Day: September 9, 2023

Bill’s time: 15m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Many opera villains, traditionally : BASSES

The bass is the lowest male singing voice. A man with such a voice might be called a “basso” (plural “bassi”). In an opera, the villain of the piece is usually played by a basso.

15 Political subject of the 2018 memoir “Nino and Me” : SCALIA

Antonin Scalia was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1986, and was the longest-serving member of the court on the occasion of his passing in 2016. Justice Scalia’s minority opinions were known for the scathing language that he used to criticize the Court’s majority.

19 Piddling amount : SOU

A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “an almost worthless amount”.

23 Sports bar fixture, in brief : LED TV

Light-emitting diode (LED)

29 Half sister of Meredith Grey on “Grey’s Anatomy” : LEXIE

The very successful hospital drama “Grey’s Anatomy” has been on television since 2005. The title is a reference to the show’s central character, Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo), as well as a reference to the classic human anatomy textbook commonly called “Gray’s Anatomy”.

33 Kvetches : MOANS

The word “kvetch” comes to us from Yiddish, with “kvetshn” meaning “to complain” or “squeeze”.

36 Some neighborhood mischief, informally : TP’ING

TP’ing (toilet papering) is a prank involving the covering of some object or location with rolls and rolls of toilet paper. If you live in Texas or Minnesota, that little “prank” is legal, but if you live here in California it is classed as mischief or vandalism.

41 First coed and racially integrated college in the South : BEREA

Berea College is located in Berea, Kentucky, just south of Lexington. It is a remarkable university that is focused on providing a low-cost education to students from low-income families. There are no tuition fees and instead students must work at least ten hours a week on campus and in service jobs. Berea was also the first college in the Southern US to become coeducational and the first to become racially integrated.

43 Old concert halls : ODEA

In ancient Greece, an odeon (also “odeum”) was like a small theater, with “odeon” literally meaning “building for musical competition”. Odea were used in both Greece and Rome for entertainments such as musical shows and poetry readings.

50 Temperature units in physics : KELVINS

The kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature, named after British physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin.

52 Like a Lothario : SLEAZY

There is a character named Lothario in “Don Quixote”, and in the “Fair Penitent”, a 1703 play by Nicholas Rowe. In both cases the Lothario in question exhibits less than wholesome behavior towards a woman, giving rise to the term “lothario” meaning “roue”.

Down

1 Apple quantity : BUSHEL

In the imperial system of weights and measures, a bushel is a unit of dry volume made up of 4 pecks. In the US system, a bushel is a dry volume of 8 gallons. We have used the term “bushel” to mean “large quantity” since the 14th century.

3 Fended (off) : STAVED

The word “stave” was originally the plural of “staff”, a word describing a wooden rod. To “stave off” originated with the concept of holding off with a staff. In the world of barrel-making, a stave is a narrow strip of wood that forms part of a barrel’s side.

6 Onetime Scandinavian exports : SAABS

“SAAB” stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB, which translates into English as Swedish Aeroplane Limited. Although we usually think of SAAB as an auto manufacturer, it is mainly an aircraft manufacturer. If you take small hops in Europe you might find yourself on a SAAB passenger plane. The SAAB automotive division was acquired by General Motors in the year 2000, who then sold it to a Dutch concern in 2010. However, SAAB (automotive) finally went bankrupt in 2011. The assets were acquired in 2012 by NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), a new company that used the SAAB name on its vehicles for several years.

7 Family man? : GOODFELLA

In the Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member. A made man might also be called a goodfella or a wiseguy.

14 Vacation destination in the Ionian Sea : CORFU

Corfu is an island in the very northwest of Greece, and is located in the Ionian Sea. Corfu is a very, very popular vacation destination for European tourists, particularly those from the UK, Scandinavia and Germany.

22 Is windy, perhaps : WAXES POETIC

The verb “to wax”, in phrases like “wax lyrical” and “wax poetic”, means “to grow”. “To wax” is the opposite of “to wane”, which means “to decrease”. We are probably most familiar with the “waxing and waning” of the moon.

28 Unwanted discovery under the bed : DUST BUNNY

What we call “dust bunnies” in American English, have similar inventive names in other languages. The Finns know them as sheep, the Germans wool mice, the Hungarians dust kittens, the Italians dust cats, and the Swedish dust rats.

30 Clingy type? : BARNACLE

The barnacle is a marine arthropod related to the crab and the lobster. Barnacles are classified as “encrusters”, meaning that they attach themselves permanently to some solid substrate. It is thought that the name “barnacle” was applied to the marine creature from the name of the barnacle goose. According to folklore, the barnacle goose “hatched” underwater, emerging from what we know today as “barnacles”.

32 Church part near the altar : CHANCEL

The chancel of a Christian church is the space surrounding the altar. The chancel sometimes includes the choir and the pulpit.

33 Certain zebras : MARES

The term “zebra” comes from an old Portuguese word “zevra” meaning “wild ass”. Studies of zebra embryos show that zebras are basically black in color, with white stripes that develop with growth. Before this finding, it was believed they were white, with black stripes.

34 Attire for Count Dracula and Doctor Strange : CLOAKS

“Dracula” is a novel written by the Irish author Bram Stoker and first published in 1897. Dracula wasn’t the first vampire of literature, but he certainly was the one who spawned the popularity of vampires in theater, film and television, and indeed more novels. Personally, I can’t stand vampire fiction …

“Doctor Strange” is a 2016 superhero film starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role.

42 Universal self of Hinduism : ATMAN

The word “atman” is often translated into English as “self”, but the concept of atman goes beyond the idea of self in the worldly sense. It describes the soul, perhaps of an individual, or maybe even something as grand as the soul of the world.

46 ___ bag (purse type) : HOBO

A hobo bag is a rather unstructured-looking, crescent-shaped bag with a long strap and soft sides that tends to slump when set down. It’s called a hobo bag because the shape resembles that of the bundle carried by archetypal hobos on the ends of sticks resting on their shoulders.