Day: March 22, 2022

Bill’s time: 9m 26s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7 Snake in ancient Egyptian art : ASP

The venomous snake called an asp was a symbol of royalty in ancient Egypt.

10 Crowdsourced map app : WAZE

Waze is a navigation app that is similar to Google Maps and Apple Maps. Waze was developed in Israel, and was acquired by Google in 2013.

Crowdsourcing is mainly an online phenomenon, and is the solicitation of perhaps services, ideas or content from a large group of people. “Crowdsourcing” is a portmanteau of “crowd” and “outsourcing”. An example of crowdsourcing is crowdfunding, where an individual solicits many small contributions from a large number of people to fund a project.

14 Final syllable of a word, in linguistics : ULTIMA

In the world of linguistics, the last syllable in a word is called the ultima. The second-last syllable is known as the penult.

15 Singer Rawls : LOU

Lou Rawls was an American soul and blues singer known for his smooth vocal style. With his singing career well on the way, Rawls was asked to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” in 1977 at a Muhammad Ali fight in Madison Square Garden. This performance led to him being asked to sing the anthem many, many times in the coming years with his last rendition being at a World Series game in 2005. Rawls passed away in January of the following year.

17 Oxymoronic stage name for the D.J. Norman Cook : FATBOY SLIM

Fatboy Slim is an English musician who is best known these days as a disc jockey. Before adopting the “Fatboy Slim” moniker, he was known as Norman Cook. Cook first gained prominence as a member of the rock band called the Housemartins, who had a number one hit with a cover version of “Caravan of Love” in 1986.

21 Frontiersman Wyatt : EARP

The legendary Western gunfighter and lawman Wyatt Earp has been portrayed on the big and small screen many, many times. Kevin Costner played the title role in 1994’s “Wyatt Earp”, and Val Kilmer played Earp in 2012’s “The First Ride of Wyatt Earp”. Joel McCrea had the part in 1955’s “Wichita”, and Kurt Russell was Earp in 1993’s “Tombstone”. James Garner played Earp twice, in 1967’s “Hour of the Gun” and 1988’s “Sunset”.

22 Admit, with “up” : FESS …

The term “fess” is most often seen as part of the phrasal verb “to fess up” meaning “to admit to something”. “Fess” is simply a shortened form of “confess”.

23 Rashida Jones’s role on “Parks and Recreation” : ANN

Actress Rashida Jones is famous for playing lead characters on “The Office” and “Parks and Recreations”. She also made an award-winning 2018 documentary titled “Quincy”, which is about the life of Rashida’s father, record producer and singer Quincy Jones.

“Parks and Recreation” (sometimes just “Parks and Rec”) is a sitcom that started airing on NBC in 2009, and is a show that has grown on me. It stars the “Saturday Night Live” alum Amy Poehler. The creators of “Parks and Recreation” are part of the team responsible for the American version of “The Office”, so you’ll notice some similarities in the style of the two shows, and some actors that have appeared in both.

27 First three words famously said by Kamala Harris to Joe Biden upon winning the 2020 election : WE DID IT!

Kamala Harris was a US Senator for California starting in 2017, after serving for six years as the Attorney General of California. In early 2019, Harris announced her run for the Democratic nomination for US president in the 2020 election. Although she dropped out of the race, she was chosen by eventual nominee Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. When the Biden-Harris ticket won the election, Harris became the highest-ranking female politician in the history of the US.

33 Hard-to-find game cards, in collector’s lingo : RARES

Lingo is specialized vocabulary. Journalese and legalese would be good examples.

41 Sound likely not made by a Tyrannosaurus rex, despite what “Jurassic Park” would have you believe : ROAR

The Tyrannosaurus rex (usually written “T-rex”) was a spectacular looking dinosaur. “Tyrannosaurus” comes from the Greek words “tyrannos” (tyrant) and “sauros” (lizard) and “rex” the Latin for “king”. They were big beasts, measuring 42 feet long and 13 feet tall at the hips, and weighing 7.5 tons.

44 Streaming service rebranded with the suffix Max in 2020 : HBO GO

The HBO Go offering was a “TV Everywhere” service, meaning that paid subscribers could stream content on a choice of platforms just by entering a username and password. HBO Go was superseded by the HBO Max service.

52 Gentleman: Sp. : HIDALGO

In Spain, a “hidalgo” is a relatively minor member of the noble classes. In Spanish America, the term applies to a man who owns a considerable amount of property.

54 “The Simpsons” storekeeper : APU

“The Problem with Apu” is a 2017 documentary that explores the use of racial stereotypes by focusing on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from the animated sitcom “The Simpsons”. The film was written by and stars American stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu.

55 Vodka brand that sounds like a toast : SKOL

Skol is a brand of vodka that is made in the United States, in Kentucky.

“Skoal” is a Scandinavian toast that has roots in the old Norse word “skaal” meaning “cup”.

58 ___ Jose, Calif. : SAN

San Jose is the third-largest city in California and is located at the heart of Silicon Valley. The city was founded by the Spanish in 1777 and named El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. Under Spanish and Mexican rule, the territory of Alta California had its capital in Monterey. When California was made a US state, San Jose was named as the first capital, in 1850. Subsequently, the state legislature met in Vallejo in 1852, Benicia in 1853, and finally settled in Sacramento.

64 Oodles : A TON

It’s thought that the term “oodles”, meaning “a lot”, comes from “kit and caboodle”.

67 Icy hazard at sea : BERG

An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that is floating freely after having broken away from a glacier or ice shelf. Our use of “iceberg” comes from the Dutch word for the same phenomenon “ijsberg”, which translates literally as “ice mountain”.

68 When doubled, a 2010s dance fad : NAE

The Nae Nae is a hip hop dance that is named for the 2013 song “Drop that NaeNae” recorded by We Are Toon. The main move in the dance involves swaying with one hand in the air and one hand down, with both feet firmly planted on the dancefloor. Go on, do it. You know you want to …

Down

1 Belly laugh : GUFFAW

“Guffaw”, meaning “boisterous laugh”, is an imitative word that is Scottish in origin.

2 Julia Louis-Dreyfus role on “Seinfeld” : ELAINE

Actress and comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus is an alum of the sketch show “Saturday Night Live”, in which she appeared from 1982 to 1985. Her really big break came when she was chosen to play Elaine Benes on “Seinfeld”. More recently, Louis-Dreyfus can be seen playing Vice President Selina Meyer on the HBO comedy show “Veep”.

4 ___-eye steak : RIB

If you’re in Australia or New Zealand and looking for a rib eye steak, you need to order a “Scotch fillet”.

5 Punk offshoot : EMO

“Emo” is short for “emotional hardcore”.

6 Word with latter or red-letter : … DAY

A red-letter day is one that is special for some reason. The term comes from the illuminated manuscripts of Medieval times. In such documents, initial letters were often written in red ink, so-called “red letters”.

7 Deity of Islam : ALLAH

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

8 Fancy evening party : SOIREE

“Soir” is the French word for “evening” and a soirée is an evening party. The French word “soirée” has an acute accent over the first “e”, but we tend to drop this when using the word in English.

10 Breakfast appliance : WAFFLE IRON

You can’t get a Belgian waffle in Belgium, and the nearest thing is probably a Brussels waffle. Brussels waffles were introduced to the world in 1958, and arrived in the US in 1962 at the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle. The name “Brussels” was changed to “Bel-Gem” for the US market, which evolved into “Belgian”.

12 Places where you might find okapis and gnus (besides crossword puzzles!) : ZOOS

The okapi is closely related to the giraffe, although it does have markings on its legs and haunches that resemble those of a zebra. The okapi’s tongue is long enough to reach back and wash its eyeballs, and can go back even further to clean its ears inside and out.

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch meaning “wild beast”.

13 ___ Benedict : EGGS

Eggs Benedict is a dish traditionally served at an American breakfast or brunch. It usually consists of a halved English muffin topped with ham and poached eggs, all smothered in Hollandaise sauce. The exact origin of the dish is apparently debated, but one story is that it is named for a Wall Street stockbroker called Lemuel Benedict. In 1894 in the Waldorf Hotel, Benedict ordered toast, poached eggs, crispy bacon and Hollandaise sauce as a cure for his hangover. The hotel’s maître d’ Oscar Tschirky was impressed by the dish and added the variant that we use today to the hotel’s menu, naming it for the gentleman who had first ordered it.

18 Six-line stanza : SESTET

A sestet is a group of six lines of poetry. It is similar to a quatrain, a group of four lines.

“Stanza” is an Italian word meaning “verse of a poem”.

24 Vaccine approver, in brief : FDA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its roots in the Division of Chemistry (later “Bureau of Chemistry”) that was part of the US Department of Agriculture. President Theodore Roosevelt gave responsibility for examination of food and drugs to the Bureau of Chemistry with the signing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Bureau’s name was changed to the Food, Drug and Insecticide Organization in 1927, and to the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.

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”.

26 Newspaper parts: Abbr. : PGS

Page (pg.)

29 Heavy metal band whose name includes an actual heavy metal : IRON MAIDEN

Iron Maiden is a heavy metal band from London that has been around since 1975. Heavy metal – not really my cup of tea …

31 Actress Thurman : UMA

Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”. Uma’s big break in the movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

36 Mentalist’s power : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

37 Third letter in an alphabet song : CEE

“The Alphabet Song” was copyrighted in 1835 in the US. The tune that goes with the words is the French folk song “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman”, used by Mozart for a set of piano variations. The same tune is used for the nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.

38 Judge Judy title : HER HONOR

Judge Judy of television fame is Judith Sheindlin, a retired family court judge from New York. Sheindlin reportedly earns $47 million per year for “Judge Judy”. That’s a tad more than she was earning on the “real” bench, I think, and it makes her the highest-earning personality on television by a long shot.

40 Kindle purchases : E-BOOKS

Amazon’s Kindle line of e-book readers was introduced in 2007. The name “kindle” was chosen to evoke images of “lighting a fire” through reading and intellectual stimulation. I bought myself a Kindle Fire HD several years ago. I started reading e-books for the first time in my life, as well as enjoying other computing options available with the tablet device …

43 Birth control option, for short : IUD

It seems that it isn’t fully understood how the intrauterine device (IUD) works. The design that was most popular for decades was a T-shaped plastic frame on which was wound copper wire. It’s thought that the device is an irritant in the uterus causing the body to release chemicals that are hostile to sperm and eggs. This effect is enhanced by the presence of the copper.

47 New York city where Mark Twain is buried : ELMIRA

Elmira is a city in the southern tier of New York State located close to the border with Pennsylvania. Elmira was also the family home of Olivia Langdon, wife of Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain). Mark Twain and family are buried in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

“Samuel Langhorne Clemens” was the real name of the author Mark Twain. Twain wasn’t the only pen name used by Clemens. Early in his career he signed some sketches as “Josh”, and signed some humorous letters that he wrote under the name “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass”. The name of Mark Twain came from the days when Clemens was working on riverboats on the Mississippi. A riverboatman would call out “by the mark twain” when measuring the depth of water. This meant that on the sounding line, according to the “mark” on the line, the depth was two (“twain”) fathoms, and so it was safe for the riverboat to proceed.

56 Feminist Millett who popularized the concept of the patriarchy : KATE

Kate Millet is a feminist writer, artist and activist who was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. After earning a postgraduate degree at Oxford University, Millett spent most of her working life in New York City. She established the Woman’s Art Colony in Poughkeepsie, New York, which was renamed in her honor in 2012 to the Millett Center for the Arts.

61 Stately tree : ELM

The Ulmus laevis deciduous tree that is native to Europe is commonly referred to as the European white elm, spreading elm and stately elm.

62 Actress Long : NIA

Nia Long is an American actress who is probably best known for playing Will Smith’s sometime girlfriend and fiancee Lisa Wilkes on the TV show “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”.

63 @, as a verb : TAG

The “at symbol” (@) originated in the commercial word, as shorthand for “each at, per” and similar phrases. I suppose we see the symbol most commonly these days as part of email addresses.