper, but now are jointly administered with the American Theatre Wing.

32 Actress Moreno : RITA

Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress Rita Moreno is one of the few performers to have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony. Moreno got her big break, and won her Oscar, for playing Anita in the 1961 screen adaptation of “West Side Story”. And, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2004.

33 ___ Kong : HONG

Hong Kong became part of the British Empire after the First Opium War in 1842. In 1898, Britain signed a 99-year lease to retain control of Hong Kong. That control ended 99 years later in 1997 with a formal transfer of sovereignty back to China.

34 Melee : FRAY

Our term “melee” comes from the French “mêlée”, and in both languages the word means “confused fight”.

35 Abdominal procedure, for short : LIPO

Liposuction (lipo) dates back to the 1920s when it was developed by a surgeon in France. However, the procedure quickly lost favor when a French model developed gangrene after surgery. As a result, it wasn’t until the mid-seventies that modern liposuction took off, after being popularized by two Italian-American surgeons in Rome.

36 Skin-care brand : OLAY

Oil of Olay was developed in South Africa in 1949. When Oil of Olay was introduced internationally, it was given slightly different brand names designed to appeal in the different geographies. In Ireland we know it as Oil of Ulay, for example, and in France it is Oil of Olaz.

37 Dry biscuit used as baby food : RUSK

The term “rusk” can describe a crisp bread once used on board ships as it stores well. A rusk can also be a slice of bread that has been baked again until it becomes dry or crisp. An example of the latter is Melba toast.

38 Op. ___ (footnote abbr.) : CIT

“Op. cit.” is short for “opus citatum”, Latin for “the work cited”. Op. cit. is used in footnotes to refer the reader to an earlier citation. It is similar to ibid, except that ibid refers the reader to the last citation, the one immediately above.

40 Any slice of pizza, geometrically : SECTOR

A sector is part of a circle that is bounded by two radii and an arc of the circumference. The term “sector” comes from the Latin “secare” meaning “to cut”, so a “sector” is a piece “cut” from a circle.

41 Greek goddess associated with witchcraft : HEKATE

Hecate (sometimes “Hekate”) was a three-faced goddess in the Greek and Roman traditions. She was associated with many phenomena, including magic and witchcraft.

44 Archaeologist’s workplace : DIG SITE

“Archaeology” is a word that looks like it’s British English, and one might be forgiven for using the spelling “archeology” in American English. Even though the latter spelling has been around for a couple of hundred years, the former is the standard spelling on both sides of the Atlantic.

49 Young partner? : ERNST

Ernst & Young is one of the Big Four accountancy firms, alongside Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ernst & Young is headquartered in London. The company was founded in 1989 with the merger of Ernst & Whinney with Young & Co.

52 Winona of “Stranger Things” : RYDER

Hollywood actress Winona Ryder’s real name is Winona Horowitz. Ryder was born near the town of Winona in Minnesota, from which she got her name. Her success on the screen has garnered as much media attention as her life off the screen. The papers had a field day when she was arrested in 2001 on a shoplifting charge followed by a very public court appearance. Her engagement with Johnny Depp in the early nineties was another media frenzy. Depp had “Winona Forever” tattooed on his arm, which he had changed after the breakup to “Wino Forever”. A man with a sense of humor …

54 Texas border city : LAREDO

Laredo is a border city in Texas that is situated on the banks of the Rio Grande, across the border from Nuevo Laredo in Mexico.

56 “C’est la vie” : OH WELL

“C’est la vie” is French for “that’s life”.

57 “Ay” follower : … CARAMBA

“Caramba” is an oath uttered in Spanish. Apparently, it’s a softer version of a more vulgar word.

Bart Simpson apparently uses the expression “Ay, caramba!” when he is positively surprised about something, often something related to a female I am told …

61 “Now We Are Six” author : MILNE

“Now We Are Six” is a collection of children’s verses by A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. It was published in 1927, and illustrated by E. H. Shepard, the man behind the illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories as well as Kenneth Graham’s equally famous story “The Wind in the Willows”. Indeed, eleven of the verses in “Now We Are Six” are illustrated with images of Winnie-the-Pooh. Sounds like one for the grand-kids …

63 German denials : NEINS

“Nein” is the German for “no”, and “ja” translates as “yes”.

69 Vaccine holder : VIAL

A vaccine used to be a modified virus administered to an individual to stimulate the immune system into developing immunity,until RNA vaccines were introduced to combat COVID-19. British physician Edward Jenner came up with the first vaccine, injecting people with the cowpox virus in order to prevent smallpox. The term “vaccination” comes from the Latin “vaccinus” meaning “from cows”, with “vacca” translating as “cow”.

76 Props for majorettes : BATONS

A drum major is a leader of a marching band, and is a position that originated in the British Army Corp of Drums in 1650. The drum major’s job is to lead the group and ensure that the whole ensemble keeps time. To help him do so, a drum major often uses a large baton. Over time, it became customary for the baton to be twirled and tossed in an elaborate display. The drum major tradition was embraced by high school marching bands in America. Drum-majorettes became popular in the 1930s, with groups of females taking up baton-twirling and marching with bands. According to an article in “Life” magazine published on October 10th, 1938, “the perfect majorette is a pert, shapely, smiling extrovert, who loves big, noisy crowds and knows how to make those crowds love her.” It was a different time …

78 Bird with an annual 18,000-mile round-trip migration : TERN

Terns are a family of seabirds. They are similar to gulls, but are more slender and more lightly built. Many species of tern are known for their long-distance migrations, with the Arctic tern migrating so far that it is believed to see more daylight in a year than any other animal.

79 Instrument that’s a homophone of 69-Down : VIOL
(69D Vaccine holder : VIAL)

The viola da gamba (also called simply “viol”) is a bass instrument in what is known as the viol family, with a tonal range that about matches that of the modern-day cello. It is the second largest of all the viols, so it is played resting on the floor between the legs. In fact, “viola da gamba” is Italian translating into “viol for the leg”.

80 Crucifix inscription inits. : INRI

The letters written on the cross on which Jesus died were INRI. “INRI” is an initialism standing for the Latin “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum”, which translates into English as “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”.

84 It’s nada to Nadal : LOVE

In tennis the score of zero is designated as “love”. Some people believe that this usage originates from the French “l’oeuf” (meaning “the egg”). The idea is that the written character “0” looks like an egg.

Rafael “Rafa” Nadal is a Spanish tennis player. He is noted for his expertise on clay courts, which earned him the nickname “The King of Clay”.

85 Actor/comedian Barinholtz : IKE

Ike Barinholtz is an actor and comedian who appeared on MADtv from 2002 until 2007. More recently, Barinholtz became a writer on the TV show “The Mindy Project”, and was then cast as Nurse Morgan Tookers.

96 Who’s talking on the phone? : SIRI

Siri is a software application that works with Apple’s iOS operating system. “Siri” is an acronym standing for Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface. Voice-over artist Susan Bennett revealed herself as the female American voice of Siri a few years ago. The British 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 was the name the developer had chosen for his first child.

97 Personality that’s hard to read : ENIGMA

Our term “enigma” meaning “puzzle, riddle” comes from the Greek “ainigma”, which means the same thing.

98 Pass over, in a way : ELIDE

To elide is to pass over, omit or slur a syllable when speaking.

99 Mathematician John Forbes ___ Jr. : NASH

The movie “A Beautiful Mind” is based on the true story of the Nobel-winning economist John Forbes Nash Jr. The film’s screenplay was adapted from a very successful book of the same name written by Sylvia Nasar. Great movie!

108 Site for some creative entrepreneurs : ETSY

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

110 What Vulcan’s forge lay underneath, in myth : ETNA

Our word “volcano” comes from “Vulcano”, the name of a volcanic island off the coast of Italy. The island’s name comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. The Romans believed that the island of Vulcano was the chimney of the forge belonging to the god Vulcan. The Romans also believed that the eruptions on Mount Etna in Sicily were caused by Vulcan getting angry and working his forge so hard that sparks and smoke flew out of the top of the volcano.

112 “___ chic!” : TRES

“Très chic” is a French term meaning “very stylish”.

114 Party people, for short? : DJS

Disc jockey (DJ, deejay)

115 Repeated word in the U.S. postal creed : NOR

There is no official creed or motto for the US Postal Service (USPS). However, there is the oft-quoted inscription that is posted (pun!) over the entrance to the James Farley Post Office in New York City:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

116 Rapscallion : IMP

We might call a little imp a “rapscallion”, an evolution from “rascallion” that in turn comes from “rascal”.