Day: July 2, 2023

Bill’s time: 19m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Band with the 2021 #1 hit “Butter” : BTS

BTS is a boy band from South Korea with seven members. The initialism “BTS” stands for the phrase “Bangtan Sonyeondan”, which translates literally as “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. BTS is the best-selling musical act in the history of South Korea.

4 Under 1%, say : SKIM

The fatty component of milk is known as butterfat (sometimes “milkfat”). To be labeled whole milk, the butterfat content must be at least 3.25%. Low-fat milk is defined as milk containing 0.5-2% fat, with levels of 1% and 2% commonly found on grocery store shelves. Skim milk must contain less than 0.5% fat, and typically contains 0.1%.

17 Abraham Accords country: Abbr. : UAE

The Israel-UAE normalization agreement signed in 2020 is officially known as the Abraham Accords. By signing the pact, the UAE became the third Arab country to normalize relations with Israel, after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

19 Hill who wrote “Speaking Truth to Power” : ANITA

Anita Hill is an attorney who became a professor at Brandeis University in 2015. Hill garnered a lot of attention in 1991 when she accused US Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Judge Thomas was confirmed anyway. Many say that Hill’s testimony during the confirmation hearings launched public awareness of the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. Within a year, complaints of harassment were up by fifty percent.

22 1980 film that led to the creation of the Academy Award for Best Makeup : THE ELEPHANT MAN

“The Elephant Man” is a 1980 biopic about Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man who appeared in a Victorian freak show in London. Merrick is portrayed by John Hurt. Mel Brooks was one of the producers of the film, although his name was left off the credits to avoid audiences anticipating a comedy. “The Elephant Man” is no comedy …

25 Broadway, e.g. : AVENUE

Broadway really is, and always has been, the Main Street of New York City. It started out as the Wickquasgeck Trail that was trampled into the Manhattan brush land by the Native Americans of the area. In the days of the Dutch, the trail became the main road through the island of Manhattan, down to the New Amsterdam settlement in the south. The Dutch described it as a “Breede weg”, a broad street or broad way. The name Broadway was adopted as the official name for the whole thoroughfare in 1899 … on Valentine’s Day.

27 Secretary of the interior Haaland : DEB

Deb Haaland became US Secretary of the Interior in 2021, making her the first Native-American Cabinet secretary. However, she was not the first Native American to serve in the Cabinet. That honor went to Charles Curtis, US Vice President under Herbert Hoover.

29 Oil company with toy trucks : HESS

Hess Corporation is an oil company based in New York City. In 1964, the company started selling toy trucks with the Hess logo on them, in Hess gas stations. The company has been selling them ever since, bringing out new models just before Christmas. Hess toy trucks have become quite collectible and the old ones can fetch a pretty penny.

30 Georgetown athlete : HOYA

The athletic teams of Georgetown University are known as the Hoyas. The name is derived from “Hoya Saxa”, a traditional cheer yelled out at Georgetown games as far back as 1893. The term is a mixture of Greek and Latin, with the Greek word “hoya” meaning “such” or “what”, and “saxa” translating from Latin as “rocks” or “small stones”. The cheer is usually rendered in English as “what rocks!”.

31 Razor edges? : ARS

The edges of the word “razor” are letters R (ars).

39 What “X” could mark on a map : PIRATE’S BOOTY

“Booty”, meaning “plunder, profit”, is derived from the Old French word “butin” that has the same meaning.

41 Jazz genre for Charlie Parker : BEBOP

Charlie Parker was a jazz saxophonist who was often just called “Bird” or “Yardbird”. He was a leader in the development of the style of jazz called “bebop”, which gained popularity in the forties. Parker had a rough life outside of music. He was a heroin addict, and a heavy drinker. When he died, the coroner who performed his autopsy estimated his age as between 50 and 60 years old based on the appearance of his body and condition of his organs. Charlie Parker was actually 34-years-old when he died in a New York City hotel room in 1955.

43 Court count : NINE

The US Constitution doesn’t specify the size of the Supreme Court, but authorizes the Congress to determine the number of justices. The court started with six justices in 1789, and the size of the bench grew with the size of the country and the number of judicial circuits. There were as many as ten justices, from 1863 to 1866. There have been nine justices since 1869.

45 Author of “The Climate Book,” 2022 : THUNBERG

Greta Thunberg is an environmental activist from Sweden who came to national attention in her homeland when she was just 15 years old. In 2018, she went on strike from school and paraded with placards in front of the Swedish parliament to pressure the government to take stronger action to address climate change. She then took part in demonstrations across Europe, and became a regular speaker at such events. She addressed the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit at the UN headquarters, opting to sail to New York from Sweden, rather than fly. When she was named “Time” Person of the Year in 2019 at 16 years old, Thunberg was the youngest person ever to be so honored.

48 Vegetable that can be slimy when cooked : 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.

53 Crystal container : GEODE

A geode is a rock in which there is a cavity that is lined or filled with crystal formations. The crystals inside a geode form when mineral-rich water seeps into a cavity in a rock, leaving behind dissolved minerals that gradually build up over time. Some of the largest geodes ever discovered have been as big as a room and can take millions of years to form.

54 Airport across the bay from SFO : OAK

The San Francisco Bay Area is served by three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC).

56 OB/GYN offering : 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.

60 Pantomimes, perhaps : ACTS

Our word “pantomime” comes from the Greek word “pantomimos” meaning “actor”. The literal translation of the Greek is “imitator of all”, from “panto-” (all) and “mimos” (imitator). We use the term today to describe communication by means of facial expression and physical gestures. On the other side of the Atlantic, pantomimes (often “pantos”) are also very popular Christmas entertainments based on nursery tales like “Mother Goose”, “Aladdin” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Great, great stuff …

61 Important part of a toddler’s day : NAP TIME

And of an old crossword blogger …

65 What follows You on the internet : -TUBE

YouTube is a video-sharing website where users can watch, upload, and share videos. YouTube was founded in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. The first video on YouTube was uploaded by Karim and shows him feeding elephants at the San Diego Zoo. YouTube is the second most popular website in the world. Google is the most popular …

67 Paella seasoning : SAL

Paella is sometimes referred to as the Spanish national dish, but not by Spaniards. In Spain, paella is regarded as a typical regional dish from Valencia. The name “paella” means “frying pan” in Valencian, and is a reference to the shallow vessel traditionally used to cook the dish over an open fire.

72 Soup often made with rice vermicelli noodles : PHO

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food. It is often ordered with a side of hanh dam, pickled white onions.

Vermicelli is a pasta that is similar to spaghetti, except that it is thicker. “Vermicelli” translates from Italian as “little worms”.

74 Peacock seen on TV : NBC LOGO

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has had a number of different logos in its history, including the famous peacock with which we are familiar today. The first peacock logo was introduced in the early days of color television and was designed to illustrate how wonderful color television would be, so go buy one! (NBC was owned by RCA, and so had a vested interest in sales of color television sets).

78 Garage brand : STP

STP was founded in 1953 by racing enthusiast and businessman Andy Granatelli. The name “STP” stands for “Scientifically Treated Petroleum.”

80 Alley ___ : OOP

“Alley Oop” is a comic strip that ran for four decades starting in 1932. “Alley Oop” was drawn by V. T. Hamlin. The title character lived in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo, although for much of the strip’s life, Alley Oop had access to a time machine. Alley Oop also had a girlfriend called Ooola. I had assumed that Ooola’s name was a play on “hula hoop”, but that little toy wasn’t invented until the 1950s (a kind blog reader informs me) …

82 Linguistic group including Zulu and Xhosa : BANTU

There are hundreds of Bantu languages, which are mainly spoken in central, east and southern Africa. The most commonly spoken Bantu language is Swahili, with Zulu coming in second.

87 Highfalutin : LAH-DI-DAH

The term “highfalutin” dates back to the mid-1800s. Some suggest that it may be a mutation from “high flying”, as “highfalutin” means “haughty” or “pretentious”.

103 Evening coffee order : DECAF LATTE

The first successful process for removing caffeine from coffee involved steaming the beans in salt water, and then extracting the caffeine using benzene (a potent carcinogen) as a solvent. Coffee processed this way was sold as Sanka here in the US. There are other processes used these days, and let’s hope they are safer …

104 Sch. whose mascot is Brutus Buckeye : OSU

Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis is a public research university that was founded in 1868. It is one of only two universities in the United States (the other being Pennsylvania State University) to have Land, Sea, Sun, and Space Grant designations, meaning that it receives federal funding to conduct research in each of these areas. The university is home to the largest research vessel in the United States academic fleet, the R/V Oceanus, which is used for oceanographic research.

106 Love, at the Louvre : AIME

The Musée du Louvre has the distinction of being the most visited art museum in the whole world. The collection is housed in the magnificent Louvre Palace that was the seat of power in France until 1682, when Louis XIV moved to Versailles.

107 The “I” in FIFA: Abbr. : INTL

The International Federation of Association Football (“Fédération Internationale de Football Association” in French) is usually referred to by the acronym “FIFA”. FIFA is the governing body of the game of soccer (association football), and the organizer of the FIFA World Cup held every four years.

108 Greek vowel : ETA

Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.

113 Mages’ accessories : STAFFS

“Mage” is an archaic word meaning “magician, wizard”.

119 Future 122-Across : OVULE
[122A Future flower : SEED]

As we all remember from botany class (don’t we?), an ovule is a small structure in many plants that develops into the seed after fertilization.

121 Actress Long : NIA

Nia Long is an 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”.

123 Author/economist Emily : OSTER

Emily Oster is an American economist who has economics in her blood. Both of her parents (Sharon Oster and Ray Fair) are also economists, and professors at Yale University. In 2006, Emily married Jesse Shapiro, a professor of economics at Harvard University.

Down

2 Its name derives from the Washoe for “lake” : TAHOE

Lake Tahoe (often referred to simply as “Tahoe”) is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is located right on the border between California and Nevada. It is the largest alpine lake in the country, and the largest lake in general behind the five Great Lakes. Tahoe is also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

4 G, in the C scale : SOL

The sol-fa syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la & ti.

7 Conductor Zubin : MEHTA

Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music, from Mumbai. Mehta studied music in Vienna, where he made his conducting debut in 1958. In 1961 he was named assistant director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, creating a fuss with the music director designate of the orchestra, Georg Solti. Solti resigned as a protest, and Mehta took his job. In 1978 Mehta took over as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, eventually becoming the longest holder of that position. In 2019, the Los Angeles Philharmonic bestowed on Mehta the title of Conductor Emeritus.

10 Collegiate beaver mascot whose name is its school spelled backward : TIM

The Massachusetts city of Cambridge lies just across the Charles River from Boston. The area was settled in 1630, and named “Cambridge” in 1638 in honor of the English university. Cambridge is home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as Lesley University and Hult International Business School.

11 Overseer of Windy City buses and trains, in brief : CTA

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

15 “Olympia” painter : MANET

Édouard Manet painted “Olympia”” in 1863. The painting caused a lot of controversy when it was first shown. Despite the grandiose title, Olympia is actually a courtesan, and that caused offense in the art appreciation circles at that time. I have been lucky enough to have seen the work (which doesn’t offend anyone anymore!) a few times in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.

16 Like some winter roads : SLUSHY

Slush is a mixture of partially melted solid, a mixture of liquid and solid. The classic example is partly melted snow.

20 Chinese zodiac animal of 2023 : RABBIT

The 12-year cycle in the Chinese calendar uses the following animals in order:

• Rat
• Ox
• Tiger
• Rabbit
• Dragon
• Snake
• Horse
• Goat
• Monkey
• Rooster
• Dog
• Pig

23 AirPods, e.g. : EARBUDS

AirPods are Apple’s line of bluetooth earbuds. When AirPods were introduced in 2016, the market reacted with some skepticism. The left and right AirPods are not connected by any wire, so there was concern that individual earbuds could fall out of the ear, and possibly get lost. Another concern was Apple’s stated intent to abandon the wired headphone socket on new iPhone models.

24 National org. that doesn’t actually have an age requirement for membership : AARP

AARP is the official name now for the interest group that used to be called “The American Association of Retired Persons”. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired. The AARP was founded by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus in 1958 and is a successor to the National Retired Teachers Association, also founded by Andrus over ten years earlier.

28 Designer Schiaparelli : ELSA

Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer, and a great rival of the perhaps more famous Coco Chanel. Schiaparelli was most successful between the two World Wars, but her business closed in 1954 as she failed to adapt to changing tastes after WWII.

32 Go down in flames : TANK

Apparently, the first use of the verb “to tank” to mean “to lose or fail” can be pinpointed quite precisely. Tennis great Billie Jean King used the verb in that sense in an interview with “Life” magazine in 1967, with reference to male players. A more specific use of “tanking” in recent years is “deliberately losing” a contest.

33 Cheri of Hollywood : OTERI

Cheri Oteri was the SNL (“Saturday Night Live”) cast member who regularly appeared with Will Ferrell in the skit featuring a pair of Spartan cheerleaders.

36 Wildlife spotted in Haleakala National Park : NENE

The nene is a bird that is native to Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is an imitation of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful. The nene was named State Bird of Hawaii in 1957.

If you visit the island of Maui, a trip to the Haleakala National Park is a must. One section of the park features the spectacular Haleakala Crater, where you would swear you are on the moon. The second part of the park is the Kipahulu section, which features the very picturesque pools accessed along the Road to Hana. When we visited (quite a few years ago), the Road to Hana was a tad undeveloped and rental car companies would not allow you to drive their cars there. Funnily enough, the only cars you’d meet on the Road to Hana were rental cars …

40 ___ Negro (Amazon tributary) : RIO

The Rio Negro (Spanish for “Black River”) is a tributary of the Amazon in South America. It is the largest blackwater river in the world. A blackwater river is a slow-moving waterway that flows through forestation, collecting decaying vegetable matter that turns the water to a dark coffee color.

45 Silicon Valley, e.g. : TECH HUB

The Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, is better known as “Silicon Valley”. The term “Silicon Valley” dates back to 1971 when it was apparently first used in a weekly trade newspaper called “Electronic News” in articles written by journalist Don Hoefler.

46 Angles above 90 degrees? : HOT YOGA

Hot yoga is performed under relatively hot and humid conditions. The actual temperature and humidity levels are often chosen to resemble those found in India, where yoga originated.

51 Contents of some streaks on cheeks : MASCARA

Variants of mascara have been around a long time, and certainly there was a similar substance in use in ancient Egypt. “Mascara” is a Spanish word meaning “stain, mask”.

59 Poetic lament : ELEGY

Perhaps the most famous elegy in the English language is that written by Thomas Gray, which he completed in 1750. His “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is the source of many oft-quoted phrases, including:

• Celestial fire
• Far from the Madding Crowd
• Kindred spirit

63 Alien film franchise, for short : MIB

“Men in black” (MIB) are said to have appeared in the past whenever there have been reports of UFO sightings. Supposedly, these men are government agents whose job it is to suppress reports of alien landings. The conspiracy theorists got their day in the movies with the release of a pretty good sci-fi comedy in 1997 called “Men in Black”, starring Will Smith (as Agent J) and Tommy Lee Jones (as Agent K).

75 Proxima Centauri, e.g. : RED DWARF

A red dwarf is a relatively small star, and one that is relatively cool. In terms of size, a red dwarf has less than half the mass of our sun. Being a “cool” star, a red dwarf is classified as a K or M spectral type of star. Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in our Galaxy, with our nearest star (other than the sun) being a good example, Proxima Centauri.

The Alpha Centauri star system is a mere 4.37 light-years from the Sun, making it the closest star system to our solar system. Sometimes referred to as the closest “star”, Alpha Centauri is actually a binary star system, with two stars orbiting a common center. It is likely that Alpha Centauri is in fact a triple star system, as a third star called Proxima Centauri was discovered in 1915 that is probably linked gravitationally. It is Proxima Centauri that is actually the closest star to our own solar system, being just 4.24 light-years from the Sun.

79 Actor Oliver : PLATT

Oliver Platt is a very talented actor from Windsor, Ontario. My favorite role of his was the remarkable White House Counsel Oliver Babish on the great TV drama series “The West Wing”.

81 Ventimiglia of “This Is Us” : MILO

Actor Milo Ventimiglia got his break on TV playing Jess Mariano on the show “Gilmore Girls”. He then played Peter Petrelli on “Heroes”, and Jack Pearson on “This Is Us”.

“This Is Us” is a television drama that debuted in 2016. The storyline centers on three siblings Kevin, Kate and Randall Pearson and their parents Jack and Rebecca Pearson. Kevin and Kate are the surviving members of a triplet pregnancy. Jack and Rebecca decide to adopt Randall, a child born on the same day as the surviving siblings. The adopting family is white, and the adopted child is black.

85 Pentathlon event : EPEE

The original pentathlon of the ancient Olympic games consisted of a foot race, wrestling, long jump, javelin and discus. When a new pentathlon was created as a sport for the modern Olympic Games, it was given the name the “modern pentathlon”. First introduced in 1912, the modern pentathlon consists of:

1. pistol shooting
2. épée fencing
3. 200m freestyle swimming
4. show jumping
5. 3km cross-country running

86 “___ Rosenkavalier” : DER

“Der Rosenkavalier” is a comic opera composed by Richard Strauss. The title translates as “The Knight of the Rose”.

95 Gossips : YENTAS

“Yenta” (also “Yente”) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater “yenta” came to mean a busybody, a gossip.

96 B to B, e.g. : OCTAVE

I find that terminology in music can be confusing. My way of looking at an octave (my way … don’t shout at me!) is thinking of a piano keyboard. In the key of C, the seven notes of the octave are C, D, E, F, G, A, B (or “do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti”). These are all white keys. Most of these “white notes” are separated by whole tones, so there is room to add a “semitone” in between most of them, and these are the black keys (C-sharp for example). There is room for five black keys in an octave, and 7 + 5 adds up to 12. I assume we use the term “octave” because we often add an eighth note on the end “to bring us back to do” as the song says (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do … or … C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C). That eighth note is really the first note in the next octave up.

97 We don’t talk about that : TABOO

The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

98 Petrol brand : ESSO

The Esso brand has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

100 Attention-grabbing protests : DIE-INS

A die-in (also “lie-in”) is a protest in which those demonstrating lie on the ground and pretend to be dead. One of the more famous die-ins was held in Washington D.C. in 2007 to protest the Iraq War. There were several thousand protesters, almost two hundred of whom were arrested, including ten veterans of the Iraq War.

101 Charlotte ___, capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands : AMALIE

Charlotte Amalie is the capital and largest city in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The city was named after the queen consort of King Christian V of Denmark, Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel.

105 Rated rides : UBERS

Transportation network company Uber was founded in 2009 as “UberCab”. The company name was changed to “Uber” in 2011. The name change was largely driven by complaints from taxi operators in San Francisco.

109 Deer ___, Maine vacation destination : ISLE

Deer Isle is a town in Maine that is located on the island of Deer Isle in Penobscot Bay.

116 E.R. lines : IVS

An intravenous drip (IV) might be seen in an intensive care unit (ICU), operating room (OR) or emergency room (ER).