Day: August 19, 2023

Bill’s time: 10m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Excuse me while I light my ___” (Bob Marley lyric) : SPLIFF

“Spliff” is a term describing a cannabis joint, and is of West Indian origin.

Bob Marley was the most widely-known reggae performer, with big hits such as “I Shot the Sheriff”, “No Woman, No Cry” and “One Love”. A little sadly perhaps, Marley’s best-selling album was released three years after he died. That album would be the “legendary” album called “Legend”.

7 Theater backers? : SCRIMS

“Scrim” is the name given to that transparent fabric that hangs down onto a theater’s stage. It is often used with special lighting for various effects.

13 Ho-hum : PROSAIC

Back in the mid-17th century, something prosaic was prose-related (as opposed to poetry). A century later, the “prosaic” was used to describe writing that had the feeling of prose, as opposed to the feeling of poetry. This meaning gradually extended to “ordinary, lacking imagination or beauty”.

15 11-sided coin, informally : LOONIE

The common loon (also “great northern diver”) is the provincial bird of Ontario, and the state bird of Minnesota. The loon once appeared on Canadian $20 bills and also appears on the Canadian one-dollar coin, giving the coin the nickname “the loonie”.

18 Not learned : INNATE

Something innate is untaught, has existed from birth. The term comes from the Latin “innatus” meaning “inborn”.

19 Word shortened from a three-word phrase that can be further shortened by dropping its first, fourth and fifth letters : EMCEE

The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism used for a Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

20 Ball game : BOCCE

The Italian bowling game of bocce (often anglicized as “bocci” or “boccie”) is based on a game played in ancient Rome. “Bocce” is the plural of the Italian word “boccia” meaning “bowl”.

23 Narragansett Bay and New York Harbor, for two : RIAS

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, and both are formed as sea levels rise. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

27 “The Swedish Sphinx” : GARBO

Famously, Greta Garbo lived a life of seclusion in New York City after she retired from the entertainment business. Commentators often associated her need for privacy with a line she uttered in the great 1932 movie “Grand Hotel”. Her character Grusinskaya the Russian ballerina said, “I want to be alone (…) I just want to be alone”.

31 Embellish something unnecessarily : GILD THE LILY

To gild is to coat with gold. The phrase “to gild the lily” means to add unnecessary ornamentation, to try to improve something that is already ideal.

32 Baby : MOLLYCODDLE

To mollycoddle is to be overprotective. Back in the mid-1700s, “mollycoddle” was an insulting term used to describe a man who was weak and effeminate.

33 Asian appetizer : SATAY

The dish known as “satay” originated in Java, Indonesia and is marinated pieces of meat served on a skewer in a sauce, often a spicy peanut sauce. “Satay” is the Indonesian spelling, and “sate” is the Malay spelling.

34 Locale of van Gogh’s “The Bedroom” paintings : ARLES

“Bedroom in Arles” is the title given to three similar but different paintings by Vincent van Gogh. The artist himself used the title “The Bedroom” for all three works. The room in question was his own bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles in the south of France where he rented rooms in 1888. We can view the first version in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the second in the Art Institute of Chicago, and the third in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

38 Ending with cyclo- : -TRON

A cyclotron accelerates charged particles (ions) using a magnetic field, usually directing the particles round and round a huge underground circular structure.

46 Bronze finish, maybe : SPRAY TAN

The most effective fake tans available today are not dyes or stains. Instead, they are sprays with the active ingredient dihydroxyacetone (DHA). DHA reacts chemically with amino acids in the dead layer of skin on the surface of the body. Sounds a little risky to me …

Down

2 Get ready, as concrete : PREMIX

The terms “cement”, “mortar” and ”concrete” are related, and tend to get confused at times. Cement is a binder that hardens over time and binds other materials together. Cement mixed with a fine aggregate forms mortar, a workable paste used to bind building blocks together. Cement mixed with sand and gravel forms concrete, a pourable slurry that hardens into an extremely robust building material.

3 Meme creature : LOLCAT

A lolcat is an image of a cat with a humorous message superimposed in text. Such images have been around since the late 1800s, but the term “lolcat” only surfaced in 2006 as the phenomenon was sweeping across the Internet. “Lolcat” is a melding of the acronym for “laugh out loud” (LOL) and “cat”.

5 She played Bonnie in 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde” : FAYE

Faye Dunaway won an Oscar for her performance in the 1976 movie “Network”. She also starred in the original version of “The Thomas Crown Affair” in 1968, opposite Steve McQueen. Dunaway had a role in the remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair” with Pierce Brosnan, over thirty years later in 1999.

6 Giant syllable : FIE

The line “fee-fi-fo-fum” (with various spellings) comes from the famous English fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Within the story, the giant at the top of the beanstalk utters a little poem when he detects the presence of Jack:

Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive, or be he dead
I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.

7 Common golf mistake : SLICE

A slice in golf doesn’t head straight down the fairway, but instead turns off to the right (if you’re a right-handed golfer).

9 The anchorman in “Anchorman” : RON

Ron Burgundy is the title character in the “Anchorman” series of films. Burgundy is a news anchor played by comedian Will Ferrell. Apparently Burgundy loves a glass of scotch, poetry, and his dog Baxter.

11 Cell division : MITOSIS

Mitosis is the process by which the complement of chromosomes in a cell nucleus replicates and then divides into two identical sets of new chromosomes. Mitosis is followed by division of the cell itself, resulting in two identical cells. Meiosis is a special type of cell division that results in reproductive cells that have half the full complement of chromosomes. The reproductive cells join together, with one cell coming from each parent, to form a new cell with a full complement of chromosomes. That new cell develops into offspring that have characteristics of both parents.

17 Preoccupations : HOBBYHORSES

Back in the 16th century, a hobbyhorse was a mock horse that was used as a prop in morris dancing. The figure was wrapped around the waist of a dancer, creating the impression that the horse was being ridden. By the 1580s, the term “hobbyhorse” began to describe toy riding horse used by a child. A century later, the word “hobby” was being used for a favorite pastime, an activity that doesn’t really go anywhere, just like a hobbyhorse.

25 Key’s partner : PEELE

Jordan Peele is a former cast member of the sketch comedy show “Mad TV”. Peele created his own sketch comedy show “Key & Peele” with fellow-Mad TV alum Keegan-Michael Key. Peele started hosting and producing the revival of “The Twilight Zone” in 2019.

28 Weariness, vice and want, in Voltaire’s “Candide” : EVILS

“Candide, ou l’Optimisme” is a 1759 satirical novella by the French philosopher Voltaire. “Candide” was adapted into an operetta with music by American composer Leonard Bernstein.

29 Where most of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci are stored : MILAN

Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps the most diversely talented person who ever contributed to society. He was a gifted painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer and writer. Da Vinci’s mural “The Last Supper” is the most reproduced work of art in the world.

30 ___ Ehrenreich, Han Solo’s portrayer in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” : ALDEN

“Solo: A Star Wars Story” is a 2018 installment in the “Star Wars” anthology series of films. This one tells the story of a young Han Solo and his young (190-year-old) sidekick Chewbacca. Solo, famously played by Harrison Ford in the original movies, is portrayed by American actor Alden Ehrenreich.

32 1909 Nobelist for contributions to the invention of radio : MARCONI

Guglielmo Marconi was an inventor, famous for development of a radio telegraph design that was used across the world. Marconi did a lot of his early radio work in his native Italy, but moved to England as the British government was very interested in supporting his developments.

35 One getting schooled : MENTEE

A mentor is a trusted teacher or counselor. The term “mentor” comes from Homer’s “Odyssey” in which there is a character named Mentor. He is a friend of Odysseus, although he is a relatively ineffective old man. The goddess Athena takes on Mentor’s appearance in order to guide Odysseus’s young son Telemachus through difficult times.

36 Goes radioactive? : DECAYS

The half-life of a radioactive substance is the time it takes for half of the substance to “disappear” due to radioactive decay. So, if a radioactive element has a half-life of say 100 years, then in 100 years 50% of the element will have disappeared, but 50% still remains. In 500 years there will still be over 3% of the material left lying around. That’s one of the terrifying things about nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The fallout and waste just don’t seem to go away …

37 N.S.A. surveillance program that shares its name with an entity in the “Terminator” movies : SKYNET

The 1984 movie “The Terminator” was directed by James Cameron. It was a relatively low-budget production, costing $6.4 million, but has grossed at least $80 million to date. No wonder the Terminator said “I’ll be back” …

47 Swish miss? : RIM

That would be basketball.